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Our board has asked for a feedback mechanism, to receive information from staff that GM/staff interactions are going well and needs are being met, or to identify issues that the board might not be aware of. Does anyone have any insight on what they do that works well for this? We've used employee engagement surveys in the past, and I understand 360 reviews. What are some other ways to provide useful staff input on lead manager performance?
There are several ways to
There are several ways to provide useful staff input on lead manager performance, including:
Employee engagement surveys: Employee engagement surveys can be a useful tool for gathering feedback from staff about their experiences with lead managers. These surveys can be designed to ask specific questions about communication, leadership, and other areas that are important for staff engagement and satisfaction.
360-degree feedback: 360-degree feedback is a process in which an employee receives feedback from multiple sources, including peers, subordinates, and supervisors. This can be a useful way to gather feedback about lead manager performance from a variety of perspectives.
Focus groups: Focus groups are small, moderated discussions that can be used to gather feedback from staff about their experiences with lead managers. These discussions can be structured to ask specific questions about communication, leadership, and other areas that are important for staff engagement and satisfaction.
One-on-one meetings: One-on-one meetings between staff and lead managers can be a useful way to gather feedback about lead manager performance. These meetings can be structured to ask specific questions about communication, leadership, and other areas that are important for staff engagement and satisfaction.
It’s important to choose a feedback mechanism that is appropriate for your organization and that will provide useful information for the board. You may want to consider using a combination of these methods to gather feedback from staff about lead manager performance.
360 reviews are not
360 reviews are not productive. The allies of the employee provide praise, their enemies provide criticism, and everyone else tries to not respond.
Engagement surveys are ironic. You cannot engage with a survey. Surveys don't work, and good product managers today will not survey customers nor trust any survey results. Often the people who respond to surveys are outliers and they provide responses that mislead rather than creating transparency.
The problem in your organization is top-down control - the illusion of control, anyway. The board does not need surveys of customers to "make sure" of things. They need to hold the officers of the organization accountable for business success - sales, revenue, P&L, market share, etc. The people actually doing the work should be engaging with customers directly - particularly marketing - using interviews, focus groups, observations, and watching social media.
A board getting into this sort of thing where people on the line are the best ones to make the decision smells like a board that doesn't know what their own job is, so they try doing something easier below them.
But nothing good comes from people farthest removed from the customer attempting to play telephone game with customer opinions to figure out customer satisfaction or discover unrealized value for a product, service, or organization. They shouldn't be that far in the weeds making decisions.