A Quick Guide to Giving Constructive Criticism at Work [Infographic]

Feedback is important in the workplace for a number of reasons, the most obvious among them being that your employees – and by extension, the overall organization – will never improve if they aren't aware of the ways in which they can improve.

Another thing to note is that feedback is critical for employee engagement. Employees at all levels and of all age groups want to receive feedback from their managers and leaders.

And they don't want simple praise. By and large, employees want corrective feedback. According to a 2014 HBR article, 57 percent of employees prefer receiving constructive criticism to receiving positive recognition. That may be because employees know that corrective feedback is key to their performance: 72 percent of those surveyed by HBR said "they thought their performance would improve if their managers would provide corrective feedback."

So feedback – especially constructive criticism – is good for engagement, it's good for productivity, and it's good for overall business success. But there's one small problem: The vast majority of employees want corrective feedback, but very few people like giving it. It's an understandable situation: We know how important feedback is, but we also know how difficult it can be to give constructive criticism. It takes a fair amount of finesse to deliver corrective feedback that inspires people to improve without making them feel hurt or embarrassed.

That's why the new infographic from Make It Cheaper, a company dedicated to helping businesses save money on their operating expenses, is so handy. The infographic breaks the feedback process down into simple steps, helping leaders, managers, and everyone else in the workplace refine their feedback strategies for maximum effect. Take a look at it below: