feedback case study

Feedback toolkit: 10 feedback case studies or ideas

This resource contains case studies and ideas on feedback practices across the higher education sector.

This resource is part of the HEA new to teaching Feedback Toolkit.

The materials published on this page were originally created by the Higher Education Academy.

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5 inspiring examples of user feedback's impact on real businesses

There are many reasons to collect customer feedback and keep track of your user sentiment—it’s something we encourage every business looking for a deeper understanding of their customers to do.

But perhaps you already know about the various types of user feedback, and understand the steps needed to collect and analyze it. Now, you’re curious to see real-life proof of its effectiveness from businesses like yours. 

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Want to discover the user feedback tactics a popular ecommerce business employed to gain a 400% return on investment (ROI) ? Or learn how an online real estate company used customer feedback to spot and resolve bugs that could have hurt conversions?

Keep reading to discover how five companies tapped into deeper customer insights with user feedback .

Improve your website’s UX with one simple tool

Use Hotjar Feedback to gather valuable insights and make customer-centric improvements to your user experience.

How user feedback insights impacted 5 businesses

From retailers to airlines, start-ups to 10,000-employee-strong corporations—everyone benefits from collecting user feedback and having more customer touchpoints.

We’ve compiled five inspiring case studies from companies that leveraged this crucial qualitative data to improve user experience (UX) and increase conversions.

1. Matalan gained a deeper understanding of their customers 

🤔 The situation: the UX team at Matalan, one of the UK’s leading fashion and homeware retailers, wanted to increase conversion rates and improve their ecommerce website’s UX.

Karl Rowlands and Lucy Walton from Matalan’s UX team had a limited budget for gathering customer insights, mainly relying on guesswork guided by quantitative data. While they had no problems assessing performance and tracking numbers, they were missing the why behind the data.

Ultimately, they needed a deeper understanding of their user base to make smarter, more impactful decisions. 

💪 The action: Matalan was transitioning its ecommerce website from adaptive to fully responsive, and wanted to collect as many user insights as possible during the process. To make it happen, they turned to Hotjar.

We knew that we needed a tool that would help us understand what our customers think and understand the why behind everything we do.

Along with other tools in the suite, Hotjar’s user feedback tools, Feedback and Surveys , proved invaluable in understanding their website’s UX and inspiring new A/B testing strategies.

Karl and Lucy integrated Hotjar Feedback with Looker Studio (previously Google Data Studio) to create a dashboard of centralized user responses so they could easily review results and break them down into actionable data.

With their creative solution in place, the team could assess user behavior throughout the transitional period, gradually gathering impressions and gaining visibility into what their users were experiencing. 

🏆 The result: 

User feedback helped Karl and Lucy’s team spot bugs in the checkout process and resolve them before they became a major blocker to customers, resulting in a 1.23% increase in conversion rates 

Feedback also revealed what customers liked or disliked about the company, and what they needed. This gave the team more ideas to trial with A/B testing, earning a 17% boost in successful tests.  

Overall, Matalan saw a whopping 400% ROI in just nine months of investing in Hotjar’s user feedback tools

Hotjar really empowers you to see exactly what your users are doing, how they’re feeling, and ultimately their reactions to the changes you make. Without Hotjar, we would still be making decisions based on gut instinct instead of qualitative user feedback.

🔥 If you’re using Hotjar

Want to replicate Matalan’s success? Hotjar’s Feedback widget lets you hear genuine opinions from your customers so you can spot bugs and make data-driven optimizations that put their needs first.

Customizable to your site and adaptable to a range of different content, Feedback can be tailored to your business goals—so you get the customer insights you need, straight from the source.

2. TechSmith improved their website’s UX

🤔 The situation: to make intelligent, customer-centric product developments and reduce assumptions, the team at software company TechSmith needed input from the real people they were designing for. 

The further you go without concrete data, the more leaps you’re making. That’s why we come back to the data very regularly…we're making fewer assumptions, which also means we’re making fewer mistakes in the end.

💪 The action: TechSmith’s goal was to gather tangible insights into how customers navigated the site to make data-driven decisions. The team wanted a user feedback tool that could be easily integrated with other software. This way, the entire company could have access to—and benefit from—their learnings.

They paired Google Analytics with Hotjar to analyze both traditional, quantitative data and complementary behavior analytics insights:

Hotjar Surveys triggered a survey after a user undertook a certain series of actions so they could target open-ended questions and gather feedback from specific customers and experiences

Hotjar Heatmaps revealed where users spent the most time on each website page

🏆 The result: combining Heatmaps with Surveys—seeing what users said and did —provided a strong case for redesigning parts of TechSmith’s website. By making more areas of their landing pages clickable, the team vastly improved their UX.

Perhaps there was no monetary impact to making the whole area clickable, but it definitely provided a better experience to each of our potential customers.

TechSmith also integrated Hotjar Surveys with other tools, building a database of responses categorized by topic, theme, and user location by exporting the results to Google Sheets. 

Now, they had user insights translated into a concrete strategy for the business.

Integrate Hotjar Feedback across various platforms for even better customer awareness .

Keep teams and partners in the loop for maximum responsiveness by linking Feedback with Slack, Gmail, Miro, Asana, and more .

Gather all your insights in one place, filter by the most relevant insights, and export your results into a centralized location for easy analysis.

3. Spotahome used feedback to make educated improvements

🤔 The situation: Spotahome , an online platform for sourcing rentals in various cities, wanted to learn more about their users, reduce the guesswork involved in their website developments, and make educated site optimizations.

Sara Parcero, Spotahome’s Customer Knowledge Manager, was eager to implement budget-conscious user feedback analytics. Her goal was to better understand the context behind conversions and customer behavior, and she chose Hotjar to help her do it.

Before Hotjar, we spent a lot of time guessing what the user thinks before coming up with a solution. Now we don’t guess; we use Hotjar. It’s helped us become a user-centric company.

💪 The action: Hotjar Feedback and Surveys, coupled with Recordings, proved an effective—and affordable—way for Spotahome to tap into large amounts of data that delivered results immediately.

Sara organized company-wide Hotjar Watch Parties to review specific session recordings that were accompanied by feedback responses. This way, stakeholders could see the exact steps users took up until the point of leaving feedback—what they did, where they got stuck, and what they ignored.

Organize your own Hotjar Watch Party!

Get your whole team or company involved in watching your user behavior first-hand in four simple steps: 

🔎 Choose one or two topics to be the focus of your Watch Party 

📹 Organize your recordings by relevance for the most useful insights

📝 Create a guest list of different teams and disciplines for a variety of perspectives

🍿 Grab some snacks, share your screen, and get the party started !

The Spotahome team during a recordings watch party

Sara compiled responses gathered using the Hotjar Feedback widget, and built reports to give the company visibility into overall website performance and user sentiment. These reports became a source of inspiration to other teams for new features, bug fixes, and general improvements.

With the Engineering and Product teams involved, Sara had the right people bringing their expertise to the table and keeping tabs on user behavior, improving their overall understanding of user needs

Using Feedback with Recordings allowed developers to see real users interact with the product, and get context behind the feedback. This unfiltered line of communication from end users made getting buy-in for optimizations and features a straightforward, data-informed process.

These tools also provided visibility into bugs or flaws that could be quickly and responsively resolved

The company now relies on user feedback for regular pulse checks, making direct improvements based on customers’ comments and keeping the team on a path of constant improvement and competitive analysis.

I know that once you see Hotjar, you’ll see the value. I didn’t need to convince people that Hotjar was great. I just needed to show them.

4. Ryanair spotted trends in user satisfaction

🤔 The situation: Ryanair , an Irish discount airline that sees an average of almost 2 million visitors to their site every day, is committed to providing as seamless a user experience as possible. 

With so many people passing through their site, Rui Pereira, Head of Research and Usability, and Anna Zajac, UX Researcher, knew they needed to provide a stellar experience.

The broad range of customers interacting with their product meant there was huge potential to collect impressions of their website, and Hotjar was the ideal platform to help them do it.

💪 The action: Rui and Anna studied the flow of their typical customer’s journey onsite, from searching for flights to booking hotel rooms. Their goal? To understand what brought visitors to their site, and how they interacted with the platform.

They asked open-ended questions with surveys to get to the root of their customer pain points and spot potential areas for optimizations.

After gathering responses for several months, the team built a database of feedback, providing a full spectrum of insights into their user experience.

The value of Hotjar, for us, is that we can observe trends. We can compare one month with another, and we find this useful.

💡 Pro tip: asking open-ended questions is an excellent way to let customers take the lead in telling you their website impressions or product feedback. 

While close-ended questions only permit one answer ( “Did you enjoy using our website?” ), open-ended questions allow for more variety in responses ( “How could our website be improved?” ) so your customer can share their unique perspective

N26 uses a combination of open- and closed-ended questions in this survey

🏆 The result: by integrating Hotjar Surveys with Excel, Rui and Anna got a clear picture of their customers’ sentiments. These insights revealed pain points, wins, and opportunity areas in one cohesive database.

Once they were aware of the most common issues their users experienced, they crafted targeted survey questions directly addressing these website problems.

Customers could then quickly and easily select the issue applying to their situation rather than type out complex responses, streamlining the team’s feedback categorization and making analysis much easier.

The data revealed trends in customer satisfaction and sentiment over time, which was presented to major stakeholders to get buy-in for specific optimizations and share knowledge about the website’s overall health. 

These metrics led to data-driven, customer-centric decisions , and increased awareness of their UX and opportunity areas across the company.

The main stakeholders in our business want to keep track of product performance. We use Hotjar Surveys to see how satisfied our customers are with our products, and we report the larger trends.

Hotjar Feedback gathers all your user sentiments in one place so you clearly see trends in happiness or frustration levels, centralized on your dashboard.

Take your customer feedback and turn it into intuitive, easy-to-understand visuals that transform qualitative data into actionable insights.

5. Hotjar used its own tools to streamline its entire user experience and build empathy with customers

🤔 The situation: Hi, we’re Hotjar ! 👋 You’re probably not surprised to hear that we’re constantly searching for ways to understand our customers better and improve our product.

The Hotjar team used Hotjar to investigate Hotjar ’s UX (phew!) and uncover any user pain points or elements not meeting customers’ needs. 

Our goal was to develop a deeper understanding of how users interacted with our product and optimize accordingly. We also wanted a clearer view of the whys behind user behavior, and deeper context into our customer’s journey through the product.

💪 The action: by applying Hotjar’s user feedback tools, we gathered insights from various channels and sources.

Feedback continually gathered in-the-moment impressions from users across a variety of pages on the website

Net Promoter Score® (NPS) surveys assessed sentiment over longer periods and allowed customers to provide more context

We asked a mix of open- and close-ended questions, and regularly got together to review results and break them down into simple, actionable data points.

🏆 The result: unbeknownst to the team, a small but significant bug at the tracking code installation stage prevented users from setting up Hotjar. Our user feedback tools revealed this very bug, so we could dive in and fix it before it hurt conversion rates. 

Having people from multiple disciplines across the company involved in user feedback analysis made solving problems and strategizing new product features a united effort. It also meant staying on track to creating a best-in-class user experience—and maintaining Hotjar’s reputation as a leader in digital experience insights.

Hotjar Feedback is just one side of the coin

As you’ll probably have noticed from the five case studies above, Hotjar Feedback is most powerful when paired with Surveys, Recordings, and Heatmaps for a truly holistic overview of your customers’ needs.

Use Feedback with Surveys to gain a deeper understanding of your user sentiment and gather greater insights into your user experience

Try it with Heatmaps to see the successes and opportunity areas of your website, and tap into your customers’ loves and pain points

Combine it with Recordings to watch first-hand how your users interact with your site, what makes them tick, and how you can improve your product

A Feedback response and its accompanying recording

Drive improvements with user feedback

Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what industry your business is in, how old your company is, or what your business goals are. 

User feedback connects you to your customers, gives you deeper empathy for the user experience, and helps you spot important opportunity areas across your website or product.

Don’t walk, run to your user feedback tools now and start exploring the true potential of your product optimizations.

Get deeper insights into your user experience

Try Hotjar Feedback to fully understand your customers' needs and wants.

FAQs about user feedback examples

What is user feedback.

User feedback is the responses and impressions of the users interacting with your site or product through various media, such as

Forms and surveys

Social media

Review platforms

User testing sessions

What are some benefits of analyzing user feedback?

Analyzing your user feedback helps you gain a better understanding of your user experience, spot opportunities for optimizations, catch bugs and glitches, and guide your business roadmap.

What companies have benefited from user feedback?

Many companies have benefited from implementing user feedback tools and analyzing the results!

This guide looks at:

Hotjar (hi!)

You can read more case studies of businesses that used Feedback and Surveys (along with other Hotjar tools) here .

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Employee feedback Case Studies

Our Alliance can demonstrate a wide range of Employee Survey and Feedback projects. Here are just a couple

35 Tailored Executive Feedback Sessions for global FMCG business

In this instance, Feedback Works helped the senior management team in a global FMCG company achieve a better and deeper understanding of the feedback from all of their colleagues around the world.

With a hands-on approach, 35 tailored executive feedback sessions were presented to all global leaders  - including the company's CEO and team - helping to inform strategy for the future. 

Survey and feedback training for well known UK Brand

Early in 2020, our Alliance member Feedback Works was contracted by an iconic UK brand to help them understand their employee experience as they were (and are continuing to) manage the unprecedented times we all experienced at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Part of the exercise related to the future growth and direction of the organisation and, to enable the level of insight needed, we built a questionnaire focused on delivering their strategy for the future. To this we added training that enabled their HR Business Partners to build feedback capability to the business to make real change possible.

Feedback for Learning

Closing the assessment loop

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Case Studies in Formative Feedback at HGSE

Case Studies in Formative Feedback at HGSE 

by:  Josh Bookin Committing to the use of student feedback is one thing; creating effective methods for doing so is another. To help you in this work, this article highlights the diverse and impactful practices of three HGSE instructors on gathering student feedback. We asked each of these instructors to give us a sense of what the technique is, why they use it, and how they do so.

Mid-course feedback: a chance to take stock and course correct | Jon Star

What is it.

It is relatively common for faculty to gather mid-course feedback, giving students a chance to share their perspective on how the elements of the class are impacting their learning experience. There are many ways to solicit this feedback, and Jon’s current method involves priming students with some things he would like to learn about in particular and then posing just a few open-ended prompts to allow students to share whatever is most important to them. Jon then decides if and how to modify the course accordingly.

“I teach a course on learning and motivation. I’m someone who is supposed to know something about these topics, and I try to reflect that knowledge in how I design my classes. I know giving students some choice and perceived control over aspects of the course is motivating. And gathering feedback consistently through the course, not just at the end, is a key way in which I make this happen,” reflects Jon. He finds great value in creating a space in the middle of the course experience to have students think broadly about what is and is not working for them. This feedback allows Jon to modify various course components to best meet the needs of these particular students while also building a sense of shared ownership.

