Employee feedback examples: what improves performance, and what makes it worse

A sales team lead in Riyadh sits down for her annual review in December. Her manager tells her she "needs to be more of a team player". It is the first time she has heard it. She asks for an example. He mentions a meeting in March that neither of them remembers. She leaves with a rating, a vague label and nothing she can change on Sunday morning.

The review did not fail because it was annual. It failed because it said nothing she could act on.

The short answer: good employee feedback examples describe a specific situation, the behaviour you saw and its impact, then agree a next step. For example: "In Tuesday's client call, you summarised the three open issues before we hung up. The client confirmed them in writing the same day. Please do that on every call." Feedback aimed at the task tends to improve performance. Feedback aimed at the person's self-image can lower it: in a classic meta-analysis, over a third of feedback interventions made performance worse.

Why some feedback makes performance worse

In 1996 Avraham Kluger and Angelo DeNisi published a meta-analysis of feedback interventions in Psychological Bulletin. It pooled 607 effect sizes covering 23,663 observations. On average, feedback improved performance (d = 0.41). But over one-third of the feedback interventions decreased performance. Neither sampling error nor whether the feedback was positive or negative explains this, the authors note.

Their explanation is about where feedback sends attention. They describe three levels: learning the task, motivation for the task, and "meta-task" processes that include the self. Their results suggest that feedback works less well as attention moves up that ladder, closer to the self and away from the task.

The practical rule: describe what the person did, not who they are, in praise as well as criticism. "You are brilliant" is about the self. "Your opening slide answered the director's question before he asked it" is about the task.

What employees say about the feedback they get

Much of Gallup's feedback research draws on its US panel, and some pages do not give the sample, so read these figures as direction.

• Meaningful feedback is linked to engagement. Gallup reports that 80% of employees who say they received meaningful feedback in the past week are fully engaged. It is a correlation, not proof of cause.
• Few conversations land. A 2023 Gallup article reports that in a study of nearly 15,000 employees, only 16% said the last conversation with their manager was extremely meaningful.
• Short and regular beats long and rare. The same article reports that 15- to 30-minute conversations have a greater impact than 30- to 60-minute ones if they happen regularly. Employees rated recognition for recent work, collaboration, and current goals as the most meaningful topics; weaknesses, less so.
• Reviews rarely inspire. Gallup reports that only 14% of employees strongly agree their performance reviews inspire them to improve, and that nearly half receive feedback from their manager a few times a year or less (Sutton and Wigert, 2019).

We found no published figures on feedback for Egypt, Saudi Arabia or the UAE, so we quote none. For your own number, measure it.

Why annual performance reviews alone fail, and what replaced them

Deloitte counted the time it spent on performance management and found close to 2 million hours a year. Ratings research pointed to "idiosyncratic rater effects": ratings revealed more about team leaders than about the people rated (Buckingham and Goodall, Harvard Business Review, 2015). Deloitte's redesign planned no once-a-year reviews, no cascading objectives and no 360-degree tools. In its own best teams, the item most strongly linked to high performance was "I have the chance to use my strengths every day."

Peter Cappelli and Anna Tavis wrote in 2016 that more than a third of US companies had abandoned traditional appraisals for more frequent, development-focused conversations. Some companies worry that without numbers, merit pay and poor performers are harder to handle. Other firms are trying hybrids, with ratings on several dimensions plus regular development feedback.

In some settings the annual rating is fixed by rule. In Saudi Arabia's government sector, the Executive Regulation of Human Resources in the Civil Service, from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, defines performance management as measuring an employee's performance against set bases, standards and levels linked to the agency's goals (article 115). One stated aim is to identify low performers and prepare plans to develop them (article 116). A rating covers all cases that arise within a year of its approval (article 121), employees may appeal it (article 123), and three consecutive "unsatisfactory" ratings can end a person's service (articles 210 and 233).

So for many HR teams the question is not whether to keep the annual rating, but what happens in the other eleven months.

The obvious answer, and why to test it

Two fixes come up first. Test both before a rollout.

The compliment sandwich. Wrap the criticism in praise, and people will take it better. Jay Parkes and colleagues (2013) tested this in two studies of written peer feedback to third-year medical students (20 and 350 students). Students believed the sandwich improved their later performance. The data showed no evidence that it did. This is one setting, so treat it as a warning, not a verdict. One likely reason, in Kluger and DeNisi's terms: the corrective message gets buried, and generic praise points attention at the self, not the task.

More frequent ratings. Rate people every quarter instead of once a year. But a rating is not feedback. If Deloitte is right that ratings say more about the rater than the person rated, rating more often repeats that error four times a year. Frequency helps when each conversation describes work and agrees a next step, not a number.

How to test: try the new approach in two or three teams for a quarter. Before and after, ask one item, "In the last week, I received useful feedback about my work," and compare against teams that did not change.

A feedback model that keeps attention on the task: situation, behaviour, impact

The Center for Creative Leadership's Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI) model is simple enough to use in a corridor. CCL says its research shows the method reduces the anxiety of the person giving feedback and the defensiveness of the person receiving it.

