3 Reasons You Should Always Be Getting Feedback

Most of us have worked somewhere feedback was really only solicited and welcomed once a year. Maybe that took the form of a survey sent to all employees — or came in the form of a manager asking you about your experience as part of your annual review.

But is asking for feedback effective when it’s so infrequent? The answer is a decisive “no.”

In fact, even asking for feedback on a quarterly basis may not provide the opportunity for employees to truly offer their insight about your company, their concerns, and areas that could be improved upon. That’s because we’re human — and a problem may crop up today that wasn’t an issue yesterday when you asked for feedback.

To make the most of employee feedback, you need to seek it continuously — and actually act on the feedback you receive.

Why is continually seeking feedback the best strategy? Read on as we take a deeper dive into the topic.

Reason 1: Feedback Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint
We sometimes see clients or prospective clients looking to use WorkHound as a short-term tool to gather employee feedback for a few months. And while that might help you gain some valuable insights from your team, you’ll receive the most return on investment when you use WorkHound as a long-term part of your hiring and retention practices.

“Feedback is a long game,” says Max Farrell, CEO and Co-Founder at WorkHound. “We know that traditionally, a lot of feedback strategies were a once-a-year survey, and the problem with doing that is that it isolates the feedback that’s being shared. You aren’t able to track trends.”

Reason 2: Continual Feedback Allows You to React Quickly
In the trucking industry specifically, turnover is common. Seeking your drivers’ feedback on a continual basis, rather than in short spurts, can allow you to root out problems and potentially solve them before they become insurmountable— and turnaround your turnover.

“If you’re only seeking feedback once a year, drivers may be completely happy at the time of the survey, but then something happens after that and they don’t have a method of sharing their comments and concerns,” Farrell says. “When drivers don’t have an outlet to share their frustrations, they may share their feedback online, with other recruiters, or through other venues, rather than with your company so that you can take action.”

This is especially important at the beginning of a driver’s tenure with your business, since the first three months are often a “make it or break it” timeframe.

“If a company uses WorkHound for a short time but then turns it off, they’re not going to be capturing feedback from new employees,” Farrell says. “We know that the first 90 days is the most critical time period for employees as they’re being onboarded. So if you aren’t getting their feedback, you’re missing a critical piece of the puzzle.”

Reason 3: Regular Feedback Builds Data
Our world is becoming increasingly data-driven — and the trucking industry is no different.

Which begs an important question: You wouldn’t turn off the telematics on your trucks to stop monitoring their performance, so why would you turn off the human telematics that WorkHound allows for?

“The metrics on your WorkHound dashboard are updating in real-time,” Farrell says. “It takes a while for any kind of data to get up and running, so it’s important that you see seeking feedback as part of your long-term strategy — something you should be doing all the time, not some of the time.”

Over time, data collects and takes shape, allowing your team to be proactive, rather than reactive, when handling driver concerns and common issues.

WorkHound offers a way to get data from and on your people. Ready to begin collecting important and useful data about your drivers’ wants and needs? Contact us today for a demo!