How to do it?

Perhaps the first thing to decide is when to solicit mid-course feedback. Jon tends to do it no later than the middle of the semester, as he wants to have enough time to have students benefit from any modifications. But he will often do as earlier as a third of the way into the semester, particularly if the class seems like it isn’t coming together in all the ways Jon has intended.

Although he used to employ extensive instruments, Jon has evolved his practice to create a simplified, open-ended questionnaire. He often will prime the feedback session by letting students know that he welcomes feedback about any aspect of the course, but that he is particularly curious about their thoughts on specific components. He will then give them a blank piece of paper and ask them to write on one side things about the class that are working well for them and on the other suggestions they have for improvement. Jon has students complete the survey in class, as it helps them know that he really values the process and it ensures that they spend an adequate amount of time giving feedback.

Jon then synthesizes the feedback, looking for common patterns. He decides how he will use the feedback to modify the course, for instance substituting some of the upcoming assigned readings or tweaking his instructional methods. Jon then reports two things back to the students in the next class: the things he will change, and the things he won’t change and why. This efficient report out gives students a sense of what they and their peers think, informs them about what is going to change, and lets them know that Jon cares about what they think.

Reading response briefs: integrating student feedback into class session design | Candice Bocala

Students complete and submit short written assignments called “reading briefs” in advance of class. The teaching team reviews the briefs to identify common patterns and to decide how to incorporate students’ insights and questions about the reading into designing the class session. The teaching team also gives individual feedback on the briefs.

“This tool gives me much better information about where students are confused, rather than relying only on the information I get from what students say in class or during office hours. Because it is in writing, I can address any misconceptions right away on their brief, and I can also address it in the whole class when useful.” Candice also uses the briefs as a way to help select the topics of discussion that best meet students where they are at. She often invites students to share their responses and questions during the class, thus diversifying participation and sharing discussion leadership.

Candice’s approach to these briefs is well described in her Learning from Practice: Evaluation and Improvement Science syllabus:

“Reading response ‘briefs’: Out of five weeks’ worth of readings, students are expected to choose any three weeks to submit a written “brief” that provides a reaction to the readings for that week. Briefs are short analytic and reflective memos (2–3 pages, double-spaced, 12-point font) that examine the essential questions for that week referenced in the syllabus. The argument and use of content in the brief is completely up to the student; however, each brief should demonstrate an understanding of the readings as well as application to the students’ project with the partner organization or to future work. Briefs are due by midnight on the Monday before each class begins, and students will receive feedback from the teaching team by the end of that week.

Only requiring briefs some of the time accomplishes several goals: it gives students some flexibility in managing their workload, it allows them to focus more deeply on topics that most interest them, and it makes it more manageable for the teaching team in terms of giving feedback and applying the information. The teaching team then makes use of this information, as discussed in the section above. When inviting students to share something from their brief, Candice will often email students in advance to help them prepare for their contribution. She will also thread students’ insights from briefs into her comments, connecting student ideas to key course concepts.

Pluses and deltas: gathering student perspectives after a given class session | Kathy Boudett

“Pluses and deltas” is a simple and versatile vehicle for gathering student feedback at any time, often at the end of a class session. The key elements are soliciting student perspectives on what has gone well (pluses) and where there might be room for improvement (deltas, which comes from the Greek symbol for change) and then exploring how this information might be used to improve the course experience. Critical to making this practice work is dedicating time in class to share an overview of their suggestions and the resulting responses.

“I really want to teach amazing classes, and a key part of doing so is to gather formative feedback on an on-going basis to make sure I am meeting the needs of these particular students,” says Kathy. She finds that students give immensely helpful feedback and that, in doing so, they become more invested in the course and the classroom community. Her own research is focused on the power of continuous improvement, and this pluses and deltas technique is an effective way to apply that principle to her own practice.

There are two main ways to employ this technique: soliciting feedback together as a group and gathering feedback individually.

Soliciting feedback together: Kathy usually sets aside five to ten minutes at the end of a class session to do pluses and deltas as a group. If she has ten minutes, which is preferred, she tends to give students a minute to think individually and then one or two minutes to share with a partner. It is important to Kathy that everyone has a chance to share their perspective, even if just with a peer. She then solicits feedback from the group, while she or a teaching fellow scribes the comments. Kathy tries to have time for as many comments as possible, so she tends to simply thank each student for their contribution. But it is also important for Kathy to model a non-defensive stance to feedback, so she will often respond with curiosity and affirmation to the deltas.

(If Kathy only has five minutes for feedback, she will use a more specific prompt, such as: “Today we used a case study in the last 30 minutes as a vehicle for applying the new conceptual principles. I’d love some feedback on how that went for everyone.” She also will move more quickly to the whole-group discussion.)

She then meets with her teaching team outside of class to discuss how to adjust the next class in light of the feedback. If so, she will often report those changes at the start of the next class session, but on occasion she will just incorporate the suggestions without further discussion. Regardless of how she responds, Kathy is unequivocal that “students need to know that this feedback is taken seriously and is benefiting the classroom community.”

Soliciting feedback individually: In this version of the technique, Kathy has students fill out an online plus/delta survey during the last 5 minutes of class. The teaching team then compiles the data, creates a summary of the main areas of feedback, decides how to respond to the deltas, and prepares a short presentation for the next class session. In that presentation, the teaching team will share the summary data and discuss the implications for each of the deltas. It may mean altering some aspect of upcoming lessons, reteaching a concept that was not clear, engaging in an open conversation about a proposed change, or discussing why a valid piece of feedback will not result in a change in this iteration of the course.

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22 Feedback for manager examples and best practices that you should know

In the dynamic world of management, feedback isn't a one-way street. It's a multi-lane highway where managers navigate as much as their teams.

While we often focus on employees' performance reviews, it's time to flip the script and understand that managers need constructive feedback too. Surprisingly, a significant 44 % of managers have reported feeling unprepared for their roles.

Buckle up because we're about to embark on a journey through the art of giving feedback to managers . Let's explore 22 manager feedback examples and best practices that will help you empower your leaders while boosting team productivity!

What is feedback for managers?

Feedback for managers refers to the process of providing constructive input, information, and assessments to individuals in leadership roles within an organization. It serves as a valuable tool for their professional growth, helping them understand their strengths, weaknesses, and areas that require improvement.

Effective feedback enables managers to enhance their leadership skills, make informed decisions, and align their actions with organizational goals. It often includes insights from superiors, peers, subordinates, or even self-reflection.

Feedback for managers is pivotal in fostering continuous improvement, fostering a positive work environment , and achieving better overall performance within a team or organization.

Importance of giving feedback for managers

The importance of giving feedback for managers cannot be overstated. It serves several crucial purposes:

• Improvement: Feedback provides managers with insights into their performance, helping them identify areas where they excel and those that need development. It's a catalyst for growth and improvement.
• Enhanced leadership: Constructive feedback helps managers become more effective leaders . It allows them to adapt their management style, communicate better, and make informed decisions.
• Motivation: Positive feedback boosts morale and motivation , while constructive feedback, when delivered properly, can act as a catalyst for change and inspire managers to reach their potential.
• Accountability: Feedback holds managers accountable for their actions and decisions, promoting responsibility and a culture of transparency.
• Team performance: Effective managers are instrumental in team success. Feedback equips them with the tools to lead teams to higher performance levels, resulting in increased productivity and job satisfaction.
• Organizational alignment: Feedback helps managers align their goals and strategies with those of the organization, ensuring everyone is working towards the same objectives.
• Conflict resolution: Managers often deal with conflicts within their teams. Feedback provides insights into these conflicts and offers guidance on how to address and make sure the team is on the same page.
• Employee development: Managers play a vital role in employee development . Feedback enables them to mentor and guide their team members effectively.
• Retention: Managers who provide regular feedback create a more positive work environment, which can enhance employee retention and reduce turnover.
• Innovation: By offering honest feedback and actively listening to employees, managers can encourage a culture of innovation within their teams.

Feedback for managers is instrumental in their growth, leadership development, team performance, and overall organizational success. It is a two-way street where managers both receive and provide feedback, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and open communication .

What are some examples of positive feedback for managers?

Positive feedback for managers is crucial for reinforcing effective behaviors and boosting morale. Here are some examples of positive feedback:

• Recognition of leadership: "Your leadership during the project was outstanding. Your ability to inspire and guide the team ensured our success."
• Team appreciation: "The team is motivated and engaged, thanks to your positive influence. Your leadership has created a productive and harmonious work environment."
• Problem-solving skills: "Your ability to address challenges is commendable. Your quick thinking and strategic approach saved us from potential setbacks."
• Effective communication: "Your communication style is exceptional. You have a unique talent for conveying complex information clearly, which helps us all stay aligned."
• Openness to feedback: "Your willingness to accept feedback and adapt is admirable. It shows your commitment to personal and team improvement."
• Mentoring and development: "You excel at nurturing talent. Your dedication to the professional growth of your team is evident and appreciated."
• Innovation: "Your innovative thinking consistently brings fresh ideas to our projects. Your creativity keeps our team ahead of the curve."
• Adaptability: "Your flexibility in handling change is a valuable asset. You've shown the ability to adapt to new situations and inspire the team to do the same."
• Empathy and team morale: "Your consideration for team members' well-being boosts morale. Your empathy helps create a supportive work culture."
• Recognition of achievements: "Your role in our recent achievement hasn't gone unnoticed. You played a key part in our success."
• Client or stakeholder feedback: Sharing positive feedback from clients or stakeholders can be highly motivating for managers.
• Long-term vision: "Your vision for the department's long-term goals is inspiring. Your strategic planning is steering us toward success."

These examples of positive feedback acknowledge various aspects of a manager's role, from leadership and communication to innovation and personal development. Positive feedback reinforces the desired behaviors and encourages managers to continue their excellent work.

When to give feedback to your manager?

Giving feedback to your manager is an important aspect of fostering open communication and continuous improvement. Here are some key situations when you should provide feedback to your manager:

• Scheduled one-on-one meetings: Use regular one-on-one meetings as a designated time to discuss your thoughts and concerns. This ensures that you have your manager's full attention and creates a safe space for feedback.
• After significant achievements: When you or your team achieve a significant milestone or success, it's a great time to offer positive feedback to acknowledge your manager's leadership and support.
• In response to their request: If your manager explicitly asks for feedback, this is an ideal opportunity to share your thoughts honestly and constructively.
• When there's a problem: If you encounter issues or challenges related to your work, department, or team that you believe your manager should be aware of, it's essential to provide feedback promptly. This allows your manager to address and resolve problems efficiently.
• After completing projects: At the end of a project or task, it's valuable to reflect on the experience and share feedback on what worked well and what could be improved for future projects.
• For personal growth and development: If you believe that offering feedback can help your manager's personal and professional development, share it in a supportive and constructive manner.
• When there's consistency in behavior: If you notice recurring patterns of behavior, whether positive or negative, it's beneficial to communicate this to your manager. Consistent feedback can help them reinforce positive behaviors or address recurring issues.
• Amid positive or negative change: During times of organizational change, such as restructuring, expansion, or downsizing, feedback can provide valuable insights into how these changes are affecting the team and what can be done to navigate them effectively.
• To express gratitude: Don't hesitate to express your appreciation and gratitude to your manager when they have been supportive, and understanding, or when you've experienced positive leadership .
• With diplomacy and sensitivity: Always choose an appropriate time and place to give feedback. Be diplomatic, and empathetic, and use "I" statements to express your thoughts without sounding accusatory.

In all these situations, the key is to provide feedback constructively, focusing on the issue at hand rather than making it personal. Effective feedback helps foster a culture of continuous improvement and strengthens the working relationship between employees and their managers.

How to send feedback to managers in the first place?

Sending feedback to your manager for the first time can be intimidating, but it's a crucial skill. Here are five creative steps to help you provide feedback effectively:

Choose the right moment

Find an appropriate time when your manager is available and do not rush. It's essential to create a comfortable atmosphere for this conversation.

Frame your feedback positively

Start with a positive note. Express your appreciation for their leadership and mention what you admire about their management style. This sets the stage for constructive feedback.

Be specific and provide examples

Rather than making vague statements, use specific examples to illustrate your points. If you're discussing an issue, describe the situation, your observations, and the impact it had.

Offer solutions

Don't just point out problems; suggest potential solutions. This shows that you're not only identifying issues but also willing to collaborate to find ways to address them.

Focus on "I" statements

Use "I" statements to convey your feedback. For instance, say, "I noticed that," or "I felt that." This approach shifts the conversation from blaming to sharing your perspective.

Remember that the goal of giving feedback is to help both you and your manager improve and foster a more productive working relationship. Be open to receiving feedback in return and maintain a constructive and respectful tone throughout the conversation.

Manager feedback best practices to follow

Effective manager feedback is a fundamental aspect of a healthy working environment. Managers who receive feedback are better equipped to make necessary improvements and create a positive workplace culture.

Here are seven creative and unique best practices for providing feedback to managers:

Choose the right setting for feedback

Find an appropriate time and place to give feedback. A one-on-one meeting or a private, informal setting works best. It ensures privacy, minimizes distractions, and allows for open communication.

Adopt a constructive approach

When giving feedback, focus on being constructive. Start with what the manager is doing well and acknowledge their strengths and achievements. This sets a positive tone for the conversation.

Use the "SBI" model

SBI stands for Situation, Behavior, and Impact. When offering feedback, describe the specific situation, the observed behavior, and the impact it had. This model provides clarity and helps the manager understand the context.

Encourage self-assessment

Instead of just delivering feedback, encourage managers to self-assess their performance. Ask questions that prompt reflection, such as "What do you think went well in that situation?" or "How do you think your team perceived your actions?"

Offer ongoing feedback

Don't save feedback for annual reviews. Frequent, timely feedback is more valuable. Share both positive feedback when you witness great performance and constructive feedback when there's room for improvement.

Highlight the impact on the team

When discussing areas for improvement, emphasize how changes can positively affect the team and overall productivity . Managers are more likely to embrace feedback when they see the potential benefits for their team.

Set clear goals and expectations

Provide managers with clear, actionable goals and expectations. Ambiguity can lead to misunderstandings and unmet expectations. When managers know what is expected of them, they can work towards meeting those goals.

Additionally, it's essential to remember that giving feedback to managers is a two-way street. They should feel comfortable offering feedback to their teams and superiors as well. This fosters a culture of open communication , where everyone can learn from each other and grow professionally.

Feedback is a valuable tool in the workplace, and these best practices can help managers and employees alike benefit from more productive interactions. When feedback is provided thoughtfully, constructively, and consistently, it contributes to a culture of continuous improvement and growth .

