Tag: Employee Performance

If You Want to Be a Better Boss, Science Says Stop Serving Feedback Sandwiches
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I was taught to use a so-called “feedback sandwich” to give constructive feedback: lead with a positive, share the negative, finish with a positive. The idea was… well, I don’t know what the idea was. I guess to soften the “room for improvement” blow?

All I know is that the feedback sandwich rarely worked.

Especially on me.

Take the time a boss told me, “I really appreciate how you always come prepared to the supervisor meetings. But you sometimes run over people with all your facts, and figures, and productivity results. Even so, you’re a valuable member of the team.”

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The meat of the sandwich, the “you sometimes run over people with your facts and figures,” was admittedly true.

But the bread, the two positives, didn’t soften the blow. In fact, the bread made me feel manipulated. And kind of pissed me off.

That’s because a sandwich in effect says, “I need to give you negative feedback… but first I’ll say something nice so you won’t think I hate you. And then I’ll say something nice so you won’t be mad at me when you leave.”

That’s the problem with the feedback sandwich. The recipients feel manipulated.

And even if at first they don’t, give it time: since our positive qualities tend to stay consistent, the same bread eventually starts to taste stale.

And as for the likelihood of positive change? According to research published in Learning and Motivation, the feedback sandwich almost always fails to correct negative or subpar behaviors if only because — as in my case — I focused more on how the feedback was delivered, than on the quality and accuracy of the feedback itself.

The better approach is what the authors of a study published in Management Review Quarterly call benevolent honesty.

As the researchers write:

We propose that that a better approach is benevolent honesty, in which communicators focus on delivering negative information truthfully and directly, but also employ additional strategies to ensure that their words actually lead to long-term improvement.

For example, a professor might emphasize that a student is capable of achieving high standards when giving critical feedback. Though this strategy might seem intuitive, communicators often fail to make their benevolent intentions clear — they seem to forget (at least in the moment) that (others) do not have access to that same information.

Their findings dovetail nicely with a Journal of Experimental Psychology study that shows including one sentence can make feedback up to 40 percent more effective: “I’m giving you these comments because I have very high expectations and I know that you can reach them.”

According to Culture Code author Daniel Coyle, that phrase contains three distinct signals:
You are part of this group.

This group is special; we have higher standards here.

I believe you can reach those standards.

Instead of a feedback sandwich, the result is more like a relationship sandwich.

No manipulation. No platitudes. Not irrelevant compliments. No false hope.

Just clear, direct feedback, delivered inside a message of connection, belonging, and trust.
That’s the real difference between a feedback sandwich and benevolent honesty.

The feedback sandwich theoretically helps the feedback giver reduce the likelihood of conflict during a tough conversation. (“If I throw in a few compliments, maybe he won’t get mad.”)

But how a difficult conversation might feel to the person giving feedback doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is whether the feedback helps the recipient improve his or her performance.

And that’s something a feedback sandwich is terrible at producing.

The next time you need to have a difficult conversation with an employee, or with anyone, forget the feedback sandwich. Forget leading and closing with a compliment.

Instead, just be direct and truthful, while showing that you care about that person’s performance or well-being because you care about them: that you want things to be better for them as a result of the conversation.

Not just to be easier for you.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
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Jeff Haden

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October 31, 2025
How to Protect Your Company From the Worst Effects of Social Media

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For years, public handwringing about the impact of social media on the minds and lives countless millions of teen users has dominated conversations about this increasingly prominent communications medium. Plenty of research suggests it can do real damage, and sites like Instagram have been forced to take steps that try to limit the harm the apps do. But it’s not just teens using social media, and a new report explores its use at work and its impact on the productivity. Its conclusions may prompt you to rethink if and exactly how you allow your staff to doomscroll through Pinterest, Instagram, TikTok and their ilk during office hours.

The report, from the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations, tried to work out which type of social media content caused the most upset in the office environment and how social content changed worker’s moods — potentially reducing their productivity — in separate experiments that returned very similar answers, industry news site HRDive notes.

Firstly, if people were watching “attractive” social media content while at work—material like clothing fits — as well as typical family-life posts, workers’ moods shifted to feeling more confident and boosted ability to tackle their work tasks. But if they watched difficult materials, like politically charged posts or even “rage bait” content, workers were more anxious afterwards and were more likely to seek their own space away from colleagues — potentially damaging productivity and team working ability.

