“I think it comes down to some individuals feeling like, ‘If I acknowledge your problem, I might have to do something about it,’” said Kelly Butler, the SVP of global HR services at cloud- computing company Rackspace, who was not shy about acknowledging the problem at hand: Why don’t employers want to talk about challenges in the workplace?

All of us would rather talk about accomplishments than problems, of course, but any healthy workplace must be able to handle both—and be prepared to do something about them. Butler was part of a From Day One webinar titled “How Managers Can Acknowledge Both Accomplishments and Challenges.” The conversation, which I moderated, was not only about why employers struggle to talk about the tough stuff, but how they can get better at it, and how they can get better at recognizing accomplishments too.

Panelists said a good place to start is training managers and rank-and-file staff on the importance of empathy, ways to talk about challenges, and why doing so is beneficial for the entire team.

“I think that many times, they’re just uncomfortable,” said Amy Segura, assistant VP and HR advisor at reinsurance provider Swiss Re, about why managers avoid challenges. “It’s not that they’re not empathetic, but they don’t know how to respond, or they’re worried about the emotions that go along with it.” Segura said managers need to understand “how the emotional side and the emotional safety contributes to the success of the organization, because if you quash the creativity and no one wants to speak up, then that’s going to affect the bottom line of the business and eventually your turnover.”

Sometimes workers need new ways to talk about what’s not working in order to feel comfortable doing so. Butler said they train employees on the “I Wish” framework: Rather than saying, “I hate it when we spend 10 minutes at the beginning of the meeting, chit-chatting about whatever, and we don’t get to the issues log,” employees are coached to rephrase in a way that identifies the problem and proposes a solution: “When we have these meetings, I wish we could just get to it so we can talk about the issues log.”

How and where accomplishments and challenges are talked about in the workplace matters. Panelists described many formats for collecting and encouraging feedback, and the consensus was that there should be a variety of means in any given workplace.

This is especially important for companies with hybrid workforces, where some employees work remotely, and others work at a physical location. Stephen Williamston, Jr., a leader in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for the outdoor division at Stanley Black & Decker, said that for those who work in the company’s plants and distribution centers, QR codes have been an effective way to distribute surveys and collect feedback at a high level.

Sentara Healthcare’s regional VP of human resources Mel Goodrich uses QR codes to gather feedback and recognize accomplishments too, specifically for nursing staff. “[Nurses] are on the floor, they can’t step away, they’re not right there at a computer, they can easily scan it with their phone. You can link videos, you can link surveys, you can link a lot of things to the QRs–and you can do them in postcard size with some little treats or things that make it easier for them to take the card from you.”

For some, privacy or even anonymity is a prerequisite for raising certain questions or concerns. Swiss Re has adopted a way for employees to give feedback anonymously, and “it made a huge difference,” Segura said. Additionally, the company uses a feedback tool that lets workers request feedback (positive or negative) from anyone, and the feedback remains confidential to the recipient; neither HR nor the requestor’s manager has access.

For others, public forums work well. Sentara Healthcare hosts both “Town Halls” and “Safe Spaces.” The former is an in-person meeting where staff can raise questions and bring up problems, and the latter is an online forum, more suitable for those who aren’t comfortable bringing their concern to such a public meeting. “It really was an opportunity for employees to directly come into that safe space, provide information of what they would like to see and how they might be struggling,” said Goodrich. “And some of them were very vulnerable in that space. We were able to take separate chats to different rooms and talk to them in different virtual rooms and connect with them.”

Butler said Rackspace encourages teams and those working on cross-functional projects to hold “Fail Fast Friday” conversations, in which problems are discussed. To balance this, the company also has a digital peer-to-peer recognition forum that gives staff plenty of opportunities to root for their colleagues. “We don’t want people to be covering up mistakes or thinking, ‘Oh, my gosh, I did something wrong, I can never recover from this.’ We all make mistakes all the time, the more we talk about them and learn from them, the better we get, and the less often we collectively are going to make the same mistakes.”

Don’t forget to balance all of this with recognition of good work. Williamston encouraged employers to recognize good work publicly: “If you have a situation where you have an employee who has done a great job, then why not recognize them in front of the entire team? Or if it’s something that spans across the organization, acknowledge them at that higher level.”

The methods for communication vary because workplaces, teams, and individuals vary, so employers shouldn’t feel restricted. “I don’ think that there is one particular right or wrong way in which to communicate. I think that it is incumbent upon all leaders to communicate in a way that will reach their employees,” said Williamston. What’s important is “acknowledging each other’s humanity, giving each other grace, and being upfront about what is happening in real time.”

Emily McCrary-Ruiz-Esparza is a freelance writer based in Richmond, Va. She writes about the workplace, DEI, hiring, and issues faced by women. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Fast Company, and Food Technology, among others.