“Research indicates that employees have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company.” -Zig ZiglarIt’s a well-known business practice to get and give constructive feedback. Building a give and take relationship with your employees will provide you with much needed feedback. Active feedback will help increase productivity and reduce the risks of employee injuries.

An effective feedback mechanism can collect valuable information in some of the follow areas:

Employee Satisfaction

Workers who like where they work take less time off and that’s a boon for productivity. Feedback from workers can reveal what they think about your company. You can get input on broad areas like employee benefits, and opportunities for advancement. And more specific feedback about job duties, and procedures. You can use the information to create a better environment and improve conditions for workers.

Workplace Culture

Managers will tell you that cultivating an effective work culture is one of the hardest things to do. But it’s also the foundation of your business. Taking the time to listen to employees on how they feel about their jobs, and the atmosphere in which they work can be invaluable. You can learn about issues that are stressing people out. For example, personality conflicts or procedural issues. You can hear about which supervisors are excelling and which ones are causing problems.

Managers set the tone for culture whether they mean to or not. Find out who your superstars are and see what they are doing that your under-performers are not doing.

Get a Ground Level View

As a manager you have a valuable overview of how your teams and workers are doing. But the workers themselves are the one who know what’s being done and what’s left to the wayside. Asking about procedures are can reveal risks that might have gone unnoticed. It could reveal people who aren't following procedure. It can also open the door to people who want to point out an issue that a procedure has created. Getting active feedback will allow you to tweak and adjust procedures as needed so that they accomplish what they are meant to.

Productivity

The hospitality industry by nature has a high turnover rate. If you see a spike from a particular department an open feedback policy will allow you to identify the issue and resolve it quickly. This will save the company tremendous amounts of money in training new hires, and lost productivity while they get up to speed.

Here are a few ways to solicit feedback from your employees:

• Be Patient - Changing to a more open feedback system takes time. Employees must learn to trust you before they’ll willingly offer an honest opinion.

• Listen - If an employee is volunteering their opinion to you, listen to them. Don’t judge and don’t dismiss them or their opinions. Sometimes all someone needs is the knowledge that someone has listened.

• Give Feedback to Get Feedback - Start giving feedback to your employees. Start with positive feedback. Acknowledge good work and praise high performance. Then give small tips on how to make their performance better. Ask if there’s anything they need to take those steps. Open the doors of communication to go both ways.

• Acknowledge and Respond - Show them that their views matter. Whether you implement the change they suggest or not show them that you considered it. Tell them why it was or was not the best option.

Getting feedback from your employees will make them feel like a valuable and respected member of the company. If a worker feels their opinions are valued then they’ll work that much harder for you.