Types of feedback for manager

Feedback for managers plays a crucial role in personal and professional development . It helps them understand their strengths and weaknesses, fine-tune their management style, and lead more effectively.

There are several types of feedback for managers, each serving a unique purpose in fostering growth and improvement. Here are the key types of feedback they can receive:

Performance feedback

Performance feedback focuses on a manager's daily responsibilities and their ability to meet goals and targets. This type of feedback assesses how well they are executing their role, making decisions, and handling tasks. Performance feedback may include discussions on their time management, delegation, and work quality.

Behavioral feedback

Behavioral feedback addresses a manager's interpersonal skills, communication style, and interactions with their team. It often involves aspects like empathy, active listening, conflict resolution, and how well they motivate and inspire their team. Behavioral feedback is valuable for improving team dynamics and creating a positive work environment.

Developmental feedback

Developmental feedback aims to help managers enhance their skills and knowledge to meet future challenges. It focuses on their career growth and skill development. Managers receiving developmental feedback can explore opportunities for training, workshops, or mentorship to expand their expertise and readiness for new roles.

360-degree feedback

360-degree feedback gathers input from various sources, including peers, subordinates, and superiors. This well-rounded approach provides a comprehensive view of a manager's performance, as it incorporates multiple perspectives. It can reveal insights into a manager's effectiveness from different angles and help identify strengths and areas for improvement.

Crisis or corrective feedback

Crisis or corrective feedback is essential when a manager's actions or decisions have negatively impacted the team or the organization. It should address the immediate issue at hand and propose corrective actions to mitigate future damage. It can be challenging to deliver but is crucial for accountability and learning from mistakes.

Motivational feedback

Motivational feedback aims to inspire and uplift managers. It acknowledges their accomplishments, expresses gratitude for their dedication, and motivates them to continue performing at a high level. It helps boost morale , increase engagement, and maintain a positive work atmosphere.

Goal-oriented feedback

Goal-oriented feedback centers around a manager's progress toward their goals and objectives. It measures how effectively they are steering their team towards achieving these targets. This type of feedback is particularly helpful in ensuring alignment with the organization's strategic objectives.

Constructive feedback

Constructive feedback is crucial for identifying areas of improvement while maintaining a positive and encouraging tone. It should focus on specific behaviors or actions that need adjustment and provide actionable recommendations. The goal is to help the manager grow without demoralizing them.

Positive feedback

Positive feedback recognizes and appreciates a manager's achievements, strong leadership, and contributions to the organization. It fosters a sense of accomplishment, motivates the manager to excel further, and strengthens their commitment to the team and company.

Coaching feedback

Coaching feedback is a form of ongoing support that helps managers enhance their skills and reach their potential. It involves regular one-on-one sessions with a coach or mentor who provides guidance, advice, and developmental suggestions. Coaching feedback can be tailored to the manager's unique needs and aspirations.

Culture feedback

Culture feedback assesses how well a manager aligns with the organization's culture, values, and mission. It helps in maintaining a consistent culture across the organization and can involve discussions on integrity, ethics, and inclusivity.

Employee feedback

Feedback from team members can be invaluable for managers. It provides insights into how they are perceived by their subordinates and helps them adjust their approach based on the team's needs and preferences. Employee feedback i.e. upward feedback may also include insights into work-life balance , workload, and support required from the manager.

Customer feedback

In roles where managers have direct interactions with customers, feedback from clients can be a valuable source of insights. This type of feedback can provide managers with a customer-centric perspective, helping them improve relationships and customer satisfaction.

Feedback for managers is a multifaceted tool that helps them grow, excel in their roles, and positively influence their teams and organizations. Each type of feedback serves a unique purpose , and a combination of these feedback types can create a well-rounded approach to personal and professional development.

Effective feedback is a cornerstone of leadership development, enabling managers to adapt, learn, and continuously improve their skills.

Importance of manager feedback surveys

Manager feedback surveys are valuable tools for organizations seeking to enhance leadership, productivity, and employee satisfaction. These surveys play a pivotal role in creating a feedback-rich culture within an organization, ensuring that managers are effective and aligned with the company's goals.

Here's an exploration of the importance of manager feedback surveys:

Improvement of managerial skills

Manager feedback surveys provide managers with insights into their strengths and areas for improvement. By identifying these areas, managers can focus on enhancing their leadership skills and becoming more effective in their roles. This leads to better decision-making, increased team engagement , and improved performance.

Enhanced team productivity

Effective managers are instrumental in driving entire team productivity. When employees provide critical feedback about their managers , it can uncover pain points, areas of friction, and team dynamics that need attention. Managers can use this information to make the necessary adjustments, leading to higher team morale and productivity.

Employee engagement

Employee engagement is closely tied to effective leadership. Managers who receive feedback and act on it are more likely to create an engaging work environment. Engaged employees tend to be more committed, loyal, and motivated, resulting in improved overall performance and lower turnover rates.

Strengthening leadership competencies

Manager feedback surveys help organizations identify which leadership competencies need strengthening. This data enables targeted training and development programs , which can help managers gain a deeper understanding of their roles and responsibilities.

Alignment with organizational goals

Managers play a pivotal role in aligning their teams with the organization's goals. When managers receive feedback from their team members, it can highlight areas where alignment is lacking. This enables managers to make the necessary adjustments to ensure that everyone is working towards a common objective.

Recognition of high performers

Manager feedback surveys can recognize high-performing managers and their contributions to the organization. This recognition not only motivates the manager but also serves as an example for other team members, fostering a culture of excellence.

Early detection of issues

Timely feedback through surveys allows organizations to detect issues or conflicts within teams before they escalate. This proactive approach enables managers to address problems promptly, preventing potential disruptions and fostering a more harmonious work environment.

Career growth opportunities

Manager feedback surveys can help identify high-potential managers who exhibit strong leadership qualities. Recognizing and nurturing these individuals can lead to career growth and succession planning within the organization.

Customized feedback

Manager feedback surveys can be customized to suit the organization's specific needs and the competencies it values most. This tailored approach ensures that feedback is relevant and actionable.

Inclusivity and diversity

Feedback surveys can be designed to measure a manager's effectiveness in promoting inclusivity and diversity within their teams. This is vital in today's workplace, as organizations increasingly focus on creating diverse and equitable work environments.

Data-driven decision-making

Data from manager feedback surveys can be analyzed to identify trends, strengths, and areas for improvement across the management team. This data-driven approach allows organizations to make informed decisions about managerial development and succession planning.

Employee well-being

Managers significantly impact employee well-being. Through feedback surveys, organizations can ensure that their managers are providing the necessary support, guidance, and work-life balance for their teams.

Accountability and transparency

Manager feedback surveys promote accountability at all levels of the organization. Managers who receive feedback are held accountable for their actions, and this transparency fosters trust among team members.

22 Positive and negative feedback examples for managers to give in the workplace

Feedback is a crucial element of effective management. Managers must provide feedback that encourages growth and development while also addressing issues constructively.

Here are 22 examples of both positive and negative feedback that managers can give in the workplace:

Positive Feedback:

• Positive performance acknowledgment : "I appreciate your outstanding performance on the project. Your dedication and attention to detail have greatly contributed to our success."
• Team appreciation : "Your teamwork skills are impressive. You consistently support your colleagues and contribute to a positive team environment."
• Leadership recognition : "Your leadership in the recent client presentation was outstanding. You maintained control and guided the team with confidence."
• Innovative contributions : "Your innovative ideas for process improvement have significantly enhanced our workflow. Keep up the creativity."
• Adaptability praise : "Your ability to adapt to changing circumstances and manage stress is commendable. It sets a great example for the team."
• Problem-solving skills : "Your approach to problem-solving is excellent. You've shown an exceptional ability to resolve complex issues efficiently."
• Customer satisfaction : "Our customers often praise your excellent service. Your commitment to customer satisfaction is exemplary."
• Meeting deadlines : "Your consistent ability to meet tight deadlines is remarkable. It's a valuable asset to our team."
• Quality assurance : "Your attention to quality assurance ensures our products meet the highest standards. Your dedication is appreciated."
• Communication skills : "Your communication skills are exceptional. You explain complex ideas clearly, which helps our team work more cohesively."
• Initiative and proactiveness : "I noticed your initiative in identifying areas for improvement. Your proactive approach is admirable."

Negative Feedback:

• Constructive critique : "While your ideas are strong, sometimes they can come across as dominating discussions. Try to involve others more."
• Incomplete work addressed : "I've noticed that some of your recent reports have had incomplete sections. Let's ensure all aspects are covered."
• Tardiness concern : "Lately, you've been arriving late for meetings. Punctuality is essential, and I'd like to see improvement in this area."
• Feedback about micromanagement : "I've received feedback from the team about micromanagement. Trust your team more to handle their tasks."
• Team collaboration feedback : "You have the knowledge; now let's work on your teamwork skills. Collaborating more effectively is key."
• Communication improvement : "Your emails sometimes lack clarity, leading to misunderstandings. Take more time to compose effective messages."
• Expectation clarification : "It's crucial to have clearly defined expectations. Let's work on setting more specific goals for your projects."
• Handling stress feedback : "Managing stress is challenging, but it's vital to avoid outbursts at work. Consider stress management techniques."
• Conflict resolution discussion : "Handling conflicts constructively is essential. Avoiding confrontations and working on conflict resolution is key."
• Time management concern : "I've noticed that your time management could be more efficient. Prioritize tasks and minimize distractions."

Remember that when delivering negative feedback, it's essential to do so constructively, focusing on areas for improvement rather than criticism. Positive feedback should be specific and acknowledge accomplishments. Ultimately, both positive and negative feedback should contribute to an employee's growth and development.

feedback is the cornerstone of productive workplace relationships and continuous improvement. Managers play a pivotal role in fostering growth and development within their teams.

By providing constructive feedback that acknowledges achievements and addresses areas for improvement, they contribute to a healthier work environment and the professional development of their employees.

Santhosh is a Jr. Product Marketer with 2+ years of experience. He loves to travel solo (though he doesn’t label them as vacations, they are) to explore, meet people, and learn new stories.

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One-on-one meetings, also known as individual meetings, are dedicated conversations between a manager or team leader and individual team members. They provide a private and focused space for discussing various topics, addressing concerns, giving feedback, and fostering a good working relationship.

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16 constructive feedback examples — and tips for how to use them

Understand Yourself Better:

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Giving constructive feedback is nerve-wracking for many people. But feedback is also necessary for thriving in the workplace. 

It helps people flex and grow into new skills, capabilities, and roles. It creates more positive and productive relationships between employees. And it helps to reach goals and drive business value.

But feedback is a two-way street. More often than not, it’s likely every employee will have to give constructive feedback in their careers. That’s why it’s helpful to have constructive feedback examples to leverage for the right situation. 

We know employees want feedback. But one study found that people want feedback if they’re on the receiving end . In fact, in every case, participants rated their desire for feedback higher as the receiver. While the fear of feedback is very real, it’s important to not shy away from constructive feedback opportunities. After all, it could be the difference between a flailing and thriving team. 

If you’re trying to overcome your fear of providing feedback, we’ve compiled a list of 16 constructive feedback examples for you to use. We’ll also share some best practices on how to give effective feedback . 

What is constructive feedback? 

When you hear the word feedback, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? What feelings do you have associated with feedback? Oftentimes, feedback conversations are anxiety-ridden because it’s assumed to be negative feedback. Unfortunately, feedback has this binary stigma, it’s either good or bad.

But in reality, there are plenty of types of feedback leveraged in both personal and professional relationships. They don’t all fall into one camp or the other. And each type of feedback is serving a purpose to ultimately better an individual, team, or work environment. 

For example, positive feedback can be used to reinforce desired behaviors or big accomplishments. Real-time feedback is reserved for those “in the moment” situations. Like if I’ve made a mistake or a typo in a blog, I’d want my teammates to give me real-time feedback . 

However, constructive feedback is its own ball game. 

What is constructive feedback?

Constructive feedback is a supportive way to improve areas of opportunity for an individual person, team, relationship, or environment. In many ways, constructive feedback is a combination of constructive criticism paired with coaching skills. 

16 constructive feedback examples to use 

To truly invest in building a feedback culture , your employees need to feel comfortable giving feedback. After all, organizations are people, which means we’re all human. We make mistakes but we’re all capable of growth and development. And most importantly, everyone everywhere should be able to live with more purpose, clarity, and passion. 

But we won’t unlock everyone’s full potential unless your people are comfortable giving feedback. Some employee feedback might be easier to give than others, like ways to improve a presentation. 

But sometimes, constructive feedback can be tricky, like managing conflict between team members or addressing negative behavior. As any leader will tell you, it’s critical to address negative behaviors and redirect them to positive outcomes. Letting toxic behavior go unchecked can lead to issues with employee engagement , company culture, and overall, your business’s bottom line. 

Regardless of where on the feedback spectrum your organization falls, having concrete examples will help set up your people for success. Let’s talk through some examples of constructive feedback. For any of these themes, it’s always good to have specific examples handy to help reinforce the feedback you’re giving. We’ll also give some sample scenarios of when these phrases might be most impactful and appropriate. 

Constructive feedback examples about communication skills  

An employee speaks over others and interrupts in team meetings.

“I’ve noticed you can cut off team members or interrupt others. You share plenty of good ideas and do good work. To share some communication feedback , I’d love to see how you can support others in voicing their own ideas in our team meetings.” 

An employee who doesn’t speak up or share ideas in team meetings.

“I’ve noticed that you don’t often share ideas in big meetings. But in our one-on-one meetings , you come up with plenty of meaningful and creative ideas to help solve problems. What can I do to help make you more comfortable speaking up in front of the team?” 

An employee who is brutally honest and blunt.

“Last week, I noticed you told a teammate that their work wasn’t useful to you. It might be true that their work isn’t contributing to your work, but there’s other work being spread across the team that will help us reach our organizational goals. I’d love to work with you on ways to improve your communication skills to help build your feedback skills, too. Would you be interested in pursuing some professional development opportunities?”  

An employee who has trouble building rapport because of poor communication skills in customer and prospect meetings.

“I’ve noticed you dive right into the presentation with our customer and prospect meetings. To build a relationship and rapport, it’s good to make sure we’re getting to know everyone as people. Why don’t you try learning more about their work, priorities, and life outside of the office in our next meeting?” 

Constructive feedback examples about collaboration 

An employee who doesn’t hold to their commitments on group or team projects.

“I noticed I asked you for a deliverable on this key project by the end of last week. I still haven’t received this deliverable and wanted to follow up. If a deadline doesn’t work well with your bandwidth, would you be able to check in with me? I’d love to get a good idea of what you can commit to without overloading your workload.”  

An employee who likes to gatekeep or protect their work, which hurts productivity and teamwork .

