Culture of Feedback Survey Analysis

After researching goal setting, establishing a culture of feedback and performance appraisals, as background to implement changes at Erin Condren, a few themes emerged.  With goal setting, although specific data-based goals must be set, like sales and profitability to ensure the health and sustainability of our business,  talking about and setting process and behavioral goals will help to keep motivation up and help identify how goals will be made instead of just the final result, or the “what” (Big Think, 2017).  Latham and Locke (2002) summarized 35 years of research into goal setting and have proven that when employees are involved in setting specific, difficult goals, they will perform better than if they didn’t.  It has been shown that providing feedback to employees from peers, subordinates, bosses, and customers, helps improve employee performance, if safety and trust are present in the environment (Batista, 2013; Garner, 2016; Gerisimova, 2020; Grant, 2021; Heathfield, 2021).  Research and new practices with Performance Appraisals have pushed many to abolish them altogether, or at the very least, make them only a part of a holistic development process for employees, along with 360 feedback and self evaluations (Buckley & Wiese, 1998; Garner, 2016; myHRfuture, 2021; Zenger, 2017).

In early December, a survey was sent out to just over 110 home office employees at Erin Condren Design, LLC to gather feedback on the goal setting, feedback, and performance appraisal process.  The purpose of this survey was threefold: one, to prove or disprove hypotheses gathered from research related to the above topics, two, to use the information to engage employees in the process of changing the systems that affect them, and three, to determine which changes would be accepted by the employees.  By engaging employees in building new tasks, the desired result is for employees to fully participate and to see these actions as beneficial to them and the business.  To build a culture of feedback, as discussed in the QualtricsXM webinar 10 expert tips for building effective 360 degree assessments, it is suggested to conduct focus groups to poll employees on what they need in these types of assessments (Granger, 2016).  Following is an analysis of the survey results from the 37 (33.6% response rate).  For context, the process used in 2021 is outlined below.

Hypotheses regarding goal setting:

The goal-setting process at Erin Condren must be improved. Frequency of setting goals must be increased from annually to quarterly.  Number of goals must be set at 5-6 per employee. Frequency of check-ins must be increased from quarterly to monthly.

Analysis:

Based on the overall score, on a one to five star scale with one being the worst and 5 being the best, the goal-setting process scored a 3.6. This shows there is room for improvement, as a score of 4 stars or above would be acceptable.  

Some comments such as “There needs to be more checkins throughout the year both at the departmental and organizational level”, “The goal process was great, I think the biggest challenge is having more formal goal check-ins through the year to help folks stay on track”, “I think our goal setting has improved, but still feel that it may be more form over function. I worry goals are quickly forgotten once set'' identify an area of opportunity to have more frequent goal progress conversations.  This will need to be addressed in building a process that is user-friendly for both managers and individual contributors and improving accountability with the process.

The frequency of goal setting was questioned and 35.14% would like to set goals annually, 29.73% quarterly, 18.92% twice-annually, and 16.22% monthly. These results can be interpreted in different ways when looking at individual options, the majority of employees would like to set goals on an annual basis, which is the current process.  The data can also be interpreted that 64.87% of employees would like to set goals more frequently than once a year.  This could be addressed by setting goals annually and having more frequent check-ins, where goals can be adjusted based on the current climate of the business.  When setting goals at the beginning of the year, it is difficult to forecast everything that may happen outside of an employee’s control that can positively or negatively impact their progress to goals and having some flexibility to adjust on a quarterly basis may help address this.

The overwhelming majority of employees (70.27%) want to set 1-3 goals.  There was not a large statistical difference between the answers from managers and employees.  The hypothesis that managers would want to set more goals than individual contributors was disproved.

As shown in the comments above about not having enough check-ins on goals, 48.65% of employees want to have quarterly goal check-ins, while 32.43% prefer monthly goal check-ins.  The majority (51.35%) want more frequent check-ins than once a year, and to do this, there must be a culture shift to highlight the importance of this process, training to teach prioritization, and accountability from the top down.  

Conclusions:

To improve the goal setting process, the main changes that must happen are:

1. Communicate the goal-setting process explicitly. This must happen for current employees at the beginning of the period, and for new employees as they are onboarded.

2. Although the frequency of goal setting does not necessarily need to be changed from once a year to more frequently, there must be flexibility to adjust goals on a quarterly basis, to account for the context in which the employee and business is operating.

3. In 2021 the frequency of goal check-ins were set at quarterly intervals, but the sentiment is that they didn’t happen or stay top of mind.  Accountability around check-ins must be increased along with improved prioritization.

Hypotheses regarding feedback:

The frequency of feedback must be increased.  Feedback must come from additional sources outside of an employee’s manager. Multiple modes of delivering feedback must be used. 

