Feedback loops are a well-loved tactic for advocating a culture of improvement and empowerment among frontline workers. But what happens when the feedback loops you have in place stop being effective? Sometimes organizations forget that these loops can’t simply be a “set-it-and-forget-it” solution. You must actively maintain these channels and manage them to ensure things flow. 

While you may have done the work to put feedback loops in place, things can sometimes go awry. Things can go wrong when trying to capture feedback from your frontline employees. 

When feedback loops fall off the rails, it can disrupt team dynamics and the trust you’ve built. It can lead to problems with employee engagement and psychological safety, which can take time to regain. And keeping an eye out for warning signs is just as important as having a way to resolve the situation when it happens.  

Here are 6 signs that your feedback loop has hit a snag and how to get unstuck.

1. The feedback you’re receiving is too vague

Clarity and action are the name of the game: when it comes to feedback, unclear feedback can be worse than none at all. It can lead to miscommunications, reinterpretations, and misused energy. But vague feedback can often be traced back to problems with the feedback loop – from overly vague questions to a lack of psychological safety. 

Here are a few ways to remedy an overly general feedback loop:

• If you receive vague feedback from an employee, work with their floor manager to ask for more details. Get specific when you give feedback and ask for that specificity in return. 
• Encourage a “radical candor” approach with direct, clear language. Lead by example with concise, direct language when sharing communications or updates with your workforce 
• Diversify your approach and offer different avenues for feedback, including open forums as well as anonymous and secure employee input feedback channels. 
• Connect feedback to business outcomes. Showing your employees through action that their feedback has yielded a great outcome, and they’ll be more likely to share in the future.  

2. Feedback is coming in from outside of designated channels

What happens when an employee has feedback but isn’t sure how to report it? Or if they are not using the tools in place to share thoughts or ideas? The solution comes down to education. Employees can’t provide feedback if they don’t know where to go. And if they use a non-designated channel, you run the risk of losing vital information in the mix. 

Don’t assume all your employees know how and where to give feedback. Find ways to share your channels consistently and push the systems you have in place. Be clear and direct about the type of feedback you want. Coupling that with a digital communication tool (we know a great one!) can keep all your communication channels in one place and promote a culture of feedback with your staff. 

3. Feedback is all the same 

If you keep receiving the same feedback over and over from your employees, it’s not them. It’s you. Chances are there is a blind spot, or programs and processes in place may not be working to your advantage. If you receive the same feedback time and again from your team, it could mean one of three things: 

• There are significant issues that need addressing
• You’re not processing feedback properly, and crucial feedback is going unactioned
• There may be some groupthink or hive mind inadvertently happening, and employees are hesitant to share their dissenting views 

And that last one is particularly troubling. When combating employee groupthink, diversity may be the answer. Broadening your feedback channels and finding creative solutions can lead to better business decisions. Strong D&I efforts in the workplace foster high levels of engagement and a strong sense of belonging, and inclusive teams reportedly make better decisions 87% of the time. Bringing in different voices to help make decisions can help you avoid costly mistakes and smartly identify missed opportunities. 

4. Feedback is getting lost, forgotten, or ignored

Now let’s go back to the issue we mentioned above – not processing feedback properly. Feedback loops are only as effective as the action you take afterward. Action is as vital as collecting the information itself. Inaction around collected information is a miss at the head office level and demonstrates a break in the process. If your organization doesn’t have the tools to capture and act on shared feedback, you risk alienating team members – not to mention miss out on valuable ideas that could drive better business outcomes. Plus, companies that collect and act on feedback are more likely to retain their employees. 

And we know – processing feedback when you have hundreds of thousands of frontline employees can seem daunting. But these tips on acting on feedback at scale can help!  

5. Your feedback flow is uneven…

Certain feedback loops you promote may function better than others. Some may bring great feedback, while others…not so much. But if you’re not collecting inputs from various sources, you’re not getting a complete picture. 

Here, we share different types of feedback that you should be collecting. If you find that you’re receiving one kind of feedback most often (such as manager performance) and not enough of others (like knowledge sharing), then that’s your cue to intervene. Go deep into these areas, and use these tips on tracking and improving employee feedback programs on an ongoing basis. 

6. …or feedback dries up altogether

Despite having these multiple channels in place, what happens when feedback stops coming in at a steady pace? 

When the feedback stream stops flowing, there isn’t enough information for you, as a leader, to use to create new inputs for your processes. Without insight into your team,  you won’t have a way of knowing what is and isn’t working. You will have a harder time reporting back about programs or finding ways to improve customer service. Not only does your team stall, but on a larger scale, your company’s overall growth may take a hit. 

With deskless employees, finding ways to receive feedback continually is critical. They are the source of truth for an organization’s frontline problems. They’re your direct line into what’s working and what isn’t. Avoid losing touch with this vital resource. 

If you find your well of feedback running dry, go back to the source. Whether it’s a widespread drought or specific channels that have stopped flowing, create more touchpoints with your employees, and be creative. Use mechanisms like surveys, Ask Me Anythings (AMAs), and build more face-to-face time into your days. 

If that doesn’t help, look at the feedback culture you have in place. After all, you can’t have a strong feedback loop without having trust in place, and vice versa. When psychological safety is failing in a work environment, employees will believe there that they will face repercussions for providing upward feedback, voicing opposition, or making a minor error at work. As Stanford University instructor and executive coach Laura Delizonna, PhD., shares in a Q&A, “Frontline workers aren’t stupid. They’re not going to say things that are going to be poorly received or have negative consequences for them. They’ll stay silent.” 

