How to Get Honest Opinions From Your Employees

If you run a small business, you may be wondering how to get honest feedback from your employees. In many cases, employees are reluctant to give negative feedback to their boss due to fear of retribution. Fortunately, it is possible to get honest opinions from your employees.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Suggestion Box

1. Announce your intentions. Let your employees know that in the upcoming weeks you'll be soliciting their feedback and opinions. Tell them that you want complete honesty.
2. Create a "Suggestion Box." Place a "Suggestion Box" in the employee break room or another location. The location of the box should be one in which an employee often finds himself or herself alone. This allows the employee to slip in a suggestion without being seen.
3. Insist that suggestions be typewritten. To ensure anonymity, remind your employees to use a typewriter or computer for all suggestions. This prevents you from recognizing their handwriting.
4. Offer an incentive. Even though the suggestions are anonymous, some employees may still be reluctant to offer their honest feedback. Offer an incentive to encourage participating. For example, consider offering an extra day of paid vacation to the employee who suggests the most useful change.
5. Never try to identify employees. This type of anonymous feedback may result in some nasty or insulting suggestions. Never try to identify an employee who may have left offensive feedback. Doing so would jeopardize the belief in anonymity for the rest of your employees.
6. Implement worthwhile suggestions. If an employee does offer constructive feedback that you can use to create a better workplace, be sure to implement the suggestion. This helps ensure that your employees feel as if their opinions count, and makes it likely that they'll continue contributing to the "Suggestion Box."