“Our teams have been working together on this cross-functional project for a couple of months. But yesterday, we learned that your team came across a roadblock last month that hasn’t been resolved. I’d love to be a partner to you if you hit any issues in reaching our goals. Would you be willing to share your project plan or help provide some more visibility into your team’s work? I think it would help us with problem-solving and preventing problems down the line.” 

An employee who dominates a cross-functional project and doesn’t often accept new ways of doing things.

“I’ve noticed that two team members have voiced ideas that you have shut down. In the spirit of giving honest feedback, it feels like ideas or new solutions to problems aren’t welcome. Is there a way we could explore some of these ideas? I think it would help to show that we’re team players and want to encourage everyone’s contributions to this project.” 

Constructive feedback examples about time management 

An employee who is always late to morning meetings or one-on-ones.

“I’ve noticed that you’re often late to our morning meetings with the rest of the team. Sometimes, you’re late to our one-on-ones, too. Is there a way I can help you with building better time management skills ? Sometimes, the tardiness can come off like you don’t care about the meeting or the person you’re meeting with, which I know you don’t mean.” 

A direct report who struggles to meet deadlines.

“Thanks for letting me know you’re running behind schedule and need an extension. I’ve noticed this is the third time you’ve asked for an extension in the past two weeks. In our next one-on-one, can you come up with a list of projects and the amount of time that you’re spending on each project? I wonder if we can see how you’re managing your time and identify efficiencies.” 

An employee who continuously misses team meetings.

“I’ve noticed you haven’t been present at the last few team meetings. I wanted to check in to see how things are going. What do you have on your plate right now? I’m concerned you’re missing critical information that can help you in your role and your career.” 

Constructive feedback examples about boundaries 

A manager who expects the entire team to work on weekends.

“I’ve noticed you send us emails and project plans over the weekends. I put in a lot of hard work during the week, and won’t be able to answer your emails until the work week starts again. It’s important that I maintain my work-life balance to be able to perform my best.” 

An employee who delegates work to other team members.

“I’ve noticed you’ve delegated some aspects of this project that fall into your scope of work. I have a full plate with my responsibilities in XYZ right now. But if you need assistance, it might be worth bringing up your workload to our manager.” 

A direct report who is stressed about employee performance but is at risk of burning out.

“I know we have performance reviews coming up and I’ve noticed an increase in working hours for you. I hope you know that I recognize your work ethic but it’s important that you prioritize your work-life balance, too. We don’t want you to burn out.”  

Constructive feedback examples about managing 

A leader who is struggling with team members working together well in group settings.

“I’ve noticed your team’s scores on our employee engagement surveys. It seems like they don’t collaborate well or work well in group settings, given their feedback. Let’s work on building some leadership skills to help build trust within your team.” 

A leader who is struggling to engage their remote team.

“In my last skip-levels with your team, I heard some feedback about the lack of connections . It sounds like some of your team members feel isolated, especially in this remote environment. Let’s work on ways we can put some virtual team-building activities together.” 

A leader who is micromanaging , damaging employee morale.

“In the last employee engagement pulse survey, I took a look at the leadership feedback. It sounds like some of your employees feel that you micromanage them, which can damage trust and employee engagement. In our next one-on-one, let’s talk through some projects that you can step back from and delegate to one of your direct reports. We want to make sure employees on your team feel ownership and autonomy over their work.” 

8 tips for providing constructive feedback 

Asking for and receiving feedback isn’t an easy task. 

But as we know, more people would prefer to receive feedback than give it. If giving constructive feedback feels daunting, we’ve rounded up eight tips to help ease your nerves. These best practices can help make sure you’re nailing your feedback delivery for optimal results, too.

Be clear and direct (without being brutally honest). Make sure you’re clear, concise, and direct. Dancing around the topic isn’t helpful for you or the person you’re giving feedback to. 

Provide specific examples. Get really specific and cite recent examples. If you’re vague and high-level, the employee might not connect feedback with their actions.

Set goals for the behavior you’d like to see changed. If there’s a behavior that’s consistent, try setting a goal with your employee. For example, let’s say a team member dominates the conversation in team meetings. Could you set a goal for how many times they encourage other team members to speak and share their ideas? 

Give time and space for clarifying questions. Constructive feedback can be hard to hear. It can also take some time to process. Make sure you give the person the time and space for questions and follow-up. 

Know when to give feedback in person versus written communication. Some constructive feedback simply shouldn’t be put in an email or a Slack message. Know the right communication forum to deliver your feedback.   

Check-in. Make an intentional effort to check in with the person on how they’re doing in the respective area of feedback. For example, let’s say you’ve given a teammate feedback on their presentation skills . Follow up on how they’ve invested in building their public speaking skills . Ask if you can help them practice before a big meeting or presentation. 

Ask for feedback in return. Feedback can feel hierarchical and top-down sometimes. Make sure that you open the door to gather feedback in return from your employees. 

Start giving effective constructive feedback 

Meaningful feedback can be the difference between a flailing and thriving team. To create a feedback culture in your organization, constructive feedback is a necessary ingredient. 

Think about the role of coaching to help build feedback muscles with your employees. With access to virtual coaching , you can make sure your employees are set up for success. BetterUp can help your workforce reach its full potential.

Madeline Miles

Madeline is a writer, communicator, and storyteller who is passionate about using words to help drive positive change. She holds a bachelor's in English Creative Writing and Communication Studies and lives in Denver, Colorado. In her spare time, she's usually somewhere outside (preferably in the mountains) — and enjoys poetry and fiction.

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Are you receptive to feedback follow this step-by-step guide, should you use the feedback sandwich 7 pros and cons, how to give constructive feedback as a manager, handle feedback like a boss and make it work for you, why coworker feedback is so important and 5 ways to give it, how to give and take constructive criticism, how to get feedback from your employees, how to give positive comments to your boss, similar articles, 17 positive feedback examples to develop a winning team, how to give negative feedback to a manager, with examples, trying to find your calling these 16 tips will get you started, how to embrace constructive conflict, how to empower your team through feedback, 25 performance review questions (and how to use them), how to give kudos at work. try these 5 examples to show appreciation, stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..

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8 Examples of Constructive Feedback With Sample Scenarios

Being a manager in the 21st century is not at all a child's play. The work culture now demands the managers to lead the workforce by adopting multiple roles as a motivator, a mentor , and a leader all at the same time. And one of the most important aspects of these roles is the ability and the will to deliver constructive feedback to the employees.

Feedbacks are an integral part of ensuring an efficient work culture. Frequently giving positive feedback not only impacts employee morale but also acts as a guide for them. Further, it sets the performance standard expected from the teams.

However, delivering constructive feedback is not as smooth as a hot knife through butter. There's a fragile line that separates feedback from criticism, and this is where most managers mess up.

The tone of delivering the feedback and the words you use may sometimes make your feedback sound more like a criticism which negatively affects the professional relationship . Furthermore, the majority of feedback is gathered through surveys, such as pulse surveys or one question surveys , making it critical to make the questions truly meaningful.

That's why to help you deliver the best constructive feedback to your employees, I present to you a few feedback samples with their relating scenarios.

But before beginning with the same, here are some of the essential points that you need to keep in mind while conveying constructive feedback to your employees.

Steps to Frame a Constructive Feedback

1. state your observation.

Feedbacks are totally based on your observations as a professional. Deciphering these observations based on your managerial skills will further allow you to give precise and well-feedback. Also, when you state your observations clearly to the receiver, it uplifts your persona as a mentor whom everyone can look up to. Thus, building confidence and camaraderie with your employees.

2. Pinpoint the Areas for Betterment

The thin line that lies between criticism and constructive feedback is defined with this very point. The main motive behind conveying constructive feedback is to help others realize the scope of betterment complemented with a bit of advice or a suggestion.

Read more: 5 Useful Tips On How To Give Constructive Criticism

3. Keeping Up an Appreciative Tone

Always ensure that you maintain a respectful tone in your voice while conveying constructive feedback. The meaning behind the input is further amplified with the way you say them. Thus, your employees are more likely to pay attention and take your feedback positively when you deliver the same with an appreciative tone.

4. Understand their Concerns

Everyone has their own unique way of looking into things and problem-solving capabilities. And in this case, your employees are no different. Even they might have a different opinion about the assigned task. Therefore, you should always leave some space between your feedback for your employees to express their views.

Related: 9 Powerful Tips For Conducting Successful One on One Meetings

Scenarios With Examples of Constructive Feedback

Scenario #1.

A hardworking employee but he or she is frequently late for office

The Feedback -

"Hi (Employee Name), I was going through everyone's performance report from the last few months, and I must say you have done a great job. Also, I feel that you could achieve more every day by coming early, and that way, you'll also be able to maintain a sound work-life balance ."

Scenario #2

Bella has constantly been missing her project deadlines due to some jargons in her personal life

Positive employee feedback would be like this -

"While taking a score of everyone's progress, I came to realize that your numbers aren't matching up. Is there something that's bothering you about getting your work done as per schedule?

Also, I got to know from your team members that you put a lot of effort into your work, and I sincerely appreciate it. However, we all work in a competitive environment where the only thing that matters is being fast-paced in your personal and professional endeavors. And going with the professional part, I would suggest you keep up with your end dates which will benefit both you and your team to stay ahead in the game."

Scenario #3

Travis keeps up with his great performance when working alone but he avoids being a team player

A Constructive performance review would be-

"I respect people who have the caliber to solve problems alone and move ahead. They learn from their experiences, and I guess you're one such person Travis.

However, I must also emphasize that everyone requires help at some point in time. It may be either you or someone else who might be needing an extra hand. And that is the perfect moment when you should exhibit your capabilities and help others out by sharing your knowledge. Also, at the same time, you can observe how others do their work and learn a few more things.

So, I would suggest you actively take part in team-based projects and help your team excel with your capabilities added to it."

Scenario #4

Ruby makes up as one of the great team members in terms of performance but struggles with her communication skills

An encouraging feedback here would be-

"I have heard many compliments about your work and I would like to appreciate you for the same. However, I noticed that you tend to remain silent most of the time even during your team meetings . I must say that I'm concerned with this observation of mine and would like to know if you're facing any difficulties out here.

My only advice here for you is to keep up your communication in whatever way you can. Even if you make mistakes, you should keep on trying, and also, we are all here to help you out."

Scenario #5

An employee who frequently remains absent without any prior notice

Subtle constructive feedback to reduce employee absenteeism would be-

"Since the past few days, I have been noticing that you are seldom present in the workplace. May I know if you're facing any problems that I can help you with?

I realize that every one of us has other responsibilities outside the workplace, but we should also treat our jobs equally. Also, you are missing out on a lot of information by being frequently out of work. I'm afraid that it might affect your overall performance, which I don't want to happen. And so, I would like to extend you my help in every way possible to help you overcome this issue."

Scenario #6

Max often ignores what his superiors say and makes silly mistakes while getting his job done

Constructive feedback here would be-

"As your manager, it's my job to keep everything and everyone organized in the workplace. Owning things is comparatively easier, but I have to rely on you guys to keep everyone on the same track to understand each other's concerns.

I respect the fact that everyone has their own way of doing things, but at the same time, I would like to ask you not to overlook any meaningful feedback that comes your way, especially from people who are more experienced. We convey our feedback to help you guys keep up the excellent job. Also, we like receiving feedback from our employees too.

Having said the same, I hope that you would respect my words and help me promote positive behavior in our organization."

Scenario #7

An employee has been struggling for the past few days with the assigned task

An example of constructive feedback for your employee here-

"These days, I noticed that you're staying late in the office. Would you like to tell me what it is that you're working on?

Being your manager, I like to see you all working hard to meet your goals. But I equally emphasize ensuring that you guys enjoy a sound work-life balance. That's the reason I called upon you to share a few goal-setting tricks which I believe would help you out."

Scenario #8

As a manager, you are required to give feedback on your employee’s performance.

Positive employee feedback here would be-

"I'm glad that we finally caught up, and as you already know, I wanted to talk to you regarding your performance. During our conversation, I might point out both the positive and negative traits regarding your performance. Here, I want you to embrace your positive qualities and learn from the negative feedback and improve the concerned issues.

Speaking about your performance (Give your honest reviews on it).

The penultimate reason I'm delivering this constructive feedback is that my employees feel confident about themselves. And going with the same I want to further strengthen the employee engagement efforts within our organization.”

Wrapping Up

These were some of the scenarios with their respective examples of constructive feedback. Giving feedback from time to time is a quintessential part of a manager's job role, which one must never ignore.

Further, if you have some more ideas or suggestions regarding examples of constructive feedback, please drop an email. We would love to hear your thoughts.

Working as a SEO Analyst and Content Marketer at Vantage Circle, Angshuman always stays curious and is passionate about learning new things. Got any question? Drop a mail at [email protected]

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How to give and receive feedback effectively

Georgia hardavella.

1 Dept of Respiratory Medicine, King’s College Hospital, London, UK

2 Dept of Respiratory Medicine and Allergy, King’s College London, London, UK

Ane Aamli-Gaagnat

3 Dept of Clinical Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

4 Faculty of Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, UK

Ilona Rousalova

5 1st Dept of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Care, 1st Medical School and General University Hospital, Charles University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

Katherina B. Sreter

6 Dept of Clinical Immunology, Pulmonology and Rheumatology, University Hospital Centre “Sestre Milosrdnice”, Zagreb, Croatia

In most European countries, feedback is embedded in education, training and daily professional activities. It is a valuable tool for indicating whether things are going in the right direction or whether redirection is required. In the world of healthcare professionals, it is intended to provide doctors with information about their practice through the eyes of their peers. Feedback is a valuable tool for doctors to gather information, consolidate their awareness of strengths and areas to improve, and aims to support effective behaviour. Doctors of all levels may be approached by peers or juniors to give feedback, or they may ask others to give feedback on their own performance.

Short abstract

Giving and receiving effective feedback are skills that are central in healthcare settings http://ow.ly/zZ1C30eVrH1

Feedback is the breakfast of champions . Ken Blanchard

Feedback is the fuel that drives improved performance . Eric Parsloe

Giving and receiving feedback is not an easy task and poses significant challenges for both sides. In this article, we will discuss pragmatic feedback models, how to overcome barriers to an effective feedback and tips for giving effective feedback, as well as how to receive feedback and make the most out of it.

