Improve employee feedback conversations with the Pendleton Feedback Model
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Mismatched expectations between managers and employees can often be a cause of poor workplace performance. This is even more of a risk for frontline and deskless workers, who often lack face-to-face time with their managers; communication tends to suffer, and expectations remain opaque.
The good news? These misalignments can be easily fixed with some well-structured feedback conversations. There are several ways to optimise these conversations, and one of those is the Pendleton Feedback model.
Before diving in, it’s worth taking a look at what may be hindering managers and employees from sharing transparent and effective feedback with one another.
Barriers to effective feedback
You’ve likely been in a position where you needed to give employees feedback on their performance in the workplace. Although the process can be uncomfortable or tricky to approach at times, feedback conversations play a critical role for managers and HR leaders in understanding employee engagement, cultivating staff wellbeing, and creating a high-performance culture.
High quality, effective feedback can mean the difference between cultivating productive, satisfied, and fulfilled employees who trust your leadership — and struggling with disengaged employees who lack confidence and fail to meet performance expectations.
However, there are several roadblocks that can get in the way of effective and valuable feedback being shared between managers and employees — whether written or spoken. Here are some of the most common inhibitors:
Generalised feedback (not related to facts)
Lack of advice on how to improve behaviour
Lack of respect for the source of feedback
Fear of upsetting colleagues or damaging professional relationships
Lack of confidence
Defensive behaviour or resistance when receiving feedback
Physical barriers (i.e. improper time, place or space – a key consideration for frontline workers who are always on the go)
Under preparation (not showing up ready for the conversation)
Personal agendas (letting ego get in the way)
What is the Pendleton Feedback Model?
As a framework for structuring effective and meaningful conversations, the Pendleton Feedback Model helps break down the barriers to giving valuable feedback by encouraging self-reflection and proactive problem-solving.
Rather than forcing a robotic and scripted feedback session, this model advocates for human conversation that makes the employee feel heard and considered. It can be combined with other forms of employee check-ins and feedback forms to provide a holistic view of your employee’s wellbeing and performance.
How it works:
Step 1: The employee is invited to reflect on how they think their performance went, focusing on:
Firstly, what they think went well
Then, what they think could be improved
Step 2: Once the manager has listened to this, they then step in and address where:
They agree with the employee’s self-assessment
Then, most importantly, where they see any points of difference
The conversation structure for both sides might sound something like this:
“What do you think went well?”
“What do you think could be done differently?”
“What could be further improved?”
“How can this be achieved?”
What are the benefits?
The Pendleton Feedback Model is proven to be highly effective in helping employees and managers get the most out of their shared performance feedback by highlighting and reinforcing positive behaviours, asking what could have been done differently, and guiding discussions on how to meet expectations and develop skills. The framework was purpose-built for supporting balanced and constructive feedback conversations that:
Create a human conversation: Feedback is neither too personal nor impersonal; it’s simply sharing transparent, honest, and relatable information
Put the employee in the driver’s seat: The employee has the opportunity to reflect on their performance and then lead the discussion forward, covering their points first
Have the manager assume the position of coach: It places the manager in a support role that reinforces positive behaviours and helps to resolve issues
Help identify any mismatches of performance expectations between the employee and the leader: Participants get both sides of the story laid out clearly, whether that’s around underperformance or goal achieved
How to apply the model to your performance management process
One of the biggest challenges to giving good feedback is a lack of preparation. To remedy this, it’s wise to harness the power of HR software to structure the performance feedback experience from start to finish.
Humanforce HR, for example, contains the Performance Management solution. It’s designed to empower managers with the tools and insights they require to help their teams grow and improve. The Pendleton Feedback model can easily be built into the performance management forms, questionnaires, and self-reflection surveys that can be sent out to employees in the days prior to scheduled 1:1 check-ins. This not only gives the employee a chance to reflect on their performance in their own time but also allows the manager to receive that reflection and proactively prepare for a good conversation.
It’s then easy to fold this method into a continuous performance management process, whereby touchpoints with your employees are regular and feedback conversations can be scheduled around the time you send out employee self-reflections or other written performance assessment tasks.
Feedback and development are ongoing affairs
Nurturing engaged and content employees isn’t something that happens overnight. It’s an ongoing commitment that takes patience and diligence, especially for frontline managers and workers who lack adequate face-to-face time and may need to schedule time in between busy shifts to give and receive feedback. By understanding and applying the fundamentals of the Pendleton model — a human connection, trust, mentorship, and clarity of expectation — your organisation will begin to reap the rewards.
About Humanforce
Humanforce is the all-in-one platform for frontline and flexible workforces, offering a truly employee centred, intelligent and compliant human capital management (HCM) suite – without compromise. Founded in 2002, Humanforce has a 2300+ customer base and over half a million users worldwide. Today, we have offices across Australia, New Zealand, the US, and the UK.
Our vision is to make work easier and life better by focusing on the needs and fulfilment of frontline workers, and the efficiency and optimisation of businesses.
To learn more about how Humanforce’s solution can help automate people processes in your business, please contact us.