Author:
John Stephens
Date Of Creation:
28 January 2021
Update Date:
1 July 2024
Content
Feedback is essential to helping staff or students improve for better. Feedback is not only important, it is also required in most companies and classrooms. This is especially true if you are managing employees or responsible for guiding others. With more and more employees communicating and working remotely, it's becoming increasingly important to write responses by email. If you are supervising other staff members, you can write feedback in the performance assessment. If you are a teacher, you will often need to give comments to your students.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Write an employee's response by email
Confirm the reason to send the email. You can write the reason in subject or in the body of the email. Usually, it's best to let the recipient know what to expect in an email from the subject sentence.
- Write a topic like "Feedback on project proposals - Great start!"
Start with a friendly comment. This will let your audience know that you are making the comment in a friendly tone instead of criticizing. It will increase the likelihood that the recipient will read your review in a positive direction.- Write something like, "I hope you have a good week!"
Acknowledge the work they have completed. Chances are that the respondent has put a lot of effort into the work you are evaluating. Mention this first, let them know that you recognize their efforts.
- You can say “Thank you for trying to implement this proposed plan. I have put in a lot of effort ”.
Give positive feedback first. Telling the recipient what they are doing right first softens the criticism later. Be honest, however, try to find something positive. You can focus on the task at hand or on past work efforts.- Say, “Here's another compelling proposition. You have gathered many wonderful goals, and I can see a lot of progress in your method ”.
Write negative feedback as advice. Even if it is more effective to list necessary changes, it can be hard for the recipient to read them and discourage them. Instead, make the sentence as if it were the changes you are going to make.- You can write, "I will remove parts 1 and 2, and expand part 3 to include the draft budget", or "I will cut the second paragraph but will add an evaluation of ongoing projects. at the end of that part ”.
Explain negative feedback. Tell the recipient where the problem is, clearly explain the cause of the problem if necessary. If the criticism is due to a change from expectation or direction, tell them this, detailing why the change was made.
- Let's say, “We're making a company-wide shift toward more detailed proposals, so we'll need to expand the information in a few sections. I have listed places that need more information ”.
- If you comment on the recipient's behavior, always include examples of what you want to convey. For example, if you are talking about unprofessionally dressing at a client meeting, give examples of what they did wrong. You could say, "Last time we met the client, you were wearing flip flops, and before that you were wearing a t-shirt. This kind of casual wear doesn't bring the professional image we want to represent the company. ty ".
Determine how to fix the problem. Your feedback won't be helpful without a fix for the problem. Depending on the response topic, it might be a list of specific solutions and a general list of goals to work on.
- You can give examples of ways in which they can fix the problem. This is a great option when you have a specific solution in mind. You could say, "For your next presentation, use neutral colors and avoid transitions. Since our meeting clients, you should also avoid talking. in company".
- Another way is to ask questions that will help them think of ways to improve. This will be useful for identifying the problem for which there are many possible solutions. For example, "Are there any ways you can improve the material from here on out?" Or "What changes do you plan to apply to your next presentation?"
Remind them of any possible consequences. Some problems at work can harm the organization, and employees need to be aware of it. In many cases, there will be some consequences, and sometimes you will lose customers or provide ineffective customer service because of employee failures. Depending on the situation, there will also be consequences for the employee if they don't change. If there is a problem, let the staff know.
- For example, tell them about concerns that the company may lose customers because of paper errors.
- Another way is to let them know that they could be fired from the project if they don't try to improve their documentation.
End with a request for clarification and explanation for your feedback. This is a friendly way to end emails that help people get to know that you support them. Plus, it will make them feel comfortable asking for explanation if they don't understand what you wrote.
- Write, "Please let me know if you have any questions or need explanation about the problem".
Method 2 of 3: Feedback writing in competency assessment
Set goals to assess competencies. That is why you are doing the review. Knowing your goals can help you write better feedback and will help your employees know what to expect.
- For example, do you focus on employee improvement? Are you doing a company-wide assessment to decide which type of career development will most benefit your company? Are you doing a quarterly review?
- Talk to the staff about your goals when you give feedback. You could say, "The company has a plan to support a career development program based on the needs of the employees, so I am conducting a performance assessment for each person".
Review previous feedback about them. That may include response from a previous review, as well as informal information released during the review. You should also evaluate what they have done against that feedback. Have they used it to improve? Were they not paying attention to it?
- If they have acted on the feedback before, this could be seen as a positive rating this time around.
- If they haven't paid attention to feedback before, you can discuss both the previous issue and the lack of self-awareness of not paying attention to the feedback.
Explain positive feedback, give specific examples. It's best to always start with positive comments. Tell the staff what they're doing well, and point out any achievements they've achieved. Be honest, but try to bring out as many positives and negatives as possible.
- Give examples, such as “You showed self-awareness when volunteering to lead a project, and you demonstrated good leadership by working well with the team, incorporating suggestions. from other members, and assigning tasks ”.
