Internal feedback has long been a cornerstone for coaching and performance management in human resources (HR). And while this traditional focus on internal feedback is helpful, it may be limiting HR departments’ ability to assist the organisation’s growth and success as a whole.
External feedback – gathered from clients, customers, partners, and industry peers – can provide complementary value for HR professionals.
Leveraging external feedback can enrich insights, enhance organisational effectiveness, and boost profitability for the organisation. This article explains how HR departments are in a unique position to gather and analyse feedback to achieve these goals.
What is external vs internal feedback?
Internal feedback
Internal feedback travels between people inside an organisation. This is the type that employees regularly receive and offer to each other during performance reviews that HR oversees. Internal feedback also crops up organically during project work, as team members work together to deliver projects collectively.
Internal feedback plays an important role in employee development but it has limitations. An internal stakeholder’s familiarity with company processes can skew this feedback. This also fails to capture the external customer experience.
External feedback
In contrast, external feedback may offer a more holistic reflection of how the market perceives your business. This is because it provides a perspective from the actual end-users or customers of your services.
This external perspective is crucial for businesses seeking to identify areas for improvement. It can align their products or services with customer needs, and enhance overall customer satisfaction.
External customer feedback can greatly inform the work of human resources (HR) professionals.
How HR can drive growth using external feedback
Research shows that regular feedback (of any kind) can have a transformative impact on workplace culture by promoting continuous improvement, accountability and open communication. HR leaders working hard to create and uphold healthy, positive working cultures should be tapping into the power of feedback.
It can serve as a compass for guiding improvement while also reinforcing strengths and successful strategies. At the same time, it helps businesses reduce the likelihood of negative client experiences and reduce the reputational damage such experiences can have on the business.
Most HR teams tend to focus on internal feedback – so the benefits of external feedback are occasionally missed. Here are some ways businesses can drive growth by incorporating it in their HR strategy.
1. Employee engagement
External feedback can help improve employee engagement even more than internal feedback. This is because comments from a third party like a client or customer have a lesser chance of perceived or real bias. Employees may be more receptive to external feedback because of this objective element.
“Singing your own praises to your clients and prospects can only go so far. It has so much more authority and gravitas when they hear positive feedback from peers and other clients.”
– Andy Mukherji, Principal and Patent Attorney, Michael Buck IP
2. Performance management improvement
Chances are your performance management system relies on internal feedback as the primary source for employee recognition and evaluation. However, external feedback can complement the internal. It offers a more client-centric view with direct benefits to your business if you implement suggestions and improvements. Combined, the two types of feedback can provide a more holistic view of an employee’s contribution.
3. Talent retention and promotion
Understanding external perceptions of the workplace can help HR identify potential issues that may affect employee retention. Addressing concerns raised by external feedback can help HR create a more supportive and engaging work environment.
On the flip side, it can also help HR identify high performers for promotion or retention. If external stakeholders are praising an employee, it shows the employee is having substantial impact.
“Responding to client feedback impacts decision-making by informing strategic choices and operational improvements. It fosters a client-centric culture that values continuous learning, adaptation, and the pursuit of excellence in client service.”
4. Training and development
Customer feedback on employee interactions can guide HR in identifying areas for skill development and training. This outside view can help HR decide what training programs are necessary to enhance customer service and satisfaction. In many ways this is a more client-centric HR approach.
5. Culture enhancement
External feedback often reflects how well employees embody the company’s values and culture. HR can use this feedback to align internal practices with external perceptions with positive impact. It plays a vital role in fostering a positive workplace culture that resonates with both employees and customers.
6. Continuous improvement
HR can play a key role in driving a culture of continuous improvement with an organisation using external feedback. This can help identify areas for enhancement and weaknesses to address. Regularly collecting and acting on external feedback allows HR to adapt policies, procedures, and practices to meet the evolving needs of employees and customers.
“It’s all very well to say you offer a great client experience, but when your clients are recognising this, there is no better affirmation. “
External feedback driving strategic value
Leveraging both internal and external feedback in the above ways can help to skyrocket an organisation’s success. HR departments are already an essential part of your business. Those that can effectively leverage external feedback become game-changers that can drive growth and profitability.
Of course, internal feedback remains essential for coaching and performance management purposes. However, integrating external feedback gives HR a more holistic understanding of the business landscape, fosters customer-centricity, and drives sustainable growth and profitability.
By embracing external feedback as a catalyst for organisational excellence, HR can position itself as a strategic partner driving business success and creating lasting value.
HR for business development
As outlined above, external feedback plays a crucial role in business development by fostering and guiding growth. This kind of feedback was once used only by marketing and BD departments, but its use in wider business functions is growing. Modern HR professionals applying external feedback for human resource management can have a profound impact on business success.
Why limit business development to one team or a few individuals? Every person in an organisation can impact business growth and build a positive working environment in the long term. HR, as the department overseeing culture and employee performance, uniquely positions itself to do this.
Best ways to collect feedback
HR should foster a culture of continuous improvement by encouraging open dialogue and collaboration between internal teams and external stakeholders. By soliciting input from both sides, HR can gain a comprehensive understanding of organisational strengths and weaknesses, enabling it to implement more effective interventions that drive business success.
There are a variety of ways to collect external feedback in useful modes for HR teams.
Possibly the easiest and least resource-intensive way is to set up a survey tool that requests feedback from your clients at regular intervals. Such tools can ask for feedback before, during, or after a project or purchase.
The best tools will store feedback data in an easy-to-use system that allows you to track improvements or reductions in customer sentiment. Companies often measure this using the Net Promoter Score (NPS). Beaton’s customer survey tool, Debrief, is a cost-effective and easy-to-use solution for this purpose.
Market research via industry-wide client surveys is another way to gain a broader external perspective. This kind of feedback allows you to compare impressions from your own customers to what they think of competitors. It can be useful way to gauge your success compared to other similar businesses.
Beaton’s annual, profession-wide benchmarking research Beaton Benchmarks can provide a clients’ view of how your firm is performing.
If you’re an HR professional keen to hear more, please get in touch with any of our team. We also invite you to try Debrief for free here.
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