High performers at work get the worst feedback, and it’s driving them to quit

High-performers and women aren’t getting quality feedback in the workplace, and it could be driving them to quit.

That’s according to a new analysis of more than 13,000 performance reviews across 250 U.S. workplaces from Textio, an AI-powered writing platform for HR teams.

Quality of feedback is different from whether it’s positive or negative in nature. High-quality feedback comes with clear examples of the employee’s contributions and clear suggestions for improvement and how to make progress on professional goals, like getting a promotion.

On the flip side, low-quality feedback isn’t specific, relevant or actionable. “It could be the feedback is about somebody’s personality rather than their work, or it could be exaggerated and not super realistic,” says Kieran Snyder, co-founder and chief scientist emeritus at Textio.

When people get low-quality feedback — even when it’s positive — they’re 63% more likely to quit within the next 12 months, according to a separate 2023 Textio survey.

That could spell trouble for teams with star employees. “As people are providing feedback for these high performers, they feel the need to provide more, but it is more often surface-level,” Snyder tells CNBC Make It.

Meanwhile, 30% of high performers leave their organization within their first year, according to Textio data.

The Textio analysis also finds that there are gendered biases in what kind of feedback is delivered to men, women and nonbinary employees.

Women are more likely than men to be given feedback based on personality traits, whether they’re collaborative and helpful, and generally “how they make people feel,” Snyder says, while men’s performance reviews spend more time praising them for being ambitious and confident. Even the highest-performing women are subject to this “personality tax,” according to the report.

These comments may be positive on the surface level, Snyder says, but fail to measure women’s performance on the work they actually accomplish: “This feedback is focused on personality rather than somebody’s real work deliverables.”

There are also gendered differences in the feedback that people internalize, which can reinforce social stereotypes in a work setting and can impact performance and career advancement.

For example, when asked about how they were described in a recent performance review, 71% of men recalled being described as likable, compared with only 19% of women and 11% of nonbinary people.

Women and nonbinary employees were more likely to internalize negatively stereotyped feedback, such as being described as emotional, unlikable or difficult.

“Women are much more likely to be described by personality traits,” Snyder says, “and within that, the personality traits that are used to describe women tend to be much more negative, and even within that, women are much more likely to remember the negative feedback than the men are.”

“The mind-performance connection is real,” she adds,” and you can see that play out over time in things like disparate promotion rates, pay raise rates and so on.”

It’s crucial to recognize that these biases run deep, and even the most well-intentioned managers could use more training around how to deliver high-quality performance feedback without treading in gender or racial stereotypes, Snyder says.

For example, businesses could use software to provide managers with real-time feedback on the quality of their employee reviews as they write them, Snyder says. These systems can flag when the language in the reviews relies too heavily on personality-based traits.

Cross-functional reviews, where leaders from across the team help contribute to the assessment of an employee’s performance, can help too.

“Managers sit in people-calibration meetings with one another in most organizations at review time,” Snyder says, “and I think managers can be a good check and balance with respect to one another.”

The responsibility for delivering high-quality feedback should sit with bosses and HR teams, she adds, but employees can also advocate for themselves if they’re not getting it.

“It’s always well-placed advice to ask for the feedback you’re not receiving,” Snyder says.

From the report, employees said they were satisfied with high-quality feedback that gave them “a good understanding of the skills my manager expects me to demonstrate in order to earn my next promotion.” But beyond working toward a promotion, Snyder says to ask for specific feedback that will allow you to “keep learning, developing, growing and getting greater opportunities.”

Make the specific request to your manager in advance, Snyder says. For example, you could pose: “Next week in our one-on-one, I’d like to have a conversation where we can talk about some of the specific examples of work I’ve done and, if I were performing at the next level, what I might be doing a little differently.”

Executive teams, HR leaders and managers should take note when employees, especially high performers, raise the issue of getting constructive feedback that can help them grow professionally, Snyder says: “It has real impact for employee retention and attrition if you get it wrong.”

Want to stop worrying about money? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course Achieve Financial Wellness: Be Happier, Wealthier & More Financially Secure. We’ll teach you the psychology of money, how to manage stress and create healthy habits, and simple ways to boost your savings, get out of debt and invest for the future. Start today and use code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 30% off through September 2, 2024.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life.