Millennials have grown up in an instant gratification world, so patience is not necessarily their strong suit. Answers can be searched for, found, filed and implemented in a matter of minutes. If feedback pertaining to their job performance were searchable, millennials would be taking full advantage.

Employees primarily rely on managers and supervisors for evaluations and feedback relating to performance. Traditionally, feedback is offered once a year in an annual review. This timeline is no longer cutting it for the millennial generation.

Millennials crave feedback. It’s a source of energy that allows them to assess their performance, fine-tune their skillset and course correct. This generation wants consistent feedback to ensure their skills are refined and on point.

Increasing the frequency of feedback is necessary to motivate and engage millennials in the workplace. But giving feedback, especially corrective feedback, is challenging. In fact, Erika Andersen, author of “Growing Great Employees,” said giving corrective feedback is considered the most difficult part of being a manager. Even more difficult than firing someone.

So, why is giving feedback so challenging? Most often, people are worried about the reaction of the other person. While the situation could unfold in a variety of ways, managers should remain calm and develop a plan to ease the anxiety of having these discussions.

To help managers give better feedback, Karl Moore examines five simple steps for streamlining the process in his article, “Giving S.M.A.R.T Feedback to Millennials.” Moore advises giving feedback that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based. Here are a few tips to get started:

• Specific: Eliminate any ambiguity or misunderstanding when setting goals and objectives. Be as clear and specific about what should be done to improve performance and how it will be evaluated.
• Measurable. Objectives must be measurable in order for employees and managers to know when a goal has been achieved. While this is easier when concrete numbers or data is involved, intangible objectives can be measured with a little creativity.
• Achievability. Objectives should be challenging, but they must be attainable. Objectives should be set together by both managers and employees to gain buy-in from employees.
• Relevant. Objectives should always be aligned with departmental and organizational goals. A failure to do so can result in demotivation and confusion.
• Time-based. A timeframe should be associated with all objectives. This brings a sense of urgency to meeting the outlined goals.

Feedback is a critical part of employee development and a necessary component to retaining millennials. When developing your next employee development program on feedback, consider how millennials prefer to learn. It may be tempting to avoid giving feedback altogether, but if you want employees to stay and fight for your cause then it’s time to invest in their professional growth. And it all starts with talking back.