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Employees need feedback, but many people avoid providing it. Some people simply don’t think feedback is necessary or effective. This can reflect an external locus of control where the belief is that people can’t sufficiently control outcomes. It is also common for individuals to be performing well but it doesn’t occur to their trainer or supervisor to provide feedback. Or they may feel it is important but simply don’t make time to provide it.

Discomfort is another reason people avoid providing feedback. Particularly if someone is not doing a good job, the trainer may not want to be mean or may be concerned with how the employee will react. Despite these reasons for not providing feedback, the benefits that employees and organizations gain explain why it is a skill worth developing. Positive feedback is provided when someone is doing a good job. People both like and need this type of feedback. Positive feedback recognizes good performance, reinforces behavior and lets individuals know how they are progressing toward a goal.

If someone doesn’t receive positive feedback, they may become demotivated. Or, they may change their behavior because it wasn’t made clear to them what they should be doing, which could impair their performance. Constructive feedback is provided when performance does not meet expectations. Constructive feedback identifies what the employee is doing wrong and what steps he or she needs to take to correct the performance issue.

The goal of constructive feedback is that by helping employees change their behavior, performance improves. Without constructive feedback, performance issues tend to persist. Negative feedback is delivered more aggressively. Although negative feedback also informs employees that they are doing something wrong, it usually fails to do so in a way that facilitates behavioral change. While knowing when to provide feedback is important, trainers should not lose sight of the actual content of the feedback.