How can I get other staff at my organization on board with feedback?

The first thing to do is to have some empathy for your fellow staff! Staff at your organization may feel wary about feedback for a couple reasons:

• Gathering feedback and responding to it takes staff time and resources. If your staff are already stretched thin, they may see feedback as one more thing they have to do on top of already heavy workloads.
• Feedback can feel threatening to staff. What if clients say negative things about the program, or worse, about the staff?  Staff may be fearful about what feedback may mean for their performance. Read more here.

There is no right or wrong way to build staff buy-in and sometimes it simply takes time, or one full feedback loop to see progress. Below are a few tips for getting staff on board with feedback:

1. Communicate why feedback is important. This can be as simple as sending an email or putting time on the next staff meeting agenda. A few key messages you may want to cover include:
   • The purpose of feedback is to improve services and better meet the needs of your clients.  It’s about helping your organization get better at its mission, not blaming or penalizing anyone for organizational shortcomings.
   • Anonymous, systematic feedback is key. You can’t get better if you don’t know what’s wrong. Perhaps you’ve heard some client complaints before, but you didn’t know if it was just one person having a bad day, or something happening across a program. Gathering anonymous feedback will arm you with robust data to make changes and decisions about programs.
2. Communicate early and often. Stay in touch with staff throughout the process. This could include updates on the timeline, celebrating positive feedback received, or letting them know key changes you’re making in response to feedback.
3. Engage select staff at key moments:
   • During survey design, ask staff to weigh in on which questions you want to ask.
   • Train staff who may be administering the survey; have them take it ahead of time so they help answer any questions clients may have.
   • Involve staff in interpreting survey results. They may have insights into specific client comments.
   • Meet with staff to brainstorm what changes the organization might make in response to feedback. Have staff help prioritize feedback.
   • Ask staff about creative ways to close the loop with clients.