Types of feedback

• Informal feedback is the most frequent form. It is provided on a day-to-day basis, and is given on any aspect of a doctor’s professional performance and conduct, by any member of the multidisciplinary team. It is usually in verbal form.
• Formal feedback comes as part of a structured assessment; it can be offered by any member of the multidisciplinary team, but most frequently by peers or superiors. It is usually in written form.
• Formative feedback, “for learning”, is about a learner’s progress at a particular time through a course or during the acquisition of a new skill. It provides opportunities to gain feedback, reflect and redirect effort (where appropriate) before completing a final assessment. It gives you the experience of writing or performing a task without it having a direct impact on your formal progress and relies on continuous encouragement.
• Summative feedback, “of learning”, measures performance, often against a standard, and comes with a mark/grade and feedback to explain your mark. It can be used to rank or judge individuals

For the purpose of this article, we will focus on formal and informal feedback.

Why is feedback important?

As a general rule, it seems that learners value feedback more when it is given by someone they respect as a role model. Appropriate feedback contributes significantly in developing learners’ competence and confidence at all stages of their professional careers; it helps them think about the gap between actual and desired performance, and identify ways to narrow the gap and improve. For health professionals in particular, it promotes reflective and experiential learning ,which involves “training on the job”, and reflecting on experiences, incidents and feelings. More importantly, feedback aims to develop performance to a higher level by dealing with underperformance in a constructive way.

If we do not give feedback, this will come with a cost. The learner can assume that everything is fine and will continue practicing in the same way. This leads into a false assessment of their own skills and abilities, and builds up a false perception.

Who gives feedback?

In professional life, your patients and anyone working with you as a member of the multidisciplinary team can give you feedback. Feedback in these cases is meant to be given reciprocally, i.e. you will also need to give feedback to your peers. We have listed the most common sources of feedback in figure 1 .

Sources of feedback.

Educational or clinical supervisors

Your educational or clinical supervisor can be a major source of feedback. They are meant to act as your mentor, monitor your clinical and educational progress, and ensure you receive appropriate career guidance and planning. Educational or clinical supervisors do not formally exist in all respiratory medicine training programmes across Europe and this role may be informally undertaken ad hoc by the clinical lead of the department, a supervising consultant or a PhD/MSc supervisor. Regardless of the role allocation, feedback is integral to the process, and should cover clinical and academic practice, professional conduct, complaints and/or serious incidents that should be discussed in a reflective, nonjudgmental manner to allow improvement and personal development. Should this occur in a structured and organised manner with a delegated supervisor, it will be helpful for the learner.

As previously stated, the feedback process should be reciprocal. Departmental trainee feedback is essential to monitor and improve the quality of specialty training. Trainees’ feedback must be used with other sources of information to review and improve the training programmes and posts. Obtaining this type of feedback can sometimes be challenging as it may be biased by the fear of identification and labelling of trainees; therefore, in some countries, it is given anonymously. This feedback should also be an opportunity to raise concerns about patient safety or colleague bullying and undermining.

Peers and colleagues

People you work with as members of a multidisciplinary team are expected to provide their feedback in a constructive manner, being open and supportive. This multisource feedback aims to improve your own understanding of where things stand; it is a clear “reality check” and, at the same time, gives a clear direction of travel in terms of improving behaviours, attitudes and skills. If you have not received such feedback, ask for it.

Patients’ feedback provides valuable information about what patients and service users think about the healthcare services offered. Examining patients’ feedback will give a direct insight into what is working well and what needs further improvement in the way care is delivered. Furthermore, patient feedback to healthcare professionals is also important as it highlights examples of good practice where lessons can be learnt and areas of concern where improvements can be made. Measuring patients’ feedback and experiences of care/treatment highlights areas that need to improve to provide a patient-led healthcare service.

Feedback models

There are several different models of giving feedback. Not every model is applicable in all daily cases of providing feedback. Below we have listed some feedback models.

The “feedback sandwich”

The feedback sandwich starts and concludes with positive feedback, and what can be considered as the more critical feedback is “sandwiched” between the positive aspects. This can be applicable in everyday clinical practise. However, if you use this method continuously, it might lose its effectiveness. The person receiving our feedback will only wait for the “but” in the middle of your sentence. In this case, make sure to give positive feedback on its own when the opportunity arises. If your coworkers feel acknowledged daily, they will be more open to all kinds of feedback when applicable. A couple of examples of the feedback sandwich follow.

“You have done really well in the acute take; you prioritised cases efficiently and your management plans were well structured. I was thinking we could discuss a few things I believe you can further improve such as timely communication of messages to the nursing staff and emphasising the urgency of particular tasks. After completing your management plan in the medical notes, you can consider discussing verbally the urgency of some tasks with the nurse looking after the patient so that they are alerted and can proceed with them promptly rather than relying on them going back to read the medical notes, which can take longer due to the overwhelming emergency department. Additional verbal communication will complement the excellent quality of your work, will ensure your well-structured management plan is implemented in a timely manner for the patient’s benefit and will further improve your patient’s outcome.”

“I noticed you made the patient and relatives feel very comfortable while you explained the bronchoscopy test to them, and your explanation was very clear. It would have helped further if you had given them patient information leaflets, as at times they were looking a bit overwhelmed. However, you have set a time for meeting with them again, and this will give you the opportunity of answering any questions and giving the leaflets.”

“Chronological fashion” feedback

Chronological fashion feedback focuses on reflecting observations chronologically, reiterating the events that occurred during the session back to the learner. For instance, an observer can go through a learning session and give feedback from beginning to the end.

“The first thing you did really well when you entered the room was to introduce yourself to the patient. Then, you proceeded with physical examination without getting the patient’s consent for this and at that point, the patient looked distressed. It was after that when you explained what you would do and got their consent, and consequently, the patient was more relaxed during the rest of the physical examination.”

This is helpful for short feedback sessions but you can become bogged down in detail during long sessions.

Pendleton model

The Pendleton model was developed in 1984. It is more learner centred, conversation based and identifies an action plan or goals: “reflection for action”. The facilitator needs to check whether the learner wants and is ready for feedback. Then, the learner gives some background about what is being assessed and states what was done well. This aims to create a safe environment first by highlighting positives and consequently this prevents defensiveness. The facilitator then reinforces these positives and the learner suggests what could be improved. This is important, as weaknesses are dissected to offer opportunities for reflection. The facilitator advises how this could be improved and a mutually agreed action plan is formed. The main idea is to use open questions and give the learner the opportunity to think and reflect.

“What do you think went well?”

“What do you think could be done differently?”

“What could be further improved?”

“How can this be achieved?”

Barriers to effective feedback

Various factors can impact on effective feedback and act as barriers ( table 1 ). It is important to be able to identify and overcome them. Effective feedback is dependent on communication skills and as such, it is vital that the message intended by the sender is understood by the receiver in the same terms.

Generalised feedback that is not related to specific facts and does not give advice on how to improve behaviour

Generalised feedback is unhelpful and can be confusing. The person receiving feedback remains unclear about the actual purpose of the session and usually starts exploring hidden agendas that might have triggered the feedback. It disrupts professional relationships and causes unnecessary suspicion.

A lack of respect for the source of feedback

We all tend to accept feedback more from people we value. In the opposite case, it is advised that you ask another colleague that was present to provide informal feedback rather than doing it yourself as otherwise, this might impact on professional relationships and feedback will be ignored.

Fear of upsetting your colleague or damaging your professional relationship with them

The person giving feedback might be different from the recipient in terms of sex, age, hierarchy, and educational and cultural background. These factors may result in a demotivating feedback session. Therefore, feedback needs to be given in a supportive, empathic and relaxed manner, and on a background of a working relationship based on mutual respect.

The recipient of feedback being resistant or defensive when receiving it

Poor handling of situations in which the recipient is resistant or defensive can result in a dismissive approach; therefore, feedback will be disregarded.

Physical barriers

Giving feedback loudly in a noisy corridor, or in the presence of other colleagues or patients, is inappropriate. Such feedback loses its objectivity and the recipient may consider this as an insult that will impact their professional relationship with their peers and patients.

Language barrier or lack of knowledge regarding cultural diversity

Language and cultural barriers convey unclear messages and result in unclassified assumptions. It is important to confirm the message sent is the message that is actually received. All feedback sessions should be held in a respectful and supportive manner.

Personal agendas

Personal agendas should not influence feedback. As soon as you realise this is a possibility, it is best not to give feedback as this will be perceived by the recipient negatively. Personal reflection will identify the reasons behind this and will be crucial in improving this aspect.

Lacking confidence

A person given feedback who lacks confidence may exhibit shyness, difficulty in being assertive, or lack of awareness of their own rights and opportunities.

Tips for and principles of giving effective feedback

When preparing to give feedback, think about what you would like to achieve. What do you want to highlight, what went well and where could there be some improvements? Table 2 summarises tips on giving feedback. Planning in advance is crucial to the process. Planning should encounter to whom you are giving feedback. There is no “one-size fits all” approach; feedback should be tailored to each individual and the corresponding situation. It is of vital importance that you reflect carefully about how you want to convey your message and focus on a couple of key points without overwhelming the learner. The learner might not be ready ( i.e. not receptive), which could have adverse effects. Therefore, think about how they will react to the feedback and what your response might be.

Tips on giving effective feedback

Generally, you will provide one-on-one feedback and you must make sure to give it privately. Offering public feedback will only be perceived as a criticism by the learner and overall it may have detrimental effects on departmental relationships. The learner may feel insulted and undermined whereas their self-confidence will also be affected as they feel this may result in losing their colleagues’ respect. On some occasions, it is possible to give group feedback but then you need to restrict your feedback to the group as a whole without singling out individuals.

It is best to ensure that feedback is given in a timely manner, i.e. as soon after the event as possible, and most organisations will have a regular feedback scheduled (weekly or monthly). However, should the situation mandate it, you can schedule an ad hoc session. Feedback and reflection work best when the memory is still fresh. When feedback is given with great delay ( i.e. months after the incident), then its objectivity will be debated.

In preparing for the feedback, think of specific situations and, if you want to highlight some negative actions, potential alternatives. Do not bring up past actions unless you wish to underscore a certain behaviour or pattern. Also, focus on tasks, actions and objective events rather than personality traits, which tend to be more subjective.

When giving feedback, start off gently trying to implement one of the feedback models mentioned above. For example, you could ask the learner how they think things went. This will give you insight into their experience and enables you to assess how well they can judge their actions, behaviour or performance. Encourage self-reflection as this will allow the learner to be mindful of their actions or behaviour ( table 3 ). As a rule, start with the positive and then move on to negative events. Be very specific and give examples of certain actions or situations, and use “I” when giving feedback.

Open-ended questions for giving feedback that encourage self-reflection

“When you said…, I thought that you were…”

Moreover, link the feedback to the learner’s overall development and/or stated outcomes, which might provide an additional reason for being receptive to the feedback.

Finally, be aware of nonverbal clues, such as your facial expression, body language, posture, voice and eye contact. These might convey their own message, which could be in contrast with what you are trying to achieve.

• Emotions are deduced through facial expression. Thus, smile in the correct manner to express warmth and goodwill.
• Eye contact creates a feeling of connection but can also be too intense. Make eye contact without staring.
• The way we feel about different people effects the way we speak. The tone and the volume of your voice can give away how you feel. Try to match body language, how you use your voice and tone in a natural way.
• Avoid looking strict by keeping your arms crossed or like you don’t care by sitting slumped. An open posture gives the expression of an open conversation.
• Stressed situations make us breathe faster; when we are tired, it is easy to sigh more. Long breaths make us calmer and are likely to make people around us calmer. Try to take a few deep breaths before giving feedback.
• Smartphones and screens with emails, Facebook messages, recent meetings or phone calls: there are so many things to steal our attention and this can only be evident. The person in front of you will notice when you are looking at the screen, and you are less likely to hear and understand what they are saying. Focus your attention on the person in front of you when giving feedback and when you are listening. After giving the feedback, reflect on how it went. Did it go as you expected and how do think it was perceived by the learner? Sometimes, you can misjudge the delivery of your feedback but make sure you learn from this for the next time. Every learner is different and requires a different approach.

In the end, remember to summarise the session in a letter/e-mail and to follow up on what has been discussed. Feedback aims to improve performance and it is advised that time is given to the recipient of feedback to rectify behaviours, then proceed with a follow up session to measure whether or not that is happening, and then make adjustments as you go.

Receiving feedback

A learner-centred approach is often recommended to effectively receive feedback. This involves adopting an open-minded listening strategy, reflection and a willingness to improve one’s performance. The recipients of the feedback are asked to evaluate their own performance and assess how their actions impact others. This approach works best when the feedback is ongoing, regular, supportive, and originating from a wide range of reliable and valid external sources. When this is not the case, the learners may not have sufficient understanding to self-assess and correct behaviours that may hinder their development. However, when constructive feedback is used wisely, it can positively impact the learners’ personal and professional development.

It is very helpful to receive feedback from leaders/teachers in real time and firsthand. When the learner is unable to respond positively, however, this often inhibits the feedback providers from giving direct face-to-face, personalised feedback on a regular basis. Learners’ responses to criticism may present in negative ways ( i.e. anger, denial, blaming or rationalisation), particularly when they discount their own ability to take responsibility for their learning. It is important to view feedback as a means to reflect on strengths and weaknesses, and build on previously learned competencies. The result will be increased confidence and independence, while facilitating a stronger rapport with colleagues, other medical staff and patients.

In order for feedback to be effective, it has to be received well. How a recipient interprets and reacts to feedback is very important to the outcome of the teacher–learner relationship and future learning opportunities. Differing interpretations or uptakes of feedback may be based on a number of factors that include: personality, fear, confidence, context and individual reasoning processes. It is essential to develop an open dialogue between the person giving feedback and the recipient. Differences of opinion should be handled in a professional manner. Both parties should be comfortable, and able to focus on actively listening, engaging, reflecting and developing action points for future development. Effective communication is key to a successful feedback interaction.

Table 4 presents tips to the learner on receiving constructive feedback.

Tips for receiving feedback

Be a good listener

First, truly listen to what the feedback provider is saying, instead of immediately preparing a response, defence or attack. The feedback provider will feel more comfortable giving feedback if you are approachable and welcoming.

When in doubt, ask for clarification

If you did not hear it clearly the first time, politely ask for it to be repeated, then restate it in your own words. This will help you understand more about yourself and how others interpret your actions.

Embrace the feedback session as a learning opportunity

Assume that the feedback is constructive until proven otherwise, then consider and use those elements that are truly constructive. Thinking about your own actions in the context of the feedback provider’s comments is beneficial to making appropriate changes.

Remember to pause and think before responding

Your aim is to have a professional conversation that benefits you. Focus on understanding the feedback first, not on your immediate innate reaction. Reflection, and particularly self-reflection, is essential to feedback acceptance.

Avoid jumping to conclusions, and show that you are invested in the learning process and keen to improve

Ask for clarification and examples if statements are general, unclear or unsupported. It is important to validate the feedback by inviting details and specifics about the criticism. Assuming the feedback provider’s comments as reality, in the context of their perceptions and impressions, defuses your own negative feelings in the face of criticism.

