Feedforward Vs Feedback Explained

12 of September, 2022

Feedforward is a concept that is increasingly becoming more common in today’s work environment. In this article, we would be introducing you to this practice and how it can help you improve your business’s all-around performance. If you want to learn more about feedback vs feedforward, keep reading!

What is Feedforward vs Feedback?

To truly discuss feedforward and what this concept means, it is important to first talk about what feedback means. A well-known concept in today’s business world, feedback is any information provided about a business’s service or product based on the experience derived from an individual’s use of it. Helping businesses and employees improve their services and identify avenues for growth, the importance of this practice cannot be over-emphasized. 

Feedforward essentially functions similarly. Here’s the only difference. Unlike feedback which provides information about an individual’s experience of a business’s product/service, feedforward provides information on how a business can improve said product or service.

Where feedback is concerned with the user’s experience, feedforward is concerned with a business’s avenue for growth and improvement.

This is why many employers use this practice as a means of improving their employee performance.

How to implement Feedforward from Feedback

Interested in incorporating feedforward into your organization’s review procedures? Here are four steps to follow.

Start with Feedback

To truly incorporate feedforward in your business’s review system and for it to be effective, it is important to first start with feedback and to keep them as informative as possible. For feedforward to truly be effective at helping provide any form of a performance boost, it is important to be able to point to what things need improvement in the first place. So don’t mince on those feedbacks. Keep them coming. Sesame has the perfect tool for this. The employee survey feature, helps measure the satisfaction of your employees and get feedback in real time.

Focus on avenues for improvement

Getting positive feedback is always a welcome experience. When feedforward is concerned, however, this is not always a good thing. Since the point of feedforward is to help aid improvement, however, having nothing but positive feedback doesn’t do a lot of good. So when providing your feedback, it is important to focus on places where improvements can happen. Here’s what that means; don’t shy away from the negatives. In fact, pay special attention to them.

Think improvement

Now that you have noted the areas for improvement you’ve noticed, it is time to think about how said improvements can be mad. This is where your review starts pushing the boundaries of feedback and starts entering the realm of reviews. Take some time to consider ways to improve on the flaws you have noticed. You might be surprised just how much of an improvement this would make.

Put it all together

Having discovered those areas that need improvement and identifying ways in which these improvements can be made, it is then time to present your review. To do this, all you have to do is put it all together; provide your feedback, identify those areas that need improvement, and finally, provide actionable recommendations.

Feedforward vs Feedback conclusions

Feedforward can be a very effective review tool for improving business performance, especially when used together with feedback. Utilizing a review system that incorporates a mix of feedback and feedforward can lead to more productive review sessions and better company performance.

Need help incorporating feedforward into your organization’s review process? We would love to lend a hand. Get in touch with us today.

Cristina Martin

People and Talent Director | LinkedIn | | Web | +post

Professional with over 20 years of extensive experience in various areas of Human Resources (Recruitment, Training, Occupational Risk Prevention, and Personnel Management). Experience in the Management Department: Broad understanding of the company and HR.

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