Provide feedback on performance for individuals and the whole team

Performance management is the process of monitoring the performance of the team and individual team members and having a two-way dialogue to establish if objectives have been met and where improvements can be made. This supports the professional development of team members and helps to maintain optimal productivity throughout the team.

There are several ways that feedback can be collected and provided and some of these are discussed below.

Team-based feedback

Team-based feedback will usually be conducted during team meetings. As the leader, you will initiate discussions within the team about the performance of projects and if team-based objectives have been met or are on track as well as any difficulties the team has had in achieving their goals.

You should encourage all team members to participate and ensure that everyone feels comfortable in expressing their views openly and transparently.

With a positive organisational culture, teams will often be able to identify areas that could be improved and find their own solutions to overcome these barriers. A culture that promotes creativity and innovation can be beneficial for this. You should also provide your own feedback to the team in a constructive way that supports the development of the team rather than assigning blame.

360-degree feedback

360-degree feedback is a process for gathering performance-based feedback from a wide variety of sources that can include co-workers, managers, service users, service users’ families and other healthcare professionals. This provides a holistic view of how teams and individuals are performing from many different perspectives.

Constructive criticism

As mentioned previously, although feedback may sometimes be negative, it should be delivered in a constructive way with the aim of improving performance. Although it may feel uncomfortable, performance issues must be dealt with as soon as possible.

Some techniques that can help with the delivery of constructive criticism include using the feedback sandwich method (where criticism is balanced with positive feedback), focusing on the situation rather than the individual and being as specific as possible with feedback to ensure clarity.

It is important to ensure that the individual is able to respond to the criticism and put forward their own views. It could be that they were unaware that their performance wasn’t acceptable and thank you for bringing it to their attention or they may not have received sufficient clarity from you regarding their responsibilities (in which case, it is an opportunity for you to develop your own skills in this area).

Supervision

Regular supervision is necessary to ensure that team members have a ‘safe place‘ to raise any concerns they have, reflect on their performance and request guidance and support as well as discuss their professional development needs and wishes.

Supervision should also be used to provide feedback to the team member about their performance. As well as any performance issues, it is important to recognise areas that the team member has performed well in and provide appropriate praise.

Appraisal

Whereas supervision is an ongoing regular process, an appraisal is an annual evaluation of practice, performance and development and provides the opportunity to reflect on what has happened over the previous 12 months and agree on long-term objectives and milestones.

You may wish to provide feedback on how the team member has overcome previous performance issues, resulting in improved performance and practice.

Mentoring

Mentoring is a process that supports a team member’s development in their job role by pairing them with a more experienced staff member that can provide guidance and advice. Regular discussions between mentor and mentee will provide opportunities for the mentee to ask questions about any areas that they have struggled with. The mentor can then provide feedback based on their own experience to help the mentee handle similar situations better in the future.

Coaching

Similar to mentoring, coaching is also a way for team members to tap into the experience of others. However, coaches do not always require a working knowledge of the team member’s job role (in fact, they may not even be part of the same organisation) and so will usually provide more generalised feedback.

Compliments/complaints (internal/external)

Compliments and complaints can come from a variety of sources. All care companies will have a complaints policy and procedure, whereby stakeholders external to the organisation can leave their feedback and report their concerns. However, not all care companies have processes that request positive feedback from stakeholders, which means praise is often verbal and risks being forgotten. Similarly, compliments and complaints can come from internal sources, such as co-workers and other managers.

It is important to ensure that all feedback is recorded so that it can be passed on to and discussed with the individuals that it concerns.