- Praise what you want them to do.
Provide constructive criticism, provide concrete examples. Focus your criticism on what is most beneficial for the company or the goals of the employee's job. Tell them what you find them having trouble with, and why it is the problem.
- Provide concrete examples. For example, “In the last 3 presentations, you forgot the budget draft, slowed the project”, or “The average number of accounts achieved in the last quarter was 6, but you are just guaranteed. 2. This is considered incompetent ”.
Set work goals for the next evaluation stage. This will help employees know what they should focus on in the future, allowing you to communicate what the company needs from your employees. It will also make the feedback more helpful because the staff know what you want them to understand from the review session.
- Goals should be short and specific. For example, "On average, an employee will sell 4 products per day", "The employee will increase communication with customers", or "The employee will complete a leadership training session".
- Make sure that the next audit you do for your employees will focus on these work goals, as that is what they will expect.
Propose career development opportunities. Offer constructive commentary suggestions that you provided earlier. Depending on the resource, this could be a knowledge exchange, training, in-company training, or a life experience sharing session. You can even search for courses online if you lack resources.
- Be open to changing these recommendations after you discuss the evaluation with the employee. For example, the employee might ask for a career development you never thought of.
- You should consider the employee's career goals. For example, if an employee wants to move to a managerial position, you could recommend a leadership training session as a career development option. Another option is if the employee has an interest in graphic design, you can allow them to attend training courses so they can use these skills for the company.
End with words of encouragement. No matter how positive the performance assessment is, no one likes to be reminded of shortcomings or what they need to improve. Closing with words of encouragement can help motivate an employee instead of being pressured or discouraged.
- Say this, “You had unexpected problems last quarter, but you finished your job well when adjusting your workload. We like your performance and hope to see more good results this quarter. ”
Encourage feedback from recipients. This can be a verbal response after you discussed the evaluation with them, or you can give them a feedback form to complete. You will receive more effective feedback if you allow staff to comment on performance assessment and synthesize information in your absence.
- Ask others to comment on your feedback. For example, "If you could improve one thing about the way I give feedback, what would it be?" And "Is the feedback clear and helpful?"
Method 3 of 3: Provide feedback to students
Focus on learning. The purpose of feedback is to help students learn, so make helpful comments that guide them to improve their work rather than criticize mistakes. Take it for guidance and not just criticism.
- You can provide written feedback on student work types, including writing assignments, presentations, and projects.
Provide feedback on content and structure. Both parts are important, and students need to know how to improve them. This is especially important if one student does better in one part than another. For example, a student might have an excellent idea of content development, while still having typos, incorrect punctuation, incomplete paragraphs, and indentation errors.
- If you are commenting on oral presentations or projects, be sure to provide feedback on each part of the exercise.
- For example, a verbal presentation would include commenting on both content and public speaking skills, while a project could receive content, creativity, and skill feedback. present.
Give specific positive and negative feedback. Writing comments like “good job”, “really good”, or “need to work” doesn't tell students what they need to do to improve or what they're doing right. For feedback to be effective, students need to know what they did well or not.
- Write like this, “Your thesis is clear, well-written, and uses the required format. On the other hand, topic sentences need more effort because they are not linked to thesis ”.
- Suggest like this, "My ideas are well developed, but I want you to come to me for instructions on where to use commas and incomplete sentences".
- Includes a mix of positive comments and constructive criticism.
Suggest ways to improve instead of fixing bugs. You can highlight a few errors, but avoid making corrections on the page. Identify the problem you discovered in the article, such as using too many commas, and then suggest skills that your students could improve on.
- For example, “I used too many commas in my essay. Teacher suggested that you review the rules of using commas and how to avoid comma errors. If you go to the instructor, we can review the passage together.
Set priorities for the next draft or exercise. It will give students specific points to focus on from now on. You can prioritize learning goals or needs of your students, depending on the type of assignment.
- Say, "Right now, I want you to focus on using active subjects and avoid incomplete sentences."
Limit feedback to one piece or one skill if the problem is time. Focus attention on the current learning goals or needs of the students that you are assessing. Make sure students know that you are only evaluating specific parts of their writing so they don't think other sections are perfect.
- You may need to color or highlight comments.
- Before you return the assignment to the students, let them know that you are only giving feedback on part of the assignment.
- You can also let students choose the skill or section for which they would like to receive feedback.
Avoid putting pressure on students. If there are many errors, don't try to correct them in one comment. Giving too much information at once can make students feel overwhelmed. Instead, start with the basic tweaks or the easiest place.
- For example, you can start by focusing on incomplete sentences and looking up words that you don't know how to spell.
- You can also just focus on the learning goal the exercise is aiming for.
Encourage students to keep trying. End with a positive note that encourages them to keep trying. You can refer to other improvements in their exercises, giving them the motivation to aim higher.
- Write, “After realizing that your writing has improved so much during the school year, I know you will excellently complete your assignment according to these suggestions. I look forward to reading your next essay! "