Analysis:

Three questions were asked regarding feedback at EC.  When asked who employees want to provide feedback, almost all responded that they would want to receive feedback from their boss.  43.24% of employees would like what is termed 360 degree feedback from all parties they interact with in the workplace (boss, peer, subordinate, customer).  A few questions that could provide context around this were missed, as questions to find out how much feedback an employee is currently receiving, and who from, were missed on the survey.  Based on the answers regarding the frequency of goal check-ins, it can be extrapolated that feedback may be occurring less often than employees prefer.

The majority of employees prefer to receive feedback verbally (91.89%).  Just under a third prefer to receive feedback in a written form such as a paper document and/or an email. Only 24.32% of respondents would like to receive feedback via an app.  A question here could have asked what type of feedback they would prefer to receive via an app - positive, developmental, both, or none.  All modes of delivering feedback can be utilized in updating the feedback protocols.

43.24% of employees responded that quarterly feedback, which is the current expectation with goal check ins, is the preferred frequency.  37.84% of respondents wanted more than quarterly frequency of feedback, and only 13.51% wanted the less frequent yearly feedback.  Several frequencies of feedback can be used in the new process, if divided by type of feedback (positive versus developmental) and from whom the feedback is coming (boss, peer, subordinate, customer). 

Conclusions:

To improve the feedback process, the main changes to be made are:

1. Some form of 360 degree feedback must be implemented. This will provide additional points of view and help to create a culture of feedback.

2. New modes of communicating feedback can be tested and iterated.  Since additional context questions were not asked in the survey, small steps can be taken with app-based feedback, and the process of having conversations and recording key points will be addressed.

3. Since 40% of employees want more frequent feedback, utilizing an app to crowdsource feedback from peers, subordinates, and customers will be tested and iterated.

Hypotheses regarding the performance appraisal process:

The performance appraisal process must be improved from a communication, training, and process perspective.

Analysis:

The current performance appraisal process was rated at 3.4 stars out of 5, which is below our acceptable level of 4 stars out of 5.  Comments regarding the performance appraisal process identified areas of opportunity including the scoring system, the applicability of competencies listed on the appraisal form to the job being evaluated, and the redundancy of questions on the appraisal.

Additional questions to support the hypotheses could have been asked, including questions to identify how employees would like to see the format changed, how often they would like to complete a performance appraisal, what is being evaluated (a point in time as a score or the amount of growth in an area), and how they see their role in the process (self-appraisals, providing 360 degree feedback, etc). 

Conclusions:

To improve the performance appraisal system, the main changes to be made are:

1. Change the rating scale to support identifying growth in competencies instead of a summative score for the evaluation period.

2. Involve employees in identifying the competencies being evaluated that are applicable to their job.

3. Tie in competencies being evaluated in the performance appraisals with 360 degree feedback.

4. Separate merit increases and promotions from performance appraisals to encourage the feedback and growth to be the focus.

Overall, based on the feedback from the survey and the research into goal setting, feedback and performance appraisals, the above conclusions will be implemented in 2022.

References

Batista, E. (2013, December 24). Building a feedback-rich culture. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2013/12/building-a-feedback-rich-culture?registration=success

Big Think. (2017, June 21). Goal setting is a hamster wheel. Learn to set systems instead. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x44zEK39GOM

Buckley, R. M. & Wiese, D. S. (1998), The Evolution of the Performance Appraisal Process. Journal of Management History, 4(3), 233-239. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552529810231003

Garner, B. (2016). 10 expert tips for building effective 360 assessments. [Webinar]. QualtricsXM. https://vimeo.com/174741271

Gerasimova, K. (Host). (2020, October 12). Cultivating a culture of feedback and accountability. [Audio podcast episode]. In The Gothamculture podcast. GothamCulture. https://gothamculture.com/2020/10/14/podcast-cultivating-culture-feedback-accountability/

Grant, A. (2021). That’s Not the Way We’ve Always Done It. In Think Again (pp 205-222). Viking Press.

Heathfield, S.M. (2021, January 4). 360 degree feedback: see the good, the bad, and the ugly. The Balance Careers. 

Latham, G. P. & Locke, E.A. (2002, September). Building a practically useful theory of goal setting and task motivation. A 35 year odyssey. American Psychologist, 57(9), 705-717. http://farmerhealth.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Building-a-Practically-Useful-Theory-of-Goal-Setting-and-Task-Motivation-A-35-Year-Odyssey.pdf

myHRfuture. (2021, June 17). What is the future of performance management? An interview with Melissa Corwin. [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/bA4msodon0Y

Zenger, J. (2017, October 12). What solid research actually says about performance appraisals. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackzenger/2017/10/12/what-solid-research-actually-says-about-performance-appraisals/?sh=70a4b6a52b59