Employees or Contractors: Who Gets The Most Feedback?

I don't know for sure. But you probably do.

Performance Speaks For Itself. . .  drew  comments that raised the debate about this question.

Becky Robinson is a freelancer who writes about leadership for Mountain State University. She feels that freelancers and consultants  "have to continually prove their worth to keep clients and work"--so it's important to be able to solicit performance feedback from clients.

That's certainly true. But management authority, consultant, and writer Wally Bock says: "As for freelancers needing it more, it seems to me they need this kind of support less. Most freelancers are paid by the project and there's usually feedback on each one. Folks on the payroll tend to slip into the background."

If that's the case, then "contractors" get more information about their performance--and how to improve it--than employees.

Can that be?

Performance improvement is directly linked to the timeliness, frequency, and quality of feedback. If Wally's observation reflects reality in the workplace, then "outside" people are the recipients of better performance management than those on the payroll.

It would be helpful to know what's really happening out there. If you are an employee or a freelancer/coach/consultant, what's your experience? The answers could be quite fascinating--and revealing. Weigh in with a comment below.

Comments

[Tim]

In my experience as a consultant and contractor, it varies by company. At my current client, for example, there's feedback for both employees and contractors, but the employees receive quite a bit more. Plus, it's not just about the immediate work for them, but it also is regarding long-term growth and development.

I've also been at companies where nobody receives much feedback at all, though, so it can significantly vary from place to place.

[Steve Roesler]

Tim, thanks.

It sounds as if we have similar experiences. That is, it varies. Let's see how this unfolds.

[Wally Bock]

As you and tim noted, Steve, it varies. Wherever the comment consensus comes out on employees or contractors getting more feedback, we can certainly agree that there's a huge variation between individual companies and, probably, individual bosses.

[Steve Roesler]

Wally,

That's really the issue, isn't it? Even though we know the value of performance feedback, the delivery is so inconsistent that performance suffers.