At this point you may be slapping your forehead and muttering about how this is all just common sense.

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But it is important, if only for the following reason: the report cites earlier research that showed around 77 percent of U.S. workers regularly consume social media during work hours. That’s nearly eight in 10 people in your workforce, which means the type of content they’re consuming is going to impact your company’s productivity.

The authors said their study “offers a practical contribution by providing a more balanced view of the benefits and/or drawbacks of employees participating in social media throughout their workdays.”

They suggest that the study can provide a toolbox for “leaders and employees as to when and how to use social media as a motivational tool.” One simple example of this, they suggest, is that a manager could “support employees’ use of social media as a daily work break.” You may even think of it as the Insta-equivalent of a sneaky smoke break, for example. The fact that you’ve given explicit permission is also a boon, because it shows you understand the fascination of social media, and you’re not punishing people for slacking off work for a handful of minutes.

The researchers go further though, and say that if you “directly encourage employees to focus on posts that they perceive as attractive or family-oriented because of their uplifting qualities” you may even be able to “enhance work productivity.” Admittedly you’d be fighting against human urges to watch different content, and the various apps’ algorithms which generally only care about keeping users watching, no matter the content.

But it may be worth a try — especially if you tell them to proactively avoid contentious content during work hours to avoid productivity problems. If team tasks are on the agenda that day, tell your staff to leave watching social content until later, since that could lead to emotional withdrawal and weaken overall results.

This may give savvy leaders some useful tips on how to keep employee distraction down, and maybe even keep workforce motivation up.

But there’s another issue that may be taking over the average worker’s urge to watch endless TikTok reels: AI. AI tools can be fascinating, fun and distracting — just as they can be useful in the workplace. But a new report shows that the emerging issue of AI “workslop,” where AI tools spit out reams of partly useful, partly distracting material that ends up leaving people to pick out the signal from the noise, may be much worse than you think. It also suggests that much of this material really is being generated by the average worker noodling around on generative AI apps.

So maybe it’s time to have a talk with your workforce about the distracting power of both social media and AI.

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Kit Eaton

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October 22, 2025
Why Major Workplace Disruptions Aren’t Always a Bad Thing

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The road to business success rarely stays smooth, and while you may aim for your enterprise to tick along like a well-oiled German luxury sedan, bumps and dings and accidents and upsets along the way are all but inevitable. Some common examples include an executive falling ill, the loss of a major client, or a top-to-bottom restructuring to pivot the business to new markets. Take heart, though. A new report says that if your company suffers a serious disruption of some kind, it may actually boost your employees’ trust levels and tempt them to stay with you in the long term, but only if you manage the crisis well.

The data, from SparkEffect, a small Seattle-based organizational development firm, found that 71 percent of the companies surveyed had experienced some form of disruption in the last two years. Unsurprisingly, the most common disruptions were AI-driven changes forced on business operations, with 37 percent of companies going through this disruptive process. Leadership team turnover was a close second, with 36 percent of companies affected, and further down the list were disruptions like layoffs or company restructurings, personal crises, cultural overhauls and job redesigns, Human Resources Director noted.

The investigation showed that if companies deal with these disruptions well, it can boost employees’ trust levels by 12 percent over the baseline. Meanwhile, if the company’s leadership fumbles the play, it can actually crash employee trust levels 28 percent under the baseline — a pretty dramatic shift.

The focus on trust is important, because the research showed the biggest impact a business-disrupting event can have is on manager trust — even more than workers’ trust in the overall organization. Data show that staff trust their direct managers more than company leadership, which might explain why a badly bungled reaction to a dramatic business disruption can have a significant impact. The report highlights this and notes that while “trust in local leaders often starts higher than trust in the organization as a whole,” it is actually “more fragile.”

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Organization-level leaders do well with retaining employee trust if they exercise good communication throughout a disruptive event. The report also says that if leaders are fair and clearly empathetic to their workers that can boost trust, also if they offer staff the chance to explain their concerns.

But if managers exhibit poor transparency, and there’s a misalignment between the decisions the leadership makes and what employees feel they need, including bad handling of tech rollouts (critical in the “all in on AI” business shifts that are trendy right now) then that can harm workers’ trust.

