Boss: Complete this by 6. 

Employee: But the deadline is too short. I cannot complete it by that time. 

Boss: That is your problem. I cannot help. 

“75% of employees who voluntarily leave jobs quit their bosses, not their jobs.” 

-Roger Herman 

When a manager acts like a boss rather than a leader, coach, or a mentor, the team’s spirit will go down and the employee attrition rate will increase, which in turn will affect the company’s operational costs. Besides, there will be frequent conflicts between managers and the team members, or the team members will be completely disengaged. Finally, employee performance reviews will not be objective and unbiased.

If this was the case with regular working, what would be the scenario in today’s world, the new age of remote working? The entire workforce is working remotely with such bosses. The workforce will be disengaged and it will soon affect your productivity and revenue. Where do you think the problem is? It is neither the employees’ fault nor the managers’ error. The organization should conduct proper leadership training for the managers and adopt processes where upward communication is possible.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reveals in HR professionals magazine reveals that companies with less than 100 employees spend only 12 minutes for managers’ training ever six months, and organizations with more than 100 employees spend around 12 minutes. The employees and managers are not satisfied with the training provided by most of the companies. Remember, companies that take an interest in employees’ professional growth will sustain and thrive. 

No Upward Communication = Disengaged Employees 

1. Employees, who feel that their voice is heard by the management, are 4.6 times more likely to feel empowered and give their best work.

• The employees have many concerns regarding work, their managers, and also personal life, especially in this pandemic situation. If their managers act like bosses, and the employees’ concerns have no way to reach the top management for them to be addressed, the employees either leave the company or stay disengaged. Disengaged employees cost around $550 billion a year to US companies. 

2. 96% of employees believe empathetic and compassionate managers can increase the retention rate.

• In this remote working period, which is novel to many managers and employees, employees are worried that the managers do not show empathy. Employees find it harder to demarcate between personal and professional lives. The managers should act as a coach and give suggestions to improve the employees’ work-life balance. There is no way of managers knowing what’s wrong with their method of managing a team if there is no upward communication.

3. 61% of employees are stressed overwork.

• When face-to-face interactions were possible and employees were able to take breaks from their work, 61% of employees were burned out on their job. In the remote working scenario, it would be worse as managers of non-people-centric organizations do not trust their employees. Employees tend to overwork to prove to their managers and often feel isolated and disengaged. This will certainly increase absenteeism.

4. Bias and Subjective Reviews

• Employees often become the victims of subjective performance reviews of managers. Having only the downward feedback process in an organization will not help the employees in any way if they are dissatisfied with their review process or job or managers. 

How Does 360 Degree Feedback help? 

360 degree feedback is the assessment of an employee’s performance by coworkers, managers, cross-functional managers, direct reports, and other internal and external stakeholders. When 360 degree feedback is executed in a strategic manner, the organization as a whole can reach the next level of productivity and also increase the engagement of employees.

HANDPICKED RELATED LINKS: 

• Manage Performance and Conduct One-on-One Meetings like Aslan, not Yondu 
• Takeaways from Organizations That Made a Difference With Unique Employee Recognition Practices 
• What Is The Difference Between Top-down Feedback and 360 Degree Feedback 

Some of the benefits of 360 degree feedback are as follows. 

Self-Awareness: Employees learn on their strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement. The peers know an employee better than the management, and so the reviews will be reliable and accurate. It will be very helpful for the remote workers as they can identify whether their performance has increased or decreased after he/she started working remotely.  

Personal Development: The employees, once they learn about their work behavior, can work on their areas of improvement and create a better version of themselves. They can also learn ways to maintain their perfect work-life balance.

Upward Communication help managers improve their leadership skills: Through 360 degree feedback, an employee can send anonymous and constructive feedback to managers. The managers can improve their leadership skills based on the feedback. Once they realize and try to rectify instead of using the feedback against the team, the employees can work effectively and their stress can be reduced. This approach of manager can strengthen the manager-employee relations. 

Training Needs: The management, with the data collected from 360 degree feedback, can recommend training programs and organize workshops for the employees to help them bridge the gaps in their skills and perform well. Reskilling and upskilling of employees help an organization to sustain and thrive even in the worst storms. 

No Bias or Subjective Reviews: Most managers, due to Halo and recency effects, review an employee’s performance based on their recent achievements. In work from home situations, the late nights and overworks of employees will not even be in the minds of the managers, especially when they are managing bigger teams. In these cases, 360 degree feedback from peers will help managers to recollect the efforts and review the performance accordingly. 

360 degree feedback is more needed today for strong teams and good manager-employee relations. It is difficult to main personal connect with other team members while working remotely. In this case, 360 degree feedback helps to improve communication among the employees by building a conversation on how the other members’ perform and how can they improve, etc.