For the most part, managers are the primary source of feedback for employees. They often are the most knowledgeable about a particular employee's performance, but at the same time usually overworked and busy with a ton of other things. 

This can lead to bottlenecks in giving feedback that can negatively affect employees, either by cutting them off from feedback or saving it all for one yearend dump.

It's time to open feedback to others involved in work or projects, and organizations can use continuous performance management (CPM) strategies and tools to bring this about.

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Why managers can't be the only ones giving feedback

For the reasons described above, keeping managers as the sole source of feedback can lead to damaging experiences. Maybe guidance that would have helped if given in the moment is now expired and not as helpful, or employees become discouraged because of a total lack of feedback.

And it's not necessarily the manager's fault. A lot of the blame can be chalked up to abiding by traditional performance management for no reason other than it's tradition. In order to break down these barriers, companies can turn to CPM to open the gates to new and better ways of generating feedback from other sources, like:

Peers

Peer feedback can be a tricky subject, but it's entirely needed in modern work environments. Frontline employees may have different insights than a manager would have, and getting an employee to listen to his or her peers could be beneficial for everyone.

Stakeholders

Whether this refers to a creative getting feedback from an account executive or graphics team member, allowing stakeholders to offer advise can similarly benefit everyone. Especially if they are involved on the same project can stakeholders help one another.

However, before opening feedback up to others, companies must first ensure they have the infrastructure in place to support it. Contact BetterWorks today for more on what software companies need to ensure CPM and feedback are as high quality as possible.