In today's competitive and fast-changing landscape, your best candidates might already be working for you. Internal mobility, or promoting a person from within a company, does more than boost retention, it preserves institutional knowledge and demonstrates genuine investment in your people.

How can you tap into this potential? By giving regular, constructive feedback. These ongoing conversations highlight growth paths while revealing talents that might otherwise remain hidden, paving the way for natural advancements.

These development conversations pair perfectly with objective insights learned from hiring and selection assessments, ensuring that internal moves play to employees' natural strengths and set everyone up for success right from the start.

The Feedback Gap: What the Data Tells Us

Our research uncovered a surprising disconnect in today's workplace. While almost everyone agrees that feedback matters, the actual feedback practices tell a different story.

When Wiley Workplace Intelligence surveyed 2,000 professionals, the impact of feedback frequency became crystal clear. Employees who received weekly feedback were significantly more likely to feel supported (92%) compared to those who only got feedback once a year (just 59%).

92% of Employees Feel Supported with Weekly Feedback vs. 59% with Annual Feedback

Regular communication doesn't just boost morale—it gets results. Weekly conversations led to clearer, more actionable improvement steps for 53% of respondents. Even more importantly, 60% reported that regular feedback directly helped them address skill gaps that might otherwise limit their potential.

60% of Employees Say Regular Feedback Bridges Skill Gaps

The data confirms what many of us intuitively know: feedback isn't just nice to have—it's essential for both personal growth and organizational success.

Constructive Feedback Helps Internal Mobility

Regular, specific feedback forms the foundation of successful succession planning and internal advancement. When managers consistently discuss career goals and performance with their team, they identify who's ready for leadership roles or valuable lateral moves that traditional reviews might miss. These conversations prepare high-potential employees for bigger responsibilities by highlighting exactly what skills they need to develop.

Effective managers can use feedback to create targeted pre-promotion experiences, like leading cross-functional projects or representing the team with senior leadership. This practical exposure builds necessary skills and instills the confidence needed for successful transitions.

Pairing these human insights with data-driven hiring assessments like the PXT Select^® Coaching Report provides personalized coaching tips and development strategies, providing a complete picture of promotion readiness. Feedback builds on demonstrated capabilities, while assessments identify if someone’s natural work style matches the new role’s requirements. Together, they ensure internal moves leverage both proven skills and inherent strengths, increasing success rates when employees step into new positions.

The Reskilling Revolution: Adapting to Workplace Evolution

The skills that were valuable yesterday might be outdated tomorrow. With AI, automation, and new technologies reshaping every industry, employees need to constantly adapt just to keep their current jobs relevant.

Most workers don't know which new skills matter for their specific role and feel overwhelmed by options. They want clear steps, real examples, and targeted training to close skill gaps. This is why good feedback matters so much.

Feedback provides guidance, offering specific advice and concrete examples that make learning practical. When managers regularly discuss industry changes, they help employees identify new tools and methods to learn. Instead of wasting time on general training, workers can focus on the specific skills that will keep them valuable. Regular check-ins ensure they're staying on track with the skills that matter in a rapidly changing workplace.

The Manager's Role: Training Makes a Difference

Not all feedback is created equal. Our research shows that trained managers deliver feedback that actually drives improvement, while untrained managers often struggle to make these conversations productive.

Trained managers approach feedback with more confidence. They're 14 percentage points more likely to identify skill gaps (60% vs. 46). These managers prepare with specific examples, adjust their approach based on the employee’s personality, and see better performance as a result.

Impact of Manager Feedback Training:

Trained managers: 60% confident identifying skill gaps

Untrained managers: 46% confident identifying skill gaps

What's telling is that these struggling managers aren't resistant to improvement. They want help developing this critical skill but often don’t know where to start.

Organizations that provide assessment tools like PXT Select alongside practical feedback training create a powerful combination. The assessment data gives managers objective insights to share, while training helps them deliver this information in ways that build people up instead of shutting them down. The result? Conversations that drive development rather than creating anxiety and disengagement.

From Insight to Action: Building a Feedback-Driven Culture

Talk is cheap. Creating a true feedback culture requires concrete steps and leadership commitment. Start by training managers in practical feedback techniques. Don't assume they know how to have these conversations. Equip them with scripts, practice sessions, and regular refreshers.

Next, build feedback into your company's rhythm. Weekly check-ins should be non-negotiable, with quarterly deeper conversations about growth and development. When these conversations become routine, they lose their awkwardness.

Finally, give these conversations real substance by incorporating assessment insights. Tools like PXT Select provide objective talking points beyond just recent performance, shifting discussions from "what you did wrong" to "where you could go next." This subtle but powerful shift transforms feedback to a forward-focused approach, which is what today’s workforce craves.

The data is clear: organizations that build strong feedback cultures gain a significant competitive edge in today's talent landscape. They identify future leaders earlier, adapt to changing skill demands faster, and keep top performers engaged. But perhaps most importantly, they create workplaces where people feel seen, supported, and genuinely invested in.

In a rapidly evolving talent landscape, this human connection might be the most valuable advantage of all. The organizations that recognize this truth and take concrete steps to strengthen feedback at all levels won't just survive the coming workforce challenges—they'll thrive through them.

Wiley assessment brands lay the foundation for effective feedback cultures. Specifically, PXT Select assessments, provide valuable data insights that empower managers with scientifically proven information to better understand themselves and their teams, enabling them to leverage the right strengths for each individual and role. By leveraging this data-driven approach, organizations can make more informed, efficient, and strategic decisions throughout their talent management journey.

Wiley Workplace Intelligence conducts in-depth research on key workplace issues by gathering insights from individual contributors, managers, and leaders. Wiley Workplace Intelligence then analyzes these findings to provide actionable solutions that are shared in our blog.