Much of this thinking resonates with an interesting report that recently underlined how important middle managers can be in an organization, despite the current trend for ditching midlevel managers in favor of a flatter org chart. The survey from San Francisco-based workplace communications outfit Firstup showed that more than half of the 1,000 U.S. non-management workers surveyed said their direct manager was their “most trusted source” for up to date workplace news. Just 10 percent said they think senior leadership is their best source for this info.

There are some very clear lessons for running your own operation here.

Rolling out AI systems is a surging workplace trend at the moment, as companies seek to boost worker efficiency and glean higher profits from their revenues. But AI rollouts can be dramatic and disruptive, as this new research points out, unsettling employees who may have to deal with unfamiliar, radically new technology, possibly requiring upskilling, even as they worry about the long term implications AI has on their employability. If you’re pivoting to include AI in your business, handling it carefully, with clear communication and an openness to hear employees’ concerns is a must. Otherwise worker trust may fall, and the secondary impact on their engagement and your profits may be marked.

Similar thinking should be included in your management decisions should your company encounter other disruptive events. Fairness and empathy are your friends here.

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Kit Eaton

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September 30, 2025
We’re In a ‘Performance Erosion’ Crisis. Here’s How To Break Your Business Free. | Entrepreneur

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

I want to talk to you about something important: the price of pho. A few years ago at the Vietnamese noodle joint around the corner from my office, a large bowl cost $12. Now it’s $17.

How did my bill for the exact same meal jump almost 50%? It’s no mystery. Businesses of all kinds are wrestling with unprecedented inflation. But that’s not their only challenge.

Even as the cost of doing business keeps climbing, geopolitical tensions are hampering trade and rattling stock markets. Meanwhile, employee engagement is in the dumps, and finding the right talent remains elusive. Then there’s AI, which is disrupting work in ways we’re just starting to grasp.

The result is a business survivability emergency. It’s no exaggeration to say that companies today are facing an existential threat on multiple fronts. No wonder almost half of CEOs believe that if their business stays on its current path, it won’t be viable in 10 years.

Here’s why companies find themselves in such a tough spot and how they can turn things around by better understanding the one resource that’s right in front of them — their people.

Related: AI Will Radically Transform the Workplace — Here’s How HR Teams Can Prepare for It

Unpacking the “performance erosion crisis”

Despite all of our technology, people — the basic driver of any business’s success — remain a black box at most companies. Today, we can get real-time insights on customers and prospects through modern sales and CRM tools. But when it comes to the people working alongside us, we’re often flying blind.

We’ve had people analytics for generations, of course, but they’ve been confined to spreadsheets and limited to HR wonks. And even when information about people is available, it’s typically siloed and inaccessible to the managers who need it most. At the same time, performance isn’t systematically tracked.

The result is a performance erosion crisis. Productivity, in no uncertain terms, has flatlined. In fact, it’s now at a 75-year low and is the number one challenge, according to executives.

Meanwhile, half of employees are disengaged, making them more likely to be unproductive or simply walk out the door, and three out of four businesses are having trouble hiring skilled talent. As a result, 1.9 million manufacturing jobs could remain unfilled in the U.S. by 2033.

And don’t forget the elephant in the room: AI. Employers reckon that almost half of workers’ skills will be disrupted in the next five years. For companies, uncertainty about who to hire leads to inefficiency and churn. If people are expensive, that makes things even worse.

Just ask blue-chip stalwart Intel, which is laying off 15,000 people — 15% of its workforce. With revenue declining, the tech giant admits that it’s failed to benefit from AI.

In short, growth expectations are as ambitious as ever. But as productivity has stalled relative to operating costs, businesses everywhere are headed in exactly the opposite direction.

How companies can come out on top

To pull through in these uncertain times, businesses must capitalize on their most valuable resource: now, more than ever, they need real-time insights that connect the dots between their people and business results.

What I’m talking about is categorically different from the people analytics of yesteryear — dense tables reserved for HR analysts. What’s needed are on-demand insights accessible across the company, in real-time. For people data to be useful, it must be intuitive enough for managers to use to drive daily decisions, big and small.

