Upward Feedback is a process that, in part, evaluates supervisory skills. This can be particularly useful if your company, organization, or department has made additions or changes to supervisory staff, has a new strategic vision, has been acquired by or has acquired another business, or recently has undergone reorganization.
All of these moves can have a profound effect on morale if employees feel that the lines of communication have shut down and they no longer clearly understand what is expected of them and where their organization is headed.
Employees have a need to understand "unwritten rules" that will help them be successful in their current positions and advance along their career paths. They need feedback on their performance as well as recognition of their ideas and contributions.
The Upward Feedback process will help you understand which of these issues may be affecting your team as a whole and will set you on the right path to correcting them. Team performance will be enhanced and your organization will be better prepared to meet its goals.
How do we begin the Upward Feedback process?
HR Advisors will help you identify the skills and competencies that you would like exhibited by your management team. Then we will assess how your current team measures up against those core competencies and where improvement is needed.
Where do we go from there?
HR Advisors will identify the type of feedback you desire. (Upward Feedback is employee centered; 360 solicits comment from all levels of the organization). We then focus on specific individuals you would like to play a role and ask them to participate in an anonymous Web-based survey.
HR Advisors then will generate a report based on the observation and feedback of participants. The report will be reviewed with the supervisory staff and then shared with employees at a "debriefing" where they are asked to comment further on the process and to offer practical suggestions that can be acted upon by management.
How long can we expect the entire process to take?
You can expect the process to take approximately three to four weeks from start to finish to complete.
How often should this process be repeated?
HR Advisors recommends that the Upward Feedback process be repeated every two years. If done more frequently, there isn't enough time to implement the action plan, see behavioral changes in the supervisory staff, and improvement in employee morale and productivity.