How to Provide Negative Feedback to Employees Tactfully

Opinion

Giving negative feedback can be difficult, but it’s an important part of employee management and can really strengthen your relationship if delivered in the right way.

Show Respect

Always provide negative feedback in person and make sure to remain calm and empathetic. Really listen to your employee’s point of view and honestly consider what they say, taking time to think carefully about your responses before you speak. Not only will this make them more receptive to your feedback, but it will also enhance the professional development of your employees, as they will feel able to take on new challenges in the future without the fear of embarrassment or confrontation.

Be honest and Direct, but not Harsh

While it may seem easier to mitigate the consequences by giving good feedback to offset the negative, such a practice is not productive in the long run. Instead, your employees will get the wrong impression of their performance, which leads to confusion and potential upset when your positive feedback isn’t reflected in their evaluations or career development. To avoid this, provide targeted feedback around specific behaviors or milestones. Don’t make blanket statements or blanket judgments about an employee’s ability or intentions, as they may feel personally targeted.

Choose the Right Moment

Provide negative feedback in a timely and appropriate manner. This means your employees will be able to take immediate steps to adjust their approach and avoid further problems. Additionally, waiting too long can reduce the impact of your feedback, as your employees may feel unfairly and unexpectedly surprised and distracted from the tasks they are currently engaged in.

Identify Solutions and Set Realistic Goals

To ensure your feedback is constructive and not just judgmental, help the employee identify solutions to the issues you raise and set realistic and specific goals to improve in the future. Explain why these changes are important and how they will help improve his overall job performance. Additionally, be sure to set a date to monitor his progress. Doing so will not only help ensure the continuous improvement of your employees’ performance, but it will also help them feel invested in their career development.

In recent years, and at an ever-increasing rate, the generation of millennials and the upcoming generation z is entering the labor market and will constitute in a few years the largest part of the workforce of the Western World. This development is bringing sweeping changes to the organizational culture of hospitals, horizontalizing internal hierarchies and pushing Directors of medical and non-medical departments around the world to redesign strategies and techniques for managing medical and nursing human resources, in order to keep pace with values and psychology of young workers.

In contrast to previous generations, young workers in the health sector place significant emphasis on their working conditions, desire a more harmonious marriage of their professional and personal lives, aim for their personal and professional development, which does not translate only in better salaries, but also in the continuous enrichment of their abilities. The majority of young health professionals seek training and development opportunities from their superiors, they demand transparency in their evaluation and development processes within the company in which they are employed. Also, the phenomenon of internal displacement is common.

“Modern Hospitals must have a wide range of techniques and tools in order to continuously train their employees, but also to be “educated” by them. Experienced Managers should give juniors a period of adjustment and experimentation so that they understand first-hand what their strengths are and where they can perform best. As far as training is concerned, the employee meets regularly with the Director of his department in one to one meetings, during which questions are resolved, goals are set and a broader discussion is held about the employee’s progress. Training is not a static process, which takes place at the time of hiring the employee. On the contrary, it is a dynamic process that includes participation in seminars and workshops organized by the clinic or the hospital or other institutions.”

“Improving employee performance is now a science. In addition to one to one meetings, town hall meetings are important in this direction, during which the entire team exchanges opinions on the course of a patient or medical approach. Education, unlike what we are used to in Greece, is a dynamic dimension. It begins with the recruitment of the employee and continues throughout his stay at the clinic. It is characteristic that while there is a specific budget for the participation of an employee in conferences, training programs and workshops, several times the possibility of exceeding this budget is offered as a “bonus” for the good performance of an employee.”

Since the cost of replacing an old and experienced employee and training a new employee can be a very loss-making affair, in terms of money and time there are 4 basic principles ready to improve the training of your clinic staff.

Take the Time to Build a Relationship of Trust

Every new acquaintance we make is largely judged by the level of communication of the first meetings. People automatically register a wealth of information, cognitive and emotional, when they interact with a person for the first time. This means that, to a large extent, your new doctor will develop a certain opinion about you within a very short period of time, one that will not be easy to change over the course of your professional relationship. That’s why it’s important to give him substantial time when he starts working for you. Learn about his life and career path, his tastes, his dreams, his goals, his personal failures and successes. Don’t be perfunctory and sloppy in these discussions. Your employee must feel that you really want to get to know him, that you are interested in what he has to say, that you know what kind of person he really is. Think that this will lay the foundations for your future communication, a communication without unnecessary fights, misunderstandings and misunderstandings.

Reward Him

During the training of an employee, many mistakes will be made, you will be forced to repeat the same things, you will get irritated and lose patience with him. Although it is impossible not to have tensions between you and, of course, you must point out his mistakes and failures, you must not forget to reward him. People tend to focus on negative emotions and situations and not give enough space to the positive things that happen to us. You must always keep in mind that the employee needs the reward in order to be more creative and productive. Don’t forget that this is beneficial not only for him but also for your business. When your staff is creative, productive and happy, your customer service level skyrockets. Learn to point out the failures as well as the successes of your employees.

Focus on the Emotional Factor

Obviously, it is necessary to train your employee in the technical part of his job. There is a practical part that has to do with the way your business operates, the basic rules of behavior in customer service, the correct production of the product, the ordering of raw materials and everything related. But the second, and equally crucial part of his training, has to do with managing his emotions. You have to be observant and understand when your employee is stressed, when he is happy, when he is irritated, when he needs a good chat. In fact, in order to acquire the technical skills necessary for his job, he needs to feel that the people he is learning from are not treating him like a robot. Make sure to talk to him on a daily basis not only about the technical issues, but also about his mood, his emotional swings during his shift.

Learn New Things from Him

When training your staff, it’s good to keep in mind that this relationship can go both ways. Of course, it is necessary for the new employee to deeply understand the processes and functions of your business, on a technical, communicative and emotional level, but you must understand that as much as he learns from you, you can learn from him as much. Give him the space to say his ideas, discuss them with him, identify which ones might be of interest, which ones are applicable to your own business. In addition, see what mistakes you make during his training, recognize them and grow as an employer and as a trainer. You’ll be surprised how many new and creative things you can hear from your employee if you keep your ears open.