You may be reading this post expecting to find the next large trend in employee retention at your institution. Before continuing, grab the closest piece of paper and jot down a few reasons why you think your employees want to continue working at your institution.

Some benefits may include the student population, a free meal plan, a beautiful office view, free gym membership, a close commute, awesome parking space, or competitive benefits. Showering employees with awesome perks may feel like you’re showing the utmost appreciation, but we’ve done research for you to confirm that effective communication – not incentives – retains your best employees. We’re highlighting one of the best ways to improve communication practices in the workplace to see positive outcomes for you and your team: through feedback loops.

What are feedback loops and why are they important?

Whether a seasoned supervisor, graduate student, or first-time supervisor, one of the best ways to support your employees is through effective feedback. Many supervisors have never been taught to give or receive feedback, it’s not necessarily something learned through coursework or early on in a student affairs career. David Hassell, the Founder of 15Five, describes feedback loops as giving employees constructive, future-focused feedback in the form of suggestions right away or in real-time so they can learn from mistakes immediately.

It’s no longer acceptable to wait until a performance evaluation to offer a critical viewpoint .

This approach not only increases communication instantly, but it builds high trust within a supervisory relationship and team. Additionally, when your team feels like open communication is a priority they’ll be more likely to stick around.

Many universities maintain a traditional workplace environment with their employees. For example, Manager A focuses on what Employee B did wrong in the past, demanding Employee B fix the problem a particular way Manager A wants it. This perspective is outdated and contributes to an unhealthy work relationship.

When we receive feedback about something that happened a while ago, we often barricade ourselves and launch into defense mode .

Effective feedback loops promote employees sense of belonging in a workplace, which directly impacts the success of your team. One of the best ways to show your appreciation for employees at work is to get to know their story and to give them feedback in a constructive way. What did their past work environment look like? What new challenges do they face now? Diving deep into meaningful conversations with feedback opens the portal to improving the way feedback is viewed in a professional relationship.

We found this awesome infographic that captures a few ways that will help you understand a few forms of communication including the art of giving feedback:

What does your institution do to help promote student affairs professional retention? How do you share feedback with direct reports regularly? Share it with us at @HelloPresence!

Sources:

Hassell, David. 2013. How Feedback Loops Increase Employee Retention. https://www.15five.com/blog/how-feedback-loops-increase-employee-retention/. 26 October 2015.

Hassell, David. 2015. Infographic: How Important Is Communication To Your (Milennial) Employees? https://www.15five.com/blog/employee-communication-millennials/. 26 October 2015.