Think positively and be open to helpful hints

You will get more out of the feedback session if you accept the comments positively (for consideration) rather than dismissively (for self-protection). You may disagree with the criticism if the facts are incorrect but this should be done in a graceful manner.

Learn from your mistakes and be motivated

Ask for suggestions of ways you might modify or change your behaviour. Do not be afraid to ask for advice on what and how to do differently. Seek to meet expectations and promptly address the undesired behaviours.

Be a good sport and show appreciation

Be respectful throughout the discussion and thank the person giving feedback. Being polite and appreciative will encourage future feedback.

Be proactive

Try out some of the suggestions, and make careful notes regarding any improvements and changes in behaviour. Following-up with the feedback provider enables the receiver to share how the feedback was helpful.

Giving and receiving effective feedback are skills that are central in healthcare settings. The whole process is closely linked with professional development and improved performance. Both of these impact the quality of healthcare services and patient satisfaction. Feedback should be constructive by focusing on behaviours that can be improved. Developing robust professional relationships is a prerequisite for giving/receiving constructive feedback that will act as a powerful motivator.

Conflict of interest None declared.

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Embedding feedback, evaluation, and dialogue in a module

Dr Alecia Carter, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, on various ways to encourage iterative feedback and a feedforward approach into teaching.

13 March 2024

MediaCentral Widget Placeholder https://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Player/cIIg175c

Watch the video on MediaCentral . Download the transcript [Word] .

Only got a minute? Jump straight to Alecia's top tip .

Students’ learning improves most when they integrate feedback through formative exercises. I have embraced this approach in my modules, providing not only my own feedback, but giving students the skills and tools to feedback constructively on their peers’ work.  

There are many ways to incorporate a feedforward approach in teaching, ranging from small pre-tutorial investment to large investment, and I outline a few here.  

Help students to understand marking

A highly useful feed-forward strategy asks students to use the marking rubric to mark example coursework in a group (Baker & Zuvela, 2013). In this task, students read the marking rubric and example coursework ahead of a tutorial, before working in small groups to mark an example in the tutorial. Students then report back to explain why they’ve awarded the particular grade, with reference to the marking rubric, and to offer what improvements could be made to increase the proposal’s grade. This activity starts to develop skills in providing feedback and direction in how to avoid the same ‘mistakes’ in their own coursework. 

Encourage students to share ideas early

Feedback doesn’t have to be on an entire draft, and early feedback can be more useful. For example, I ask students to provide the title and research question for their coursework, submitted on Moodle. My aim is to encourage the students to start their research early in the term and do initial reading about their subject(s) of interest to develop their understanding of the content. I provide written feedback on all submissions through Moodle, pointing students to resources they might find helpful and common pitfalls for particular topics.  

Peer feedback

Formal peer feedback can come through a peer assessment activity organised through Moodle (Moodle has a Peer Assessment Tool built in). Peer assessment is a task that successfully engages students and improves their own performance through both providing and receiving feedback (Huisman et al. 2019). This activity also stays small: students write and submit a 200-word abstract of their coursework and then provide feedback on two other (anonymised) students’ submissions. Students’ responses to this task are always positive, and the feedback that I get is that this is the task is the most useful feedforward activity of the module. 

Speak to students

Feedback doesn’t have to be written, and quick, targeted oral feedback can be useful. Tutorials can be used as coursework triage sessions, to address students’ queries about their research and coursework direction. Students are particularly grateful for this kind of quick, specific input closer to the submission deadline. 

Remember that these ideas are not exhaustive, and other approaches may work better for different types of coursework. And they don’t have to be implemented all at once! Start small and use your experience to feed forward into your own teaching practice. 

Alecia's top tip

Start small and start early.

Providing a few sentences of personalised feedback on a tentative coursework title / idea for an essay argument in the first half of term gets students thinking about their coursework early, gives them time to integrate the feedback, and empowers students to direct their own learning.  

Baker, D.J. and Zuvela, D., 2013. Feedforward strategies in the first-year experience of online and distributed learning environments. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(6), pp.687-697. 

Huisman, B., Saab, N., van den Broek, P. and van Driel, J., 2019. The impact of formative peer feedback on higher education students’ academic writing: a Meta-Analysis. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(6), pp.863-880. 

Alecia Carter, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology: 

This feedforward approach has been incredibly rewarding—it’s the conversations with students where we think through their ideas and they see new possibilities that I have loved.”   

Anonymous student, in end-of-term Mentimeter feedback:  

I really like the feedback forum, and especially that both professors respond so quickly and in detail - I have definitely had more feedback in this module than others which has been super helpful.”  

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Tesco 360 degree feedback case study

Created a 360 feedback programme to fit Tesco’s culture

Simple 360 reports to inform personal development plans

Embed new leadership skills to realise a new vision

Faced with a changing retail landscape, Tesco conducted a review of their business, leading to a new strategy and business priorities. One aim was to foster a warmer culture where colleagues feel listened to and inspired by their manager. 360 degree feedback is a first step for managers to understand their strengths and development needs.

Create a 360 feedback programme that best fits Tesco’s culture

Tesco asked us to create an intuitive 360 degree feedback programme. We designed questions that replicate the same language used by Tesco internally, using a conversational style.

The 360 feedback system we devised enables quick completion with users guided through every step. Reports too are designed to be equally user-friendly.

Look and feel is also important for Tesco as Jon Sale, Group Head of Talent at Tesco, explains:

“We needed the 360 tool to feel the same as the other materials our people were already using in relation to the key leadership skills. Everything at Tesco should be simple and we wanted this to be too – quick to use, simple to complete, ensuring our colleagues would ‘get it’ – and more importantly, want to use it.”

“Also, the introduction of a summary report gives our 360 participants a really quick and accessible overview of their results. They’ve found it particularly insightful to see their strengths, development areas and perception gaps in one place.”

A simple 360 report to inform personal development plans

Tesco is a great example of how to maximise the benefit of a 360 programme. They use the 360 tool to serve a number of different people programmes. Senior managers and directors participate in 360 feedback as a precursor to the ‘Leaders at Tesco’ training programme. This highlights strengths and development needs versus the new leadership skills. Results then help shape personal development plans. 360 is also proving to be an effective tool for other job levels too. This includes high-potential employees for whom it is helping highlight development needs and inform career conversations. With 360 degree feedback being well established, another identified opportunity is to encourage the use of 360 during the performance review process. The “Inspiring Great Performance” programme aims to re-frame performance management, with an emphasis on constructive, honest conversations. It focuses not only on what an individual has achieved, but equally how they have achieved it. Using the 360 tool as a key measure of the “how” has been a natural evolution.‍‍

Business Impact

Case studies.

Creating a multi-purpose feedback platform for Nationwide

Developing managers and leaders at Gatehouse Bank

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If you’re trying to build stronger relationships with your employees, this episode is for you.

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Some leaders spend their careers honing their relationships with employees. But Harvard Business School professor Boris Groysberg and corporate communications expert Michael Slind argue that leaders are at their best when they simply talk with their teams.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to be more intentional about your conversations with employees—to ensure that you’re cultivating appropriate intimacy, inviting meaningful interaction, and including everyone. You’ll also learn how to make your conversations open, but not aimless.

Key episode topics include: leadership, business communication, organizational culture, teams, relationship building, conversation.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

• Listen to the original HBR IdeaCast episode: How Effective Leaders Talk (and Listen) (2012)
• Find more episodes of HBR IdeaCast
• Discover 100 years of Harvard Business Review articles, case studies, podcasts, and more at HBR.org .

HANNAH BATES: Welcome to HBR on Leadership , case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, hand-selected to help you unlock the best in those around you. Some leaders spend their careers honing their relationships and approach with employees. But Harvard Business School professor Boris Groysberg and corporate communications expert Michael Slind argue that leaders are at their best when they engage their teams through a really simple approach: talking with them. In this episode, you’ll learn how to be more intentional about your conversations with employees – to ensure that you’re cultivating appropriate intimacy, inviting meaningful interaction,  . You’ll also learn how to make your conversations open but not aimless. Because conversation alone, without action, can be frustrating for everyone involved. If you’re trying to build stronger relationships with , this episode is for you. It originally aired on HBR IdeaCast in July 2012. Here it is.

JULIA KIRBY: Hello and welcome to the HBR IdeaCast . I’m Julia Kirby, and with me in the studio today are Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind. They are authors of the new book Talk, Inc. How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to Power Their Organizations. Gentlemen, thanks for joining us today.

BORIS GROYSBERG: Great to be here.

MICHAEL SLIND: Thanks for having us, Julia.

JULIA KIRBY: Well, congratulations on the book. It’s directed, obviously, at leaders of large organizations. It reflects a lot of wisdom from corporate communications executives. But it’s really about employee engagement, isn’t it?

BORIS GROYSBERG: So, the book actually focuses on employee engagement. And the reason why we focus on employee engagement is basically the higher the engagement of your employees, the better your performance is going to be. We started this project about four years ago, and what this book is all about is about an organization that is full of conversation. If you think about what organization is all about, it’s just basically a bunch of conversations that are happening at the same time. And what leaders do to facilitate the conversations that actually produce value, and actually engage employees, is that what distinguished some of the best corporations that we studied. So, if you think about what makes conversations among friends to be really productive is that it has all the attributes. It’s interactive. It’s intimate. It’s inclusive. It’s actually intentional. And if you think about it, when you place that conversation inside organizations, many of those great attributes actually disappear. So, the book is, how do you actually have productive conversations in an organization? And the reason why it’s actually more important now in the 21st century than before is that, if you think about what’s going on around us, we’re a knowledge-based economy. Our source of competitive advantage are actually people who are working for us, working for our corporation. And the more engaged they are, the more productive they’re going to be. So, I think having right conversations [INAUDIBLE] 21st century is more important than 20 or 25 years ago. I think the speed of change, how industries are changing, how products are changing, is much, much faster than it used to be. So, staying close to customers, staying close to your employees, that’s becoming more and more important. Many companies nowadays are global companies, so you actually have to not only engage employees here locally, but you have to engage them across the board. And so, communication, being able to be in touch with employees, is becoming more and more important.

JULIA KIRBY: That’s a great overview of the main themes of the book. You really quickly touched on four things that you say in the book are really the difference between what’s passed for communications in the traditional corporate setting and what really constitutes a conversation. Michael, do you want to go into those a little more deeply?

MICHAEL SLIND: Oh, sure. And I think a big point is we don’t use the word “conversation” just because it’s a clever change of phrasing. We really found that there is a direct analogy between how companies are trying to change the way they communicate and promote communication among their employees and ordinary personal conversation. So, we looked at what they were doing. We saw a map to basic attributes of person-to-person conversation. So, to review what Boris said, intimacy is really about getting closer to employees. It’s really an attribute of leadership. And that, again, maps to the quality of a good personal conversation, where people can get close together. Not just close spatially, although that’s a part of it. When you’re talking about big global companies, that’s an important dynamic. But also just close in spirit. Sort of avoiding that from on high, that corporate tone– I mean corporate in the worst sense of the word– approach. The second [INAUDIBLE] is interactivity. Obviously, in a real conversation, there’s back and forth. People are engaged in dialogue, and not just monologue. As, again, traditional corporate communication can degenerate into simple monologue. Inclusion is the third element that we noted in conversation. And it is being played out in organizational conversation. And that really goes beyond just going back and forth, to the sense that it’s an equal opportunity endeavor. Everyone is participating. And one the most striking innovations is companies that are promoting employee-generated content. This would be sort of a variation on user-generated content that you see out in the commercial web. And that is where employees are actually taking part in the conversation as full-fledged content providers and not just as passive consumers of the information. And the fourth one– and this is very important in that if you think about it, a real good conversation is open, but it’s not aimless. A real conversation, even if it’s just between two people, if it’s not just about small talk there’s an agenda there. We want to get something out of it. And I think that’s important. It’s important that when we talk about opening up a conversation, we’re not just trying to be loosey goosey, let’s just talk about this. This has to tie back to the strategy the company is pursuing. And just as in an ordinary personal conversation, you want to make sure you get something out of it. A really good organizational conversation is very strategically minded. It aims to tie back every aspect of communication to the fundamental competitive and strategic objectives of the organization.

JULIA KIRBY: Got it. So if I get a memo in my mailbox, that could be called a communication. But in order for me to really feel like I’m part of a conversation, there needs to be this intimate setting, interactivity, inclusiveness, and intentionality. So, we love stories at IdeaCast . Let’s get into your favorite story in the book. What is it?

MICHAEL SLIND: Well, in the book we talk a lot of different companies, and we talk about several at chapter length. One of them is EMC Corporation, the world’s largest data storage company, located in Hopkinton, Mass. And they have really become exemplars of all the four I’s, as we call them, the four attributes of organizational conversation. But in particular, they’ve come to be a very inclusive company. And let me tell you a few things that they’re doing on that front. They are sponsoring employee blogs. And it was not just letting employees, but actually under the aegis of the whole company, they’re letting employees become thought leaders in their field as individual bloggers. So that’s an area in which they’re actually including employees. Not relying on their corporate communication department to do all the messaging, but letting ordinary employees do it. One of, I think, our very favorite stories in the whole book is how at a grassroots level, a group of women at the company decide they want to tell the story of what it’s like to be a working mother at EMC. So they actually, from the ground up, got buy-in from a senior executive to give them a little bit of funding, a little bit of support. But they basically did it all themselves. They created a book, and it was called The Working Mother Experience. And it told, I forget the exact number, something like 96 or 97 stories. Mostly it was women. There was one father in there who contributed as well. And I think the key thing is, again, any number of companies might be doing a diversity and inclusion campaign. But it would be top-down. Here was a case where the employees were actually leading the conversation.

JULIA KIRBY: OK. So that’s a great example of inclusiveness. Is there another story that you want to share, Boris, that would hit on one of the other I’s?

BORIS GROYSBERG: Let me give you a story about intimacy, which is another I. And I think the story comes from Jim Rogers, who was at that time CEO of Synergy, an energy company. And actually, Jim had developed quite a reputation of communicating with employees. He was one of the CEOs in the industry who actually developed strategy maps, which is the way you explain what the strategy of the company is to front-line employees. But one of the things that we mention in the book is the listening sessions that Jim Rogers implemented in the company. And he was a constant communicator. And on one of his trips, he was actually in front of about 60 to 70 people. And he was talking about the past, the present, the future, where the company was going. And during that process, he also asked a number of employees for feedback. And then he realized he actually wants to be rated and graded as a CEO. So he asked employees to give him a grade. It was an A, B, C, D, or an F. And as Jim described it, in the moment when he was waiting for the results to appear on the screen, his heart was just going faster and faster. And a number of people gave him an A. I think a number of people gave him a B. There were a few C’s. And so on. But he actually went a step further. And he said look, not only grade me as a CEO. But tell me what can I do better. And he got from employees basically some challenges that the company was facing at that time. And he grouped them in a number of categories. And one was about execution, another was about communication, and so on. And he was able to take those challenges and actually put together an action plan to address those challenges going forward. So that is one of the ways that he was able to build up trust and basically create this sense of intimacy. And many years after, those employees talked about that moment. The moment the distance between the CEO and the people in the room were minimal. And people were feeling like they were on the same boat.