The good news is that while AI is a catalyst for disruption, it’s also giving businesses a workforce edge when it comes to tackling the performance erosion crisis.

Think of the questions that every company has about how people impact business outcomes. Who are our top performers? Who’s most at risk of quitting? Where is productivity dipping?

Related: AI Is Changing the Way We Look at Job Skills — Here’s What You Need to Do to Prepare.

New platforms let managers ask those questions in plain language — and instantly deliver a clear, actionable response. The best of these draw on a vast database of millions of anonymized employee records across industries to deliver tailored results and accurate benchmarks.

Pay is yet another area where real-time people data can be a game changer. Even though most companies have a detailed compensation policy, the managers who make pay decisions often shoot from the hip, letting bias cloud their judgment. AI-powered smart compensation tools help managers make more informed choices, factoring in not only industry standards but individual employee performance while flagging pay gaps linked to racial, gender and other biases.

Indeed, new platforms can serve as a one-stop shop for many of the repetitive questions that employees typically lob at HR, whether it’s about salaries, vacation days or benefits. Turning all of that information into a self-serve function liberates HR teams from manual toil, freeing them up to focus on what really matters: ensuring the business has the right people to propel it forward.

Of course, technology alone is not a panacea. Companies that want to capitalize on real-time people data must also be willing to make a culture shift. This starts with a willingness to share insights on people and performance once hoarded by HR. People represent most companies’ biggest budget line-item and single most important driver of business success. A commitment to understanding how they work best and to sharing that information in ways that are consistent, understandable and safe is a prerequisite to getting the most out of AI-powered tools.

Confronting the workforce challenge at the root of the performance erosion crisis isn’t rocket science. To get the most out of people in an unpredictable world, you need to understand them and how they impact business outcomes. In my experience, the best way to do that is by tapping the real-time insights that AI can deliver. Like my bowl of pho, running a business won’t get any cheaper, so it’s time to gain an edge by working smarter.

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Ryan Wong

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September 5, 2024
How This Overlooked Tool Boosts Employee Growth and Business Success | Entrepreneur
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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
What if I told you that one of the most powerful tools for enhancing your team’s performance and your company’s success is hiding in plain sight? A tool so effective that it can transform even the most disparate group of individuals into a well-oiled machine, working together towards a common goal.

This often overlooked and underestimated tool is the garden variety performance review — one of the most effective and accessible management tools at your disposal.

I know performance reviews might conjure up memories of awkward conversations, generic feedback and half-hearted promises. But when done right, they can be a game-changer for your business.

In this article, I’ll share the value of performance reviews, strategies for effective implementation, emerging trends and more.

Related: It’s Time to Prioritize Regular Performance Reviews — Here’s Why Reviews Are Essential for Employee and Company Growth

The case for performance reviews

Skeptical about the value of performance reviews? Let me convince you otherwise:
1. Feedback: Regular, meaningful and timely feedback clarifies expectations and provides actionable guidance. When employees receive consistent feedback, they understand their strengths and weaknesses, leading to increased motivation to improve and higher performance overall.
2. Talent identification: Performance reviews help identify high-potential employees early, enabling targeted development opportunities to prepare them for future leadership positions. This ensures a strong pipeline of homegrown talent and supports succession planning.
3. Employee value: Recognizing achievements and providing growth opportunities boost employee satisfaction, engagement and retention. Also, when employees feel valued and supported, they are more likely to go above and beyond, contributing to increased company success.
4. Fairness culture: Consistent, well-documented performance reviews promote a fair and transparent workplace culture. They prevent toxic environments where raises and promotions are based on favoritism rather than merit. By ensuring that employees clearly understand how their performance is measured and rewarded, legal risks associated with discriminatory practices are mitigated.
5. Addressing discrepancies: Performance reviews help align expectations and perceptions between employees and managers. By asking both parties the same questions about performance, goals and development needs, these reviews ensure that everyone is on the same page. Addressing any discrepancies early on prevents frustration, disengagement and potential turnover down the line.
6. Core values: Effective performance management assesses employees’ job performance and alignment with company values. While technical proficiency is important, embodying core values is equally critical. Evaluating this alignment helps identify individuals who may not positively contribute to the company culture.
7. Identifying systemic issues: Performance reviews can reveal widespread company issues, such as management issues, cultural concerns or unclear expectations. Spotting trends across multiple employees allows you to address root causes and implement timely changes.
Related: 4 Things Leaders Misunderstand About Performance Reviews

