As business Agility becomes the standard, many companies are starting to adopt the “continuous feedback loop” model of performance evaluation. But what does that mean, and how does it compare to traditional annual performance reviews?

The truth is that annual reviews are just too few and far between to be effective or efficient.

Studies have shown that employees want specific, frequent, and actionable feedback. When an annual review rolls around, it’s often far too late to fix the problems that affected performance.

Instead of focusing on how last year’s performance was lacking, continuous feedback loops look at what changes can be made now.

What Is a Continuous Feedback Loop?

The continuous feedback loop is a strategy for exchanging feedback and putting it into practice on a regular basis.

Gone is the lag time between one performance review and the next. Instead, routine one-on-ones and group check-ins follow up on team members’ progress in reaching their performance goals.

This iterative model ensures that every piece of feedback is understood, acted on, and used to drive positive change. It creates a highly skilled, Agile workforce that can quickly adapt to new challenges.

But continuous feedback isn’t just managers making better workers out of their employees. It’s a two-way conversation – employees also offer their input to management, making a better work environment for themselves. In a healthy feedback culture, everyone benefits.

When there’s a continuous flow of ideas, suggestions, and solutions, a growth mindset naturally follows. So, rather than a source of stress, giving and receiving feedback becomes a valued workplace ritual.

How Important Is a Continuous Feedback Cycle?

In a continuous feedback cycle, your company – and the individuals who make it possible – never stop evolving.

Managers in touch with their teams’ strengths and weaknesses can better respond to their needs when it counts. Employees keep superiors accountable for issues in systems and communication.

The result is a system of continuous learning that puts people and their goals first.

It comes with many benefits – here are just a few that a continuous feedback loop can bring to your company.

Boost Employee Development

It goes without saying that continuous feedback is designed to generate continuous improvement.

Employees who are constantly building skills and optimizing their workflow become the best possible people for their roles. When they know what’s needed, they can adapt to their role as it evolves. That means their value in your company is always on the rise.

Continuous feedback loops keep managers attentive and responsive to employees’ learning and development.

Increase Employee Engagement

Employees thrive on feedback, whether positive of negative, and they tend to want more of it than they’re given. Taking advantage of that fact yields better outcomes for their performance and their job satisfaction. It’s a win-win.

But don’t stop at feedback for employees.

When so many workers resign because they feel their feedback isn’t valued, it’s clear that power imbalance damages morale.

A continuous feedback loop can empower employees to participate in making company-wide decisions. If they can be part of the change, they’ll feel more connected to the company’s trajectory.

Identify Immediate Challenges

Team members struggle to stay on top of backlogged issues when performance reviews happen only once or twice a year. And because annual reviews quickly seem outdated, managers often assess recent performance in a vacuum instead of revisiting old data.

Feedback must be reflexive to keep up with the demands of an unpredictable, fast-paced industry. In other words, it must be made Agile.

Agile continuous feedback loops respond to issues in real time, lowering recency bias and keeping action plans updated.

Improve Trust and Transparency

In a culture of constant feedback exchange, conversations about improvement are always happening. Managers and employees are both clear about their expectations of each other while being honest about what’s realistic.

By making goal-setting and decision-making processes open, transparent, and collaborative, continuous feedback loops foster trust between all levels of management. And better relationships create a more loyal workforce.

5 Strategies to Ensure Continuous Feedback for Employees

It’s a challenge to get an entire organization on board with big changes, but the key is to start simple.

Take a look at these five tips to kick off and maintain your continuous feedback loop.

1. Start a Weekly Feedback Session

Turning feedback exchange into a group activity takes some of the pressure off individuals.

Weekly feedback sessions, hosted by managers, are focused, collaborative conversations about recent successes, obstacles, and ideas. They provide opportunities for employees and managers to give and request feedback.

Honesty is important for these sessions to be productive. But to avoid starting conflicts or crushing morale, you’ll need guidelines that keep the discussion respectful and constructive.

2. Set Up a Continuous Improvement Board

A continuous improvement board is a great way to kickstart an interactive feedback culture. If your team is office-based, place a bulletin board somewhere visible and have a pack of sticky notes nearby. All team members can use them to:

• Vote on strategies for continuous improvement put forth by management
• Create mind maps to solve problems collaboratively
• Leave messages for colleagues, from suggestions to a simple “good job”

A virtual whiteboard or Slack channel works just as well for remote teams.

3. Engage Remote Employees

Many remote employees reportedly feel excluded by colleagues and detached from company goals and values. So it’s essential to bring your remote employees into the continuous feedback loop.

Using employee feedback software like nGAGE is an easy way to give your remote teams a stake in the company’s growth. Peer-to-peer feedback ensures that the team is collaborating outside of projects, too.

4. Look At the Data Behind the Data

Quantitative results only tell you so much. The unspoken implications behind them are just as important to consider.

You can use them to see whether your feedback strategy is having the intended effect.

If feedback surveys aren’t getting the expected number of responses, ask employees how the process could be more engaging. If one-on-ones for a particular team don’t yield positive results, check in with them about their manager’s communication.

5. Put the Feedback into Practice

Continuous feedback loops are doomed to fail if no one takes affirmative action to meet goals and make changes. It’s built into the loop – there’s no progress if nothing has changed.

Leadership should be the first to model putting feedback into action. Set deadlines for deciding which employee feedback to implement and be transparent about them. When you’ve come to a consensus, let employees know:

• What you’ve settled on
• What the changes will look like
• How long they’ll take to set up
• Why other suggestions didn’t make the cut

Need Help Ensuring Effective Continuous Feedback?

Though it’s a simple system, a continuous feedback loop takes a lot of work to run smoothly. With so many moving parts, it can be difficult to make sure everyone’s participating and that no feedback gets lost along the way.

An employee feedback software like nGAGE takes work off your plate and keeps everyone accountable. With nGAGE, your company can:

• Keep track of all feedback and who it’s given to, making it easier to spot recurring concerns and recent improvements.
• Request feedback from employees and managers at any time with just the click of a button.
• Give feedback anonymously, without fear of bias or retribution from superiors.

Request a demo now to see how nGAGE can streamline your continuous feedback loop.