JULIA KIRBY: It’s a great story. At the same time, it feels so risky. It seems like there must be a lot of risks that come with this new era that you’re describing, the more conversation-rich environment. Because he actually then had to do something with what he was hearing from people.

BORIS GROYSBERG: Right. And I think that the followup is really, really important. And when she talks about it, once you get those challenges from people– and what he did is actually he basically communicated with everybody and said look, here are the seven things that you want me to work on. And by the way, I will work on them. What employees would expect are the actions. Because if there’s a number of leaders who actually run sessions like this, employees come up with suggestions and then somebody actually takes them, put it in a bucket. And nobody does anything about it. The time when it really works is when you bring up those challenges and you generate [? that type ?] of conversations, you actually act on them. So, one of the things he was actually doing the next two years is acting on many of those challenges. And I think that’s important. If you don’t act, it’s a significant risk. It actually can create a lot more distance and probably a lot less trust. So asking for it, hearing what people have to say, and acting on it. That’s what generates [INAUDIBLE].

JULIA KIRBY: Michael, any other risks that people should be aware of as they have true conversations in the organization?

MICHAEL SLIND: Well, sure. One way of looking at that is to consider that in the book we’re positing this model that we call organizational conversation as a replacement, so to speak, of the traditional corporate communication function. And if you think about that, as it developed over the course of the last century, corporate communication was a control function. It was about being on message and making sure that there was a very specific set of things that were being said under the company sponsorship, so to speak. And go back to the case of EMC. As they opened up both their internal social network and also opened up possibly the employees speaking outside the company as EMC representatives, they had to really think about well, how do we control this? And it is a real risk. They thought a lot about it. They had a lot of meetings. And at the end of the day, they decided to not put too many controls on it. They were fully facing the risk. But what they found– I would not say this would always be the case, but we talked to a number of companies that found that the risks are less onerous than you might think. In that people tend to police themselves, for the obvious reasons. They’re professionals. And also, people police one another. People take pride in their company. And if someone is speaking out of turn on a social network or on a discussion board, other people will come and call them on it. You don’t need to have someone from corporate communications saying you can’t do this. Or here are the bullet points or the talking points that you have to say if you’re going to be speaking for EMC, for example.

JULIA KIRBY: You have a couple great examples in the book of conversations around values. In some places, they’re called having a values jam. Or kind of creating the mission statement for the organization. It seemed to me like that was a great way of making those things seem less, I don’t know, Dilbert-ish or what have you. Do you want to talk about those at all?

MICHAEL SLIND: I think one of the early chapters in the book, we talk at length about– and I want to make a point that in the book we don’t just talk about American companies. We found a very interesting company in India, the third-largest energy supplier in India, called Hindustan Petroleum. It is a company that, back in the ’70s, was nationalized. And it had a long heritage of both being a traditional industrial company and being a public company. And having all the stodgy top-down bureaucracy that would go with both those traits.In the 1990s, when the company faced an opening of its markets and [INAUDIBLE] change, one of the first things they did– one of the big things that they did– was involve in a broad cross-section of many thousands of employees in a whole series of what they called vision workshops. And they actually came in a kind of bottom-up, crowd-sourced way, they created a vision statement and a mission and value statement. And I think that the executives we spoke with the company really believed that, two things. One, it was actually better. There were things that the employees brought up that the top management, the top strategic thinkers in the company, weren’t necessarily thinking of that ended up actually being in those final mission and value statements. And then secondly, it may people more engaged in the whole process. It made it so it was real and not something that was being handed to them from on high.

JULIA KIRBY: I just think that’s a great example of a type of exercise that could be really an eye-roll provoker and ends up really producing that kind of energy that you say is fueled in an organization by great conversations.

BORIS GROYSBERG: And I think what’s amazing as we have been conducting interviews– and we’ve done interviews all the way from senior managers in this company to people who actually have to operate gas stations– that the amount of buy-in that front-line workers actually felt in creating their mission. I mean, they truly felt that that’s their company. It was the only company, when the whole sector was on strike, it was the only company when the employees themselves decided that they will not go on strike and will continue to serve customers. So, if you look at engagement, if you look at the level of innovation that actually happens in companies, bottom-up innovation, to actually the level of commitment. That company was able to tap into that front-line worker’s potential.

JULIA KIRBY: So, Boris, Michael, it’s all we have time for. I wish we could talk longer. Congratulations again on the book. And thanks for coming.

BORIS GROYSBERG: Thank you.

MICHAEL SLIND: Thank you.

HANNAH BATES: You just heard Harvard Business School professor Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind, Chief Marketing Officer at the Fistula Foundation in conversation with Julia Kirby on the HBR IdeaCast . They’re the authors of the book Talk, Inc.: How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to Power Their Organizations . We’ll be back next Wednesday with another hand-picked conversation about leadership from the Harvard Business Review. If you found this episode helpful, share it with your friends and colleagues, and follow our show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. While you’re there, be sure to leave us a review. We’re a production of the Harvard Business Review. If you want more podcasts, articles, case studies, books, and videos like this, find it all at HBR.org. This episode was produced by Anne Saini and me, Hannah Bates. Ian Fox is our editor. Music by Coma Media. Special thanks to Adam Buchholz, Rob Eckhardt, Maureen Hoch, Adi Ignatius, Karen Player, Ramsey Khabbaz, Nicole Smith, Anne Bartholomew, and you – our listener. See you next week.

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• Published: 13 March 2024

Descriptive feedback with targeted education to improve telephonic escalation of care: a simulation-based study

• Aster Kuriakose 1 ,
• Subodhini Puhambugoda Arachchige 1 ,
• Theophilus I Emeto 2 ,
• Matthew I Hiskens 3 &
• Gopakumar Hariharan 1  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  281 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

21 Accesses

Metrics details

Awareness of communication failures in healthcare has necessitated the implementation of standardized, validated handover tools such as Identification, Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation (ISBAR). Although educational sessions improve communication, the effectiveness of individualized care escalation communication training is unknown. The primary aim was to conduct a simulation-based study to assess individualized one-on-one communication training for junior medical doctors for improving care escalation in pediatric emergencies. The secondary aim was to assess the evaluation of the training.

The prospective observational study assessed participants pre- and post-intervention. In Session One, participants presented a written case scenario telephonically to two senior pediatricians. Fifty participants were scored using an 18-item checklist based on the ISBAR tool and “free text” responses. Immediately following case presentations, participants completed individualized one-on-one 30-minute educational sessions regarding self-reflection, didactic teaching, and constructive feedback based on the ISBAR. Session Two included a second case presentation and reassessment. We conducted qualitative analysis of supervisor’s feedback on performance and trainee doctor’s evaluation of the training.

There was significant improvement in 8 of the 18 components of the ISBAR checklist. All elements of care escalation were significantly improved, and overall communication was higher post-intervention ( P < 0.001 ); however, no improvement was noted in participants’ explorations of differential diagnoses ( P = 0.263 ). The qualitative analysis identified themes of improved urgency in seeking senior support and conversational clarity from supervisors, and improved intervention quality and self-confidence from participants.

Conclusions

Individualized communication training may improve pediatric emergency care escalation and communication among junior doctors.

Peer Review reports

Early recognition of patient deterioration and prompt responses by adequately trained medical personnel are fundamental to preventing adverse pediatric outcomes [ 1 ]. Australian hospitals have implemented system-level interventions, including universal observation charts, electronic medical records, and patient deterioration guidelines, to support nurses in recognizing pediatric patients’ deterioration [ 2 ]. Junior medical doctors are often the first responders to deterioration notification; however, they may lack experience in deterioration management, and most adverse outcomes are caused by missing or misinterpreted patient information. Thus, junior doctors require supervision in acute settings to prevent adverse incidents [ 3 ].

Communication failures are frequent causes of adverse events in a pediatric care [ 4 , 5 ]. Effective communication of the patient’s condition is often lacking among team members, and the transfer of information frequently falls short in conveying clinical information or goals [ 6 ]. Currently, junior medical doctors in Australia receive a group orientation session followed by sporadic training at work. They do not receive targeted, individualized feedback sessions before entering the clinical environment, and there is no existing system in place for the early identification of poor performers.

The use of standardized handover instruments improves the transfer of information between clinicians and improves patient outcomes [ 7 ]. One of the most well-studied and well-utilised instruments is the ISBAR (Introduction, Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation), which is endorsed by the World Health Organisation and based on the SBAR. In Australia, medical personnel are encouraged to use the ISBAR with all handovers [ 2 , 8 , 9 ]. However, providing an ISBAR form to trainees without formal educational sessions on using the tool does not ensure their competency in communicating critical information [ 8 ]. Previous interventional studies focused on group and individual didactic educational sessions using communication tools and reported mixed outcomes [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. Thus, empirical evidence remains limited concerning the most effective method of teaching appropriate communication tools to allow effective escalation of care. A constructivist approach, including applying knowledge, skills, and behaviors to novel situations, is required to develop the complex skill of synthesizing critical information in a wide variety of scenarios.

Simulation is a valuable educational modality, offering an approach for exploring complex and less common medical scenarios, as well as the dynamic interactions among medical personnel in these situations, all without compromising patient safety [ 13 ]. These studies reveal a prevalent issue of suboptimal communication, including the dissemination of erroneous information, during medical emergencies. The findings underscore the critical need for enhancing communication training in healthcare settings. Moreover, the efficacy of medical simulation extends beyond crisis scenarios, demonstrating its utility in diverse situations for performance training and evaluation.

To the best of our knowledge, no existing study has combined an individual didactic session with an individualized constructive feedback session to improve an individual’s communication regarding escalation of care. Therefore, the primary aim of this simulation-based study was to assess the influence of an individualized communication training session (a one-on-one didactic session based on the ISBAR communication technique followed by individualized constructive feedback on participant’s performance) on the improvement in the escalation of care in simulated pediatric emergencies. We hypothesize that individualized training sessions will improve completion of elements of the ISBAR, improve the conversation duration, and improve the global rating score achieved by participants. The secondary study aim was to assess the trainees evaluation of the utility of training.

Materials and methods

The prospective mixed-method pre-post interventional study was conducted over six months (September 2019–February 2020) at Mackay Base Hospital, a regional teaching hospital in Queensland, Australia. Participants included medical students and junior medical officers, including first-year hospital medical officers, second- or third-year post-graduate residents, fourth-year and higher post-graduate principal house officers, and registrars (doctors in an accredited training program). All eligible doctors meeting this criteria were invited to participate in the study, and all doctors invited consented to participate. Written informed consent to participate was obtained from the participants prior to commencement of the study. This study was approved by the Townsville University Hospital Human Ethics Research Committee (HREC/2019/QTHS/6007).

We conducted the research over two separate sessions to assess participants’ abilities to escalate care in a simulated pediatric emergency scenario before and after the intervention (Fig.  1 ). Three common pediatric emergency scenarios were chosen for assessment: an 18-month-old child with sepsis, a 5-year-old child with severe respiratory distress, and a 20-month-old child with suspected non-accidental injury (see the Supplementary Table 1 for full details of the scenarios). In all three scenarios, patients exhibited a period with stable vital signs followed by a sudden deterioration. These detailed, unstructured written scenarios were reviewed and approved for complexity by two pediatric consultants.

Flow diagram detailing the study method

Each assessment was undertaken by the lead author and one of two pediatric consultants who were randomly assigned to either the first or the second case presentation and were blinded to the intervention status of the participant. To ensure inter-rater reliability the lead author and pediatric consultants undertook a training session on the use of the assessment tool and referred to a standardized check list to direct their ratings. To maintain confidentiality, the participants were deidentified using code names for communications with assessing pediatric consultants.

In Session One, participants selected at random one of the three written case scenarios from an envelope. The participant studied the scenario for up to 10 min and presented it telephonically to a pediatric consultant located in a remote location while the lead author was in the room with the participant. The phone conversation was on speaker so that the lead author could hear the entire conversation. The pediatric consultant and lead author utilized an 18-item score sheet to identify the presence or absence of each component of the ISBAR tool (Table  1 ), record the duration of the conversation, and provide a global rating score. This ISBAR checklist was the main outcome variable of the study. The overall communication was rated using a 5-point global rating scale (Table  2 ). The feedback form completed by the pediatric consultants also included “free text” response options. The evaluation tool was adapted from a previous study, in which it was formally used for final-year medical students’ end-of-year assessments [ 11 ]. The assessment was performed in real time as the information was being presented via telephone. The consultants were allowed to ask open-ended clarifying questions during the assessment.

Immediately following the case presentation, all participants completed an individualized one-on-one educational session with the lead author, including self-reflection, didactic teaching, and constructive feedback based on the standardized communication tool, over a 30-minute period. During the educational session the lead author used both sets of scoring sheets to inform teaching content. During this session participants were informed of the items they did not complete, the duration of the telephone conversation, and their global rating scale.

In Session Two, participants selected at random from an envelope one of the two remaining scenarios. The participant then undertook a second case presentation and assessment in a similar format, between 24 h to two weeks after Session One. The duration varied between the two sessions to accommodate the logistics of all participants completing their study during the rostered work hours. Participants completed a Likert-type feedback form with “free text” options at the end of Session Two (Fig.  2 ). In addition to the scoring tools, we undertook qualitative analysis of the pediatric consultants perceptions of the participant’s handover before and after the intervention, and the participant feedback on the training.

Likert scale responses to question 1–8

Data analysis

Quantitative data analysis.

Statistical analysis of the quantitative data was conducted using SPSS version 25.0 (IBM, Chicago, IL, USA) and R software version 3.6.2 (R Core Team, 2019). Categorical data are presented using frequencies and percentages; we analyzed numerical data using descriptive statistics (mean or median values). The differences between pre- and post-intervention scores for each item of the ISBAR checklist and the duration of conversation were analyzed using the McNemar’s test. The Global rating scale was assessed using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. All statistical tests were two-tailed; 95% confidence intervals were reported, and P  < 0.05 was considered significant.

