Regular & Precise Feedback: Gen Z Solutions 3
Every time I pass the young staff I manage in the corridor I am asked how I think they are doing, and what they could do better. I get emails from them too, directly, asking me the same kind of questions. If I answer them it appears to be taken as some form of invitation to keep asking (and asking). Why can’t our younger staff go with the same appraisal system we have for everyone else? They work! Don’t they?
Gen X manager
The desire for extensive, and apparently ‘instant’, feedback has come as a surprise to many managers.
The issue of feedback cuts both ways in any line management relationship. This article focuses on the form which goes from a manager of any generation to Gen Z direct report, and anything else which may come under the general heading of ‘appraisal’.
A common attitude from the older generations was that time with your manager on a one to one basis was something which should be strictly limited, and the less frequently it happened the better. The thought of being ‘called to your manager’s office’ was not an attractive one, and tended to mean bad news.
Appraisal, or ‘performance management’, systems have a bad name amongst many. It is often said that appraisal should be a ‘process rather than an event’ but reality may be different.
How can those from older generations best manage this relationship?
How can it be done in such a way that it works for their young direct reports too?
Here’s four aspects to consider
1. This is not about ego stroking
The fact that Gen Z expects more feedback about their performance than previous generations does not surprise me.
This should not be misinterpreted as a longing for public recognition. This is primarily about reassurance and guidance.
It is about a desire to do better, a demand for resources which help them get there and because doing good work is the right thing to do. Amongst Gen X leaders it often seems to be mistaken for narcissism, and a wish for people to be told how fantastic they are over and over again.
I imagine there are many employees from every age group who would be very happy to be endlessly reminded of their qualities, but for Gen Z this is not enough. Unless it is accompanied by detail on what comes next then positive feedback alone is not particularly useful.
Ultimately it is a pragmatic approach, and it comes from a good place. There is also an underpinning of apprehension, that if you are not getting feedback then there may be something wrong.
2. We live in an age of feedback
At any particular time an individual may have access to automated feedback from
Social media (number of connections/followers/friends, number of likes/hearts/comments)
Online learning (% progression through a course, test scores)
Health (steps, heart rate, calories, sleep quality/quantity)
The key is not just the quantity and range of metrics, it is that they are instantly available and often updated by the second. A personal life dashboard is not for me, but I am probably closer to it than I admit.
Professional life cannot work in the same way, or at least not healthily, and it is not attractive when it does. That is not to say the metrics are a bad thing, but quantitative data has its limits.
If a workplace is merely one long fulfilment centre then there will be limits to any recruitment and retention strategy. Values, ethos, culture all matter considerably to Gen Z, perhaps not least because they do not fit into a dashboard methodology.
Gen Z’s demands for feedback are not just work specific. They are part of a broader trend.
3. Instant Feedback
I am from a generation of teachers and school leaders who have done a lot to ingrain expectations around feedback into Gen Z.
For those of you who have not seen such a diagram before, or at least not applied in an educational context, this is the basis of a Personalised Learning Checklist or PLC.
This is the kind of feedback Generation Z has been used to getting in their school career. It is generated from a test of some form, most often an examination.
The diagram above is an excerpt from a spreadsheet which came into common use around 10 to 15 years ago. The Qs represent questions on an examination paper, for any subject, and how well each student performed on each one. This one has three colours, based on a traffic light methodology but I have seen (and been responsible for) more.
From this each student can have their own version which identifies priority areas for revision and practice. It is good feedback for teachers too, in that whatever the topic was for Q3 has clearly been taught well but there is much to do for Q9. It offers a much higher level of precision that being told you got 62% or a B.
In order for a student to become green in every question resources are made available to them, the planning for the sequence of lessons adapted and so on and so on. I have seen examples of students having access to a document with hyperlinked videos and practice questions for every topic where their score was less than 100%.
It is not just the precision available here, but the quantity. A set of 10 questions can form fewer than a third of a single examination paper for just one subject. The entire picture for a GCSE age (14-16) student could be several hundred questions or topics. This is one reason why the quality of examination results has gone up, and why grade boundaries are consistently moved up.
In summary, Gen Z is not just used to knowing how well they have performed but also a dialogue which runs something like
- Here are the question areas/topics where you need to improve.
- This is by how much.
- Here are sets of equivalent questions to practise with.
- Extra lessons have been put on for you at this time.
- Here are the URLs of the youtube videos.
- This is the electronic resource you can use which will give you automated feedback on the progress you have made.
- While you are here, this student perfor
This is not just about feedback, it is also about
a high level of precision so that the fastest possible rate of progress can be made from this point.
a swift turnaround so you can make a start (just one way in which expectations on teachers and workload in general have grown).
providing all necessary resources in one place without a student having to spend time looking.
It is not enough these days for an organisation, or a manager, just to say what went well or badly. Broad, hazy feedback is not enough, in the same way as broad, hazy appraisal objectives were never enough.
The key is to be precise.
Your feedback may not be as precise as they would like, and the follow up resources not as strong.
Ask your young employees about the standard they would like to see.
4. The value of synchronous communication
Managers of Gen Z may be surprised by these figures from the Society of Human Resource Management. It is pre-pandemic (2018) but nothing I have heard or read since indicates the general figures will have changed.
In response to the question ‘how do Gen Zs prefer to be communicated with’ the answers were
face to face 43%
phone 14%
text - 24%
email 11%
social media 8%
In short, there is a preference for synchronous communication, with face to face and phone outweighing the rest.
Note that this underestimates the true picture as non-synchronous modes of communication, text, email and social media, can also be used synchronously.
Video/virtual calls are not mentioned specifically, but again they are synchronous. Facetime was a big thing for Gen Z before the pandemic led to a proliferation of video calls.
The fact that non-synchronous communication may be more easily accessed and ubiquitous does not mean it is preferable. Synchronous communication offers a much greater level of authenticity and trust (the value of which is explained here).
It also offers Gen Z the opportunity to develop the same soft skills they know they need.
If you want them to learn from you, and vice versa, then do it live.
Remember that:
Gen Z is absolutely not immune to taking feedback and acting upon it. They may demand more of it than you feel is reasonable but it is your boundary to manage.
The challenge for organisations is to ensure feedback is sufficiently frequent, detailed, precise and with resources to facilitate improvement easily accessible.
Speaking at The Society of Local Council Clerks, Warwickshire
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