Learn the art of delivering effective feedback

As an HR and people leader, you know the importance of delivering timely, constructive feedback. But what you might not realise is that employee feedback isn’t just a performance tool: it can actually protect employee wellbeing, too.

In fact, research from Gallup shows that workplaces who provide fast, regular feedback are more agile, more motivated and more engaged. It makes sense considering feedback gives managers the opportunity to celebrate the success of their team and provide clear actions and next steps on how to improve.

Fostering a culture of meaningful feedback also helps organisations meet their obligations under Work Health Safety (WHS) regulations. Proactive, consistent feedback allows your workplace to reduce the risk of psychosocial harm to your people, tackling psychosocial hazards (like poor support, lack of role clarity and low job control) head-on.

Ready to roll-out better feedback practices that boost productivity, performance and psychological safety within your workplace? This article will give you the practical tools, strategies and frameworks to deliver timely, supportive feedback and create an improved culture of safety at work.

P.s. Did you miss our recent masterclass on the art of effective feedback? Following the success of her first masterclass, Build a high performing culture without the hustle, Shelley Johnson is back with new insights on how to give and receive feedback to help teams take their performance to the next level. Watch on demand now.

When we talk about good feedback, we’re talking about feedback that is timely, personalised and actionable. It’s constructive feedback that is focused, fair and clear. Not only does it capture what employees are currently doing well, but it looks ahead and motivates individuals to be their best, backed by the right support to get them there.

At an individual level, good feedback inspires your people to stay engaged and deliver their best work. When managers provide specific, balanced feedback, your people know exactly what action they need to take to improve. Healthy feedback helps make professional growth clear and attainable.

The stats are clear: employees are 3.6x more likely to be motivated to do outstanding work when they receive frequent feedback.

At an organisational level, good feedback boosts employee retention and improves company culture. With open lines of communication between managers and employees, individuals can see the link between their day-to-day work and the bigger picture of an organisation. This sense of purpose inspires engagement, drives loyalty and accelerates productivity across entire teams and departments.

Sonder tip: Poor support, lack of role clarity and inadequate rewards and recognitions are all recognised as psychosocial hazards under SafeWork Australia’s ‘Managing psychosocial hazards at work’ guidelines. With regular balanced feedback loops in place, your company can proactively prevent these hazards from impacting the health and wellbeing of your people. 

What happens when feedback doesn’t go to plan? If feedback is poor, inconsistent or contradictory it can erode trust and even trigger confusion, stress and interpersonal conflict within your team.

80% of people who have received negative feedback are either actively or passively looking for another job, according to Exploding Topics.

If your managers and leaders aren’t armed with the tools and frameworks to deliver good feedback, they might avoid giving feedback to your people or deliver vague, unhelpful feedback, both of which can unintentionally contribute to psychosocial harm.

But more feedback isn’t necessarily the answer. In fact, drowning employees in too much feedback can cause feedback fatigue, leading to a lack of motivation, defensiveness, cynicism and feelings of constant scrutiny and emotional drain.

Poor feedback and communication habits from managers (such as putting every task under the microscope and highlighting even the most minor mistakes) can cause employees to feel overwhelmed, resentful and psychologically unsafe at work.

If left unchecked, this can have wide-reaching organisational consequences—from a rise in turnover to poor employee retention.

75% of disengaged workers say poor relationships with management contribute to their lack of engagement, Exploding Topics reports.

The good news? Getting feedback right doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Below, we’ve rounded up four proven feedback frameworks your leaders can use to deliver fair, structured, and clear feedback.

Ready to empower your managers to have psychologically safe conversation? These practical feedback frameworks are the perfect place to start.

The SBI Model (situation–behaviour–impact)

Want to keep feedback objective and specific? The Situation-Behaviour-Impact model is a simple, direct way of clarifying the situation, describing the specific behaviours you’ve observed and explaining their impact on you, others and the organisation as a whole.

Here’s how it works in practice.

From here, managers can go one step further to figure out the intent behind the behaviour. After delivering feedback using the SBI model, people leaders can use open-ended questions to understand what’s driving a person’s actions and what can be done differently next time to ensure a different outcome.

The SIA Model (situation, impact and action)

In our recent Art of Feedback webinar, Shelley introduced us to the SIA model, which stands for situation, impact and action. This model of feedback allows for coaching and accountability on behaviour. It is similar to the SBI model, but opens up space for development and behavioural reflection and change.

How does this work in practice? Let’s look at an example below.

This approach creates a healthy, two-way conversation for reflection and growth. It encourages you to ask questions of the person receiving feedback, which helps them understand, gives them space to share their thoughts, and fosters a growth mindset.