Qualitative data analysis

Qualitative data were analyzed with NVivo 12 (QSR International Pty Ltd. Vic, Australia), which was used to analyze codes and track themes from the pediatric consultants’ and participants’ free-text responses. For this purpose, the conventional content analysis approach [ 14 ] was adopted to analyse the qualitative data. The content analysis is appropriate for analysing semi-structured interviews and attempts to elicit participants’ views on their lived experiences [ 15 ]. The data was analysed by AK and TE following [ 16 ] four-stage thematic analysis: (i) decontextualization, (ii) recontextualization, (iii) categorization, and (iv) compilation. First the decontextualization of the data was done through reading of the text and breaking the text into meaningful units and groups. The second state, recontextualization was achieved through re-reading the original text alongside the final list of meaning units, reviewing, and identifying unrelated texts, and excluding them from the analysis. In the third stage, categorization of the units was done to derived themes and sub-themes from the data. These themes were discussed between the lead author and pediatric consultants until consensus was reached and were later shared with the entire research team for discussions and approval to represent the meanings they conveyed in the data. Finally, the themes were compiled and verbatim quotes were used to represent participants experiences in the main report (Bengtsson, 2016).

The study participants included 50 junior medical officers (eight medical students, 31 residents, eight registrars, and three principal house officers), including 33 (66%) female doctors and 17 (34%) male doctors. A total of 19 (38%) participants had worked in a general pediatric inpatient unit within the last year, and nine (18%) had over five years of professional experience.

Post-intervention, significant improvement was noted in eight of the 18 components of the ISBAR checklist, as summarized in Table  3 . The ‘identification’ component of ISBAR was the only domain where no components improved following individualized communication training, reflecting that participants performed well pre- and post-intervention in all eight components of this domain.

We also did not see any significant improvement in participants’ abilities to explore differential diagnoses ( P  = 0.263). Notably, most participants performed poorly both pre- and post-intervention in this area. However, pediatric trainees were more likely to present differential diagnoses since five of the six of them presented good overall communication and were able to provide differential diagnoses pre-intervention.

Escalation of care involves four components of the ISBAR that were significantly improved post-intervention– states if the call was urgent ( P < 0.001 ); states relevant vital signs ( P = 0.03 ); states if deteriorating or stable ( P = 0.004 ); and asks for help or advice clearly ( P  < 0.001). Further analysis showed that this improvement was associated with improvement in overall communication as measured by the global rating scale (Fig.  3 , P  < 0.001).

Comparison of pre- and post-intervention global communication scores: Good (score 4 or 5), Fair (score 3), Poor (score 0–2)

Participant feedback suggested overall improvement in self-confidence when presenting post-intervention with the ISBAR format (Fig.  2 ). In addition, most of the participants (98%) reported that individualized communication training was a valuable experience (Fig.  2 ). Overall, 34 (68%) participants strongly agreed that the intervention improved their communication skills (Fig.  2 ).

A total of 13 pre-intervention and 14 post-intervention pediatric consultant feedback forms and 32 participant feedback forms were returned without any free text response. Using data from the remaining 73 and 18 responses, respectively, authors identified thematic categories for each stage. The post-intervention main themes were [ 1 ] “improved urgency for assistance from senior doctors” and [ 2 ] ”conversational clarity”.

The two major themes from the participants’ descriptions were [ 1 ] intervention quality (e.g., “I think it is helpful for people starting up. A video presentation of a clinical scenario may be something to look at in the future to make the scenario closer to reality”), and [ 2 ] confidence (e.g., “I feel more confident presenting to a consultant with the ISBAR format”).

Our study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of individualized one-on-one communication training for junior medical doctors in the context of pediatric emergencies. Our findings reveal substantial improvements in several components of the ISBAR checklist, enhancing overall communication during care escalation. These insights underscore the importance of tailored training in optimizing emergency communication.

Previous simulation-based studies have examined group and individual didactic training regarding communication tools among medical, nursing, pharmacy students, and junior medical doctors [ 10 , 11 , 12 ]. The outcomes of these studies indicate that training in the use of ISBAR is both feasible and effective. For example, Marshall and colleagues demonstrated that such training is likely to yield improvements in communication within the clinical environment, particularly among junior clinicians when making telephone referrals [ 11 ]. These findings underscore the potential impact of targeted educational interventions in enhancing communication skills among healthcare professionals. However, previous studies with junior medical doctors have reported mixed results regarding the best mode for providing communication skills education [ 10 , 11 , 12 ].

A randomized control study with interns by Cunningham et al. showed no improvement in telephonic transfer of critical data post-exposure to a 10-minute one-on-one didactic training session on SBAR [ 10 ]. It was hypothesized that telephone referral skills are influenced by a combination of factors, including problem recognition, feedback, and the availability of targeted skill teaching using SBAR or other communication strategies [ 10 ]. In this study, we combined a didactic communication training session with self-evaluation and feedback and found a positive effect on the transfer of critical data confirmed by significant improvement in eight out of 18 components of the ISBAR checklist. Despite some similarities between the two studies, it is important to note the significant differences in methodology and participant skill level between the previous study and the present study. The study by Cunningham and colleagues was limited to a 10-minute didactic educational intervention with an “emotion-centered” debriefing, not focused on clinical or performance issues. In contrast, the present study implemented a longer intervention (30 min) focused on self-evaluation and feedback regarding participants’ performance.

However, problem recognition, as identified in previous studies, is a skill that requires “higher-order thinking” and “experience” [ 10 , 18 ]. Our results demonstrated that, despite having a format to consider different possibilities for the clinical presentation, there was no statistical improvement in participants’ ability to state differential diagnoses. Participants with experience in pediatric presentations were more likely to suggest differential diagnoses and management options. Thus, it may be that junior medical doctors require more pediatric-focused simulations, real-life bedside teaching, and pediatric experience to present differential diagnoses. Theoretically, the diagnostic process improves the understanding of patient management and prognosis. Thus, improving care management for deteriorating patients requires critical data transfer; it also requires junior doctors to be able to clearly communicate their needs for urgent senior staff supervision.

The reasons for junior medical doctors’ failure to escalate their concerns about a deteriorating patient are often complex. Callaghan and colleagues undertook a previous integrative review of 33 articles exploring junior medical doctors’ skills in managing critically ill or deteriorating patients, indicating there is substantial room for improvement in junior medical doctors’ capacity to manage these situations [ 3 ]. Increased senior supervision and training in communication skills for junior medical doctors have been hypothesized as essential; thus, improving junior doctors’ ability to escalate care is important in managing deteriorating patients [ 3 ]. We found that the mean performance for escalation of care for both medical students and junior medical doctors were significantly higher in the simulated environment after the one-on-one individualized, constructive feedback communication training intervention. Future studies should determine if this result can be replicated in the clinical environment. Additional research is also needed to explore ways to support poor performers, such as with repeated interventions.

Additionally, communication is one of the most common “procedures” practiced in medicine [ 19 ], and conversational clarity when discussing a deteriorating pediatric patient is much more challenging without visual and nonverbal cues [ 20 ]. Our study identified individual areas in which the participants struggled, and support with focused assistance was effective in improving conversational clarity in a simulated setting. Moreover, we evaluated participants’ self-confidence post-intervention. Consistent with previous studies, our participants reported feeling more confident with referrals post-intervention [ 17 ].

Our study has several strengths. (1) Unlike previous one-on-one communication studies with brief didactic teaching, this study combined teaching with self-evaluation and individualized feedback. (2) This was a mixed-method study, which generated evidence regarding the effectiveness of the training. (3) The participant drop-out rate was zero. (4) The participants were deidentified, and the pediatric consultants were unaware of whether the participant was presenting pre- or post-intervention. (5) We recruited a sample of junior medical officers with diverse experience levels in terms of specialty and exposure to the Australian healthcare system.

Despite these strengths, our study had several limitations. The study comprised a heterogeneous group of junior medical doctors; thus, we could not obtain standardized baselines prior to the commencement of the study, and it was difficult to generalize the results to a specific year of training. Generalization is easier with a homogeneous population but recruiting a homogeneous population is difficult in practice because trainees come from different backgrounds and have different levels of training; some also possess overseas experience. The findings represent a single institution, and caution is needed when generalizing how they apply to other services. Although participants were deidentified, some of the junior doctors were well known to the pediatric consultants and likely identified via voice recognition. All participants attended two separate sessions, which were a minimum of 24 h and a maximum of two weeks apart. This limitation may be due to the time constraints and logistical constraints that also prevented us from conducting a longitudinal study with ongoing serial measurements to assess decay in retained knowledge.

Our study reported that individualized, targeted communication training (didactic with self-evaluation and feedback) for junior medical doctors was beneficial for improving pediatric escalation of care, overall communication, and junior medical doctors’ confidence level within a simulated environment. Thus, institutions should consider individualized communication training with targeted constructive feedback from senior medical officers to improve communication about the escalation of care.

Future studies should explore the use of this model with various training levels, examined separately, to assess the full benefits of the intervention and determine if positive findings are sustained over the longer term. Furthermore, studies should explore the impact of such targeted interventions on regular clinic work and their effects on reducing adverse clinical events.

Data availability

Data pertaining to the results of the study is available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr Stuart Marshall for approving the use of the ISBAR Assessment tools and statisticians Jayakumar Parameswaran Pillai and Farah Zahir for supporting us with analysis of the data. We would also like to acknowledge paediatricians Dr Clara Menezes, Dr Olwen Gilbert, and Dr Jacinta Tobin as well as junior doctors Dr Noemi Lie (resident) and Dr Gabriella Sarah (resident) for their advice on research methodology and assistance with data collection respectively.

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Aster Kuriakose, Subodhini Puhambugoda Arachchige & Gopakumar Hariharan

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Contributions

G.H. conceived the study and developed study methodology. A.K. conducted the investigation and drafted the manuscript. S.P.A., T.I.E. and M.I.H. revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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This study was approved by the Townsville University Hospital Human Ethics Research Committee (HREC/2019/QTHS/6007). Informed consent to participate was taken from all participants participating in the study.

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Informed consent to publish was taken from all participants in the study under the approval of the Townsville University Hospital Human Ethics Research Committee.

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Kuriakose, A., Arachchige, S.P., Emeto, T.I. et al. Descriptive feedback with targeted education to improve telephonic escalation of care: a simulation-based study. BMC Med Educ 24 , 281 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05260-1

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05260-1

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Case study: what happened when we took a break at Slack

We ran an experiment encouraging employees to take a daily break—and discovered a simple way to boost productivity, engagement, and connection

Author: Eliza Sarasohn March 13th, 2024

Making time for breaks during the workday improves employee productivity and wellbeing. And yet, research from Slack’s Workforce Index , a survey of more than 10K desk workers around the globe, shows that 50% of global desk workers do not take breaks throughout the workday.

The data shows that workers who regularly take breaks have 13% higher productivity throughout the day. They also have 62% higher scores for work-life balance, 43% greater ability to manage work-related stress, and 43% higher scores for overall satisfaction. On the flip side, workers who don’t take breaks are 1.7x times more likely to experience burnout.

When Slack’s Workforce Lab surveyed Slack staff internally, we found the same issue present among Slack employees. As seen in the global population, half of all Slack employees were also not taking breaks during the workday. Furthermore, only two in five employees (38%) said they felt comfortable taking breaks.

“To be honest, we were pretty surprised,” says Christina Janzer, who leads the Workforce Lab at Slack. “I would think most of us at Slack would say we have a really supportive, trusting, and employee-centered culture. And yet even here, a majority of employees don’t feel comfortable taking a break. It just goes to show how ingrained and pervasive this problem is across the workforce.”

What we did: How to run a break-taking experiment

To encourage employees to embrace the benefits of downtime, the Workforce Lab issued an invitation to all Slack staff to participate in a two-week break-taking experiment.

Ultimately, more than 200 Slack staff signed on to participate. To start the experiment, participants joined a Slack channel called #workforce-lab-experiment-breaks. Joining the channel initiated a workflow that sent a starter survey to measure each participant’s baseline productivity and well-being.

For two weeks, participants received a daily prompt to take a break. They also completed a daily survey to track the number and type of breaks they took and to measure day-to-day changes in their productivity and well-being.

The experiment defined different types of breaks — “true breaks,” “errand breaks,” and “working breaks” — and laid out guardrails for how to participate.

In the Slack channel, participants were invited to interact — to share photos, ideas, and encouragement to take breaks. From day one, conversation flowed and channel engagement was high.

In addition, Slack leadership posted messages reassuring staff that break-taking was welcomed and encouraged.

What we learned: results of Slack’s break taking experiment

“We had a hunch people would enjoy this experiment,” says Chrissie Arnold, who leads Future of Work Programs for the Workforce Lab team. “But pretty much right away, it was clear from the energy and conversation in the channel that the benefits were going to go way beyond what we had expected. And once we got the final results back, the quantitative and qualitative feedback was off the charts!”

Break-taking by the numbers

• Many more people took breaks:  65% growth in number of people taking “true breaks” (from 48% to 78% of respondents)
• Comfort level with taking breaks increased significantly:  58% growth in number of people saying they were comfortable taking breaks (from 38% to 60% of respondents)
• Workplace experience scores rose dramatically: Productivity scores increased by 21%; Work-life balance scores increased by 73%; Ability to manage stress scores increased by 2.3x (230%); Ability to focus on work scores increased by 92%; Overall satisfaction at work scores increased 63%

While scores rose most among people who regularly took breaks, they also rose among less active break-takers. This indicated that participants experienced some benefit simply from joining in the experiment, even if they were not able to take daily breaks.

Participant feedback

Key takeaways from Slack’s break-taking experiment

–  The stigma around break-taking is deeply ingrained. There’s a reason that 50% of desk workers don’t take breaks. De-prioritizing downtime is a common and universal problem — even at companies with great work-life balance.

– Valuing downtime is not inherent. It’s a learned skill that must be continually reinforced.  Many desk-workers hold a misconception that breaks cut against work and do not understand that break-taking is a productivity multiplier. Helping people see the value of break-taking and making them feel safe to take breaks is a mindset change that requires continuous reinforcement.

– Leadership support is key.  Leaders must model and normalize healthy break-taking habits. Managers should be transparent with their teams about when they’re taking breaks, and regularly encourage their direct reports to take breaks. Updating your status with a break-taking emoji and message is a great start!

–  There’s no one size fits all – different teams will find it easier or harder to take breaks.  Some roles are more reactive and time-bound than others, and for those positions, it can feel nearly impossible to find the time to step away. For example, at Slack, the customer experience team is continually fielding in-bound customer support requests. This speaks to the value of setting Team Level Agreements to explicitly carve-out means for every person in every role to get a daily break.

–  Experimenting with making work better supercharges “weak ties” across a company.  The act of coming together to tackle a problem has attendant benefits that go beyond the problem itself. “One of the nicest outcomes of the break-taking experiment was that we all got to meet people across Slack that we wouldn’t have crossed paths with otherwise,” says Workforce Lab researcher Lucas Puente. “There was so much energy and excitement on the channel, and you could see that reflected in participants’ scores as well as the comments they shared — so much good vibes!”

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