Strategies for effective performance reviews

Now, how can you make your performance reviews as impactful as possible? Here are some key tips:
1. Set clear expectations from the start. Collaborate with employees to set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound goals aligned with company objectives, ensuring they know exactly what they’ll be evaluated on.
2. Make it a two-way conversation. Engage employees in a dialogue, asking questions, listening to their perspectives and brainstorming solutions together. This makes it feel more like coaching and less like a trial.
3. Focus on behaviors and outcomes, not just numbers. Discuss the behaviors and skills that drove results, providing employees with insights on how to improve their approach, in addition to quantifiable metrics.
4. Give specific examples. Offer concrete observations like “I noticed how you took the initiative to streamline the reporting process, resulting in better client satisfaction” instead of vague feedback like “Good job” or “Needs improvement.”
5. Balance positive and constructive feedback. Recognize accomplishments and strengths while candidly discussing areas for growth, ensuring employees feel appreciated and challenged.
6. Discuss the future, not just the past. Review prior performance but spend ample time discussing goals and development opportunities to keep the focus on growth.
7. Document key points, but keep it conversational. Jot down notes to stay on track but maintain an organic, free-flowing discussion rather than reading from a script.
8. Evaluate company-wide goals. Assess if the company as a whole met its targets for revenue, growth, etc., considering the individual’s impact on achieving these goals, not just their personal performance.
9. Establish a clear formula for calculating salaries, bonuses and raises based on individual and company performance, ensuring fairness and consistency across the organization.
10. Assess employees on their fit with company values and culture, not just individual performance. High performers misaligned with company values or team culture can be detrimental to your success.
11. Encourage employees and managers to provide ongoing positive and constructive insights about their experience by offering incentives. Keep a detailed record of this feedback to streamline annual reviews, rather than relying on memory alone.
Technology and trends

As the workplace evolves, so does performance management. The right technology streamlines review processes, encourages a feedback culture and provides data-driven insights for more meaningful performance discussions. Here are some emerging trends:
1. Modern performance management platforms enable frequent, real-time feedback, keeping development a constant focus.
2. HCMS (Human Capital Management System) and talent management systems provide valuable data on performance metrics, flight risks, succession planning and more. Mining this data enriches performance review discussions.
3. Borrowing from agile methodology, some companies are adopting shorter-term performance cycles with regularly adjusted goals, allowing for greater flexibility as the business evolves.
Related: How to Conduct Employee Performance Reviews That Reduce Stress

Tailoring your review

As you create your performance review process, keep in mind that there’s no universal formula. What works for the big players might not be the right fit for your unique business. The key is to tailor your approach to your specific needs, culture and team.

If this sounds overwhelming, bring in a fractional CHRO or HR Director to design and implement a performance management strategy that reflects your company’s unique identity and vision. This way, you can gain the same benefits without the commitment of a full-time hire or the frustration of trying to adapt generic advice to your specific needs.

The bottom line is that performance reviews are arguably the most important investment you can make in your company’s growth. Your employees are the heart and soul of your success; how you nurture and engage them determines whether your business thrives or merely survives.
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Adi Vaxman

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August 12, 2024
What’s the Actual Cost of Unproductive Employees? It’s More Than You Think. | Entrepreneur

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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Picture this: You’re running a marathon, and you’ve trained for months, but one of your shoes is suddenly filled with pebbles. Your performance suffers, and your personal best time slips away like sand through your fingers. In the business world, unproductive employees can be those pebbles in your shoe. They may not be immediately noticeable, but the impact on your organization’s performance can be serious: the difference between a mediocre quarter and an outstanding one.

That’s happening to many companies across the board: The United States is currently experiencing an unprecedented occurrence, with five straight quarters of year-on-year drops in productivity, as per a study conducted by EY-Parthenon using information from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. This phenomenon has never been recorded in the available data, which dates back to 1948. The shoes of all companies are filled with pebbles now, but so many companies underestimate the costs of these pebbles.

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Gleb Tsipursky

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May 11, 2023