The BOOST Model (balanced, observed, objective, specific, timely)

Another effective feedback model is the BOOST framework, which observes psychosocial best practice and ensures respectful, emotionally intelligent conversations between employees and managers.

This five-step feedback model is all about observable evidence to remove the negative impacts of second-hand information. Plus, it encourages timely, specific conversations to respond to issues as soon as they arise.

Here’s how the BOOST model works in practice.

The COIN Model (context, observation, impact, next steps)

Ready to coach your people to reach their full potential? The COIN Model is a powerful approach to feedback that focuses on helping your leaders have difficult conversations and deliver feedback in a non-confrontational way.

The goal is simple: to empower managers to have productive conversations with their teams and deliver feedback through a forward-looking lens that inspires change and action.

“We need to avoid the quick chat. This is when we ambush someone… instead, we need to give people context.” – Shelley Johnson, Founder of Boldside and Leadership Coach.

Radical Candor

Have you heard of the Radical Candor approach? Developed by Kim Scott, it’s a communications and feedback framework that encourages people to ‘care personally while challenging directly’.

In the context of feedback, radical candor gives leaders a framework for how to have difficult conversations and deliver direct, honest and empathetic feedback.

The key principles of the Radical Candor framework are to reduce the risks of silence or indirectness and create a psychologically safe environment where team members can challenge each other in productive, compassionate ways.

In practical terms, feedback that embodies Radical Candor is:

• Clear and direct: Avoid overthinking what you’re going to say and focus on being concise, objective and specific about the message you’re communicating.
• Delivered in person: The sooner feedback is delivered, the better. This approach champions in person conversations to avoid misinterpretations and misunderstandings via email.
• Praise in public, critique in private: Consider the setting and ensure successes are celebrated as a team and areas of opportunity are discussed one-on-one.

 “How do we communicate our concern in a clear, concise way? If we sugarcoat, the message is unclear, but the intention is kind. Clear is kind so always deliver in a kind tone.” – Shelley Johnson, Founder of Boldside and Leadership Coach.

Feedback has an important role to play in your organisation’s approach to psychological risk management. Regular, constructive feedback is key to managing psychosocial hazards at work and fostering a workplace that inspires employee engagement, trust and loyalty.

Many of the psychosocial hazards identified in the SafeWork Australia Code of Practice can easily be prevented, reduced or eliminated altogether with effective feedback loops.

“Don’t wait for the six-month performance review to have that conversation. We need to have really timely feedback conversations.” – Shelley Johnson, Founder of Boldside and Leadership Coach.

In practical terms, here are three actions your organisation can take today to embed feedback in a culture of psychological safety:

1. Arrange weekly feedback check-ins with direct reports: Ensure managers are meeting with their direct reports on a weekly basis to ensure feedback can be delivered in a private, timely and personalised manner. Download our one-on-one meeting template pack for performance and wellbeing.
2. Set up two-way feedback channels: Ensure employees have the opportunity to provide feedback on how they’re finding the feedback process and what improvements or changes they’d like to see—ideally through an anonymous, confidential process that links employees up with HR departments and people leaders.
3. Provide manager training in feedback and communication: Ensure managers are empowered with the skills and support they need to lead and provide feedback effectively through training sessions and courses led by external providers.

Feedback is one part of the puzzle: Discover a manager’s guide to building more resilient teams.

Ultimately, delivering great feedback doesn’t just benefit your people, organisational performance and company culture: it’s a compliance consideration, too. Effective feedback processes ensure your company is proactively reducing the risk and impact of psychosocial hazards at work and meeting your obligations under Work Health Safety (WHS) regulations.

We encourage you to test out one of these feedback frameworks over the next 30, 60 or 90 days. See what shifts, and consider how a clear feedback approach could positively impact your broader safety and wellbeing strategy.

Ready to master the art of feedback? Join Shelley Johnson from Boldside in this Masterclass where we explore how to have honest feedback conversations that actually help your team grow and build the foundation for a high-performing team. Watch on demand now. 

Sonder helps organisations mitigate potential harms caused by common workplace psychosocial hazards with 24/7 access to accredited, personalised, and confidential mental health support and an early intervention approach.

Learn more about how Sonder can help you reduce your psychosocial risk.

Sonder is a technology company that helps organisations improve the wellbeing of their people so they perform at their best. Our mobile app provides immediate, 24/7 support from a team of safety, medical, and mental health professionals – plus onsite help for time-sensitive scenarios. Accredited by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS), our platform gives leaders the insights they need to act on tomorrow’s wellbeing challenges today.