• Situation. Name when and where. "This morning at the 11 am team meeting", not "last week".
• Behaviour. Describe the observable action. "You interrupted me while I was telling the team about the monthly budget", not "you were rude".
• Impact. Say what happened as a result, for you, the team or the customer.
• Intent (optional). CCL adds a fourth step: ask what the person was trying to do. "What were you hoping to achieve there?" This turns a verdict into a conversation, which matters where people do not yet feel safe to speak. Our guide to psychological safety at work covers how to build that.

Employee feedback examples: 10 lines you can adapt

Each line follows situation, behaviour, impact. Swap in what you actually saw.

Positive feedback

1. "In this morning's budget review, you spotted the duplicate vendor line before we approved it. That saved a correction next month." 2. "In Sunday's handover, you wrote down the three open tickets and who owns each. The night shift closed two without calling anyone." 3. "When the client raised the delay on Thursday's call, you gave the new date and the reason in one sentence. He stopped escalating." 4. "During the new hire's first week, you introduced her to a different colleague each day. She told me she knew who to ask by Thursday." 5. "Your report on Monday put the recommendation on the first page. The director decided in the meeting instead of asking for another round."

Corrective feedback

6. "In yesterday's team meeting, you answered twice for Sara when the question was for her. She did not speak after that. What were you hoping to do there?" 7. "The last two weekly reports arrived on Tuesday, after the Monday deadline. I presented without your numbers. What is getting in the way?" 8. "On Wednesday's call, you told the customer the refund was approved before finance had checked it. Finance declined it, and the customer called back upset. Next time, say when you will confirm." 9. "In your presentation to the regional team, the main number was on slide 14. By then people were asking about slide 3. Can you lead with it next time?" 10. "Three times this month, the shift roster went out on the day the shift started. Two people could not change their plans. What would it take to send it by Thursday?"

Specific positive feedback is also recognition. Our employee recognition model shows how to make it a team habit, not a yearly award.

Performance review examples: 8 comments written in behaviour terms

A good comment lets the employee picture the moment and know what to repeat or change.

Each comment has three parts: what happened, why it mattered and, where needed, the next step. If you cannot write the first part, you have an impression, not a comment.

Your next step

This week, write down one thing a team member did in the last five days, in situation-behaviour-impact form, and tell them in under two minutes. Then add "In the last week, I received useful feedback about my work" to your next pulse survey to see whether the habit spreads.

Frequently asked questions

What are good employee feedback examples?

Good examples name a specific moment, what the person did and what it led to. "In Thursday's call you gave the client the new date in one sentence, and he stopped escalating" is useful. "Great job" is not, because the person cannot tell what to repeat.

How do you give feedback to employees?

Use situation, behaviour, impact: say when and where, describe the observable action, and explain the result. For corrective feedback, ask what the person was trying to do, then agree one next step. Keep it about the task, not the person's character, and give it soon after the event.

What are good performance review comments?

Good comments replace labels with evidence. Instead of "team player", write what the person did, such as covering a colleague's accounts during leave. For areas to improve, add a specific next step for the coming cycle.

What should I write as employee feedback for an appraisal?

If you are writing about your own performance, use the same structure. List two or three pieces of work, what you did and what changed, then name one thing you want to improve and the support you need. Specific examples keep the conversation about work, not impressions.

How often should managers give feedback?

Gallup suggests a few times a week for most jobs. Its research found that 15- to 30-minute conversations have more impact than longer ones, if they happen regularly. An annual review should then summarise feedback the person has already heard.

Sources

• Kluger, A. N. and DeNisi, A. (1996), "The effects of feedback interventions on performance: a historical review, a meta-analysis, and a preliminary feedback intervention theory", Psychological Bulletin 119(2), 254-284. doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.119.2.254
• McLain, D. and Nelson, B. (2022, updated 2024), "How effective feedback fuels performance", Gallup. gallup.com
• Gallup (2023, updated 2026), "A great manager's most important habit", Gallup. gallup.com
• Sutton, R. and Wigert, B. (2019), "More harm than good: the truth about performance reviews", Gallup, 6 May 2019. gallup.com
• Buckingham, M. and Goodall, A. (2015), "Reinventing performance management", Harvard Business Review, April 2015. hbr.org
• Cappelli, P. and Tavis, A. (2016), "The performance management revolution", Harvard Business Review, October 2016. hbr.org
• Center for Creative Leadership (2025), "Use Situation-Behavior-Impact (SBI) to understand intent", 19 August 2025. ccl.org
• Parkes, J., Abercrombie, S. and McCarty, T. (2013), "Feedback sandwiches affect perceptions but not performance", Advances in Health Sciences Education 18(3), 397-407. doi.org/10.1007/s10459-012-9377-9
• Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development, Saudi Arabia (amended to 1445 H / 2024), "اللائحة التنفيذية للموارد البشرية في الخدمة المدنية" (Executive Regulation of Human Resources in the Civil Service), Part 5, articles 115-124; articles 210 and 233. hrsd.gov.sa