How Performance Feedback Supports Retention

Emily Davis likes her job, and she’s willing to go above and beyond in her performance. She enjoys connecting with customers and collaborating with her co-workers, with whom she has good working relationships. She also appreciates the variety of tasks in her role, which keep her daily work interesting. 

Something is nagging at Emily though—She’s not sure if she’s doing a good job. She only has one performance review a year. Outside of that review, she doesn’t hear from her manager all that much. She wishes she could apply for a transfer because she likes the company, but she doesn’t really know what’s available or if she’d be qualified. Instead, she increasingly finds herself browsing LinkedIn job posts and imagining new possibilities. 

Emily Davis is not a real person, but if she were, she would share a lot in common with respondents to our Identifying Gaps in the Employee Experience survey. While they come from diverse backgrounds, organizations, and roles, a large majority of our respondents (86%) agreed with the statement: “I am willing to go above and beyond in my job performance.” Our respondents are also broadly satisfied with their co-worker and customer relationships and the variety of tasks in their role. 

Unfortunately, like Emily, one in every four respondents also said they do not receive regular or quality feedback related to their job performance. This lack of meaningful feedback means that they are often missing crucial components of the employee experience, like the ability to develop new skills and advance to new roles. After discussing what employees lose when they don’t get good feedback, we provide guidance for how you can close the gaps to minimize turnover risk for your employees.