One final tip: collecting feedback is a daily responsibility. Avoid creating a culture where you only collect feedback once a year. In fact, according to one study, 58% of employees want more frequent employee engagement surveys. 

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When you open up opportunities for feedback, upward or otherwise, to all your employees, your chances of increased profitability and retention grow. But leaders must focus on making both giving and receiving feedback easier through technology and processes that encourage real-time sharing, ease of use, and closing the loop. 

Across all industries, frontline and deskless workers have faced many challenges in the last two years. Organizations are struggling with burnout, a lack of connection, and abysmal morale, with many workers choosing to leave their jobs in hopes of finding more fulfillment and growth elsewhere. 

As the great resignation takes hold and the competition for talent continues to mount, it’s become exceedingly vital for organizations to show how they value their employees.

And recognition tops the charts as the number one ask from employees in the post-pandemic return to work. Finding ways to weave a robust employee recognition program into your organization’s day-to-day is way more than just an HR play. It can positively impact your culture and, by extension, on the engagement and retention of key players – not to mention, of course, your bottom line. 

A quick primer on employee recognition: it comes in many forms but generally refers to how an organization actively applauds its employees’ work. Companies equipped with strong recognition programs are 12x more likely to see strong business outcomes. Just be sure to pay attention to who is doing the recognition. A Deloitte study of 16,000 employees revealed that 44% of employees value recognition the most from leaders above their direct supervisor. 

Let’s take a look at how you can build strong employee recognition programs that result in strong business outcomes. Here are 6 reasons employee recognition is good for business: 

1. Recognition drives engagement (and excellence!)

Employee recognition forms part of the bedrock of company culture that places exceptionalism and excellence at its peak; it helps foster appreciation and can empower each employee to do their best. Recognition fortifies relationships and provides team members with a clear purpose aligned to achievable company goals. 

Companies that promote a culture of excellence can trace their efforts back to higher retention levels, culture, and employee engagement and satisfaction. It connects your people and culture to a shared purpose. Companies that provide clear feedback and recognition also see positive, measurable impacts on employee engagement levels. The SHRM/Workhuman Employee Recognition study, for example, found that a whopping 84% of respondents said recognition positively impacted engagement. 

2. Recognition fosters employee retention

As we already mentioned, the labor crisis has left organizations struggling to retain loyal staff – and employee recognition is proven to be a major driver of retention. Why? Workers celebrated by their leaders are more likely to stay at an organization for the long term. Nearly 91% of employees say that a strong culture of recognition makes a company an attractive place to work. 

It even transcends financial motivations: employee recognition is cited as one of the top non-monetary factors for employee retention. One study even found that Companies with recognition programs had 31% less voluntary turnover than those without. Those numbers are hard to argue with. 

3. Recognition promotes productivity

Appreciation pays dividends. Recognition is instrumental in boosting employee engagement at an individual level, but it can also increase productivity, which drives business outcomes and can be tied to higher retention levels. 

How? What behavior gets recognized gets repeated. One study found that 92% of employees are more likely to repeat activities they receive recognition for. And 90% of employees say that some form of appreciation motivates them to put more effort in at work. And in companies that employ internal communication tools or have an employee recognition program, both employee productivity and performance are seen to be 14% higher. 

In other words: an employee recognition program is a great way to encourage (and scale!) the behavior you want to see – and discourage the behavior you don’t want to see. 

4. Recognition nurtures trust 

By recognizing your employees, you can help build trust with them – you can help them see that their company values both them and their contributions. And depending on the type of positive feedback you offer, you may increase trust in various business areas. For example, encouraging peer-to-peer recognition can lead to higher feelings of belonging, a more robust culture, and a 26% increase in engagement scores.

Why does this matter? Trust and efficacy go hand-in-hand. High levels of organizational trust and in the company as a whole can be linked to profitability. Trust is also a key component of employer branding, essential in this new age of talent search and retention. 

5. Recognition increases customer satisfaction (and profitability!)

Frontline employee recognition doesn’t just stay in the ranks of your employees. It trickles down to many other areas of the company and, in some cases, can have a direct impact on your customer experience. Here’s an example: By weaving recognition efforts and programs into day-to-day operations, The Walt Disney World Resort saw a 15% increase in staff satisfaction. Not only did that rise impact engagement, the results correlated with higher-than-average guest satisfaction scores at the resort. 

Here’s another one: U.S.-based superstore chain Meijer found that increasing employee recognition from twice a month to twice a week increased customer satisfaction by 5%. The same study found that the higher the employee recognition rates went, the  higher customer satisfaction was overall. 

Alas, the opposite is true, too. Less appreciation leads to lower engagement levels, and according to Gallup, disengaged employees have a negative impact on profitability. They tend to exhibit 37% higher absenteeism, 18% lower productivity, and, for the companies who employ them, 15% lower profitability. In dollars, that’s equal to around 34% of a disengaged employee’s yearly salary, or $3,400 of every $10,000 you pay them.

6. Recognition provides you with vital employee data 

Depending on the tools you use to run your employee recognition program, you might be able to gain access to a whole new arena of workforce analytics that can help you make data-driven decisions about your workforce, your processes, and the organization as a whole. 

Data derived via employee recognition programs provide an honest, impartial line of sight into the performance of your team and your company. Leveraging a communications platform (like Nudge!) to drive employee recognition gives you access to data on your top performers and scalable best practices that have garnered praise. This data can also show you regions or locations with low participation in your recognition program, which can be a red flag for disengagement or culture issues.

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When it comes down to it, people are more likely to repeat behaviors they are recognized for. If you seek to build a robust, profitable, and inclusive culture, an employee recognition program might be the solution.