FabFitFun is a lifestyle membership company that delivers well-being and happiness via their iconic box. We sat down with Will Feng, Director of Learning and Organizational Development, for a discussion on how he’s boosting employee morale, engagement and performance at FabFitFun during these changing times. Will shares a number of best practices, and closes with important considerations when launching new people programs. 

Interested in learning more about how Reflektive can support your business? Schedule a consult with an expert.

In the past several months, companies have meaningfully changed how they approach performance management. Based on our 2020 Performance Management Benchmark Report, we identified interesting insights on how the tech industry has compared to financial services, health care, and other sectors. 

Our responses from 445 HR professionals and business leaders uncovered some similarities between tech and other industries, such as adoption of reviews, ratings, and continuous feedback. Where tech leaders have responded differently is in their challenges with organizational alignment. Tech firms also take a different approach to performance management, and incorporate more data into their decision-making and planning.  

Consistencies with Peers in Usage of Reviews, Ratings, and Continuous Feedback

First, let’s start with the similarities between performance management in the tech industry versus other sectors. 

Performance ratings are also consistently communicated to employees: 96% of tech respondents communicate ratings, versus the 89% peer average. Regardless of whether your company uses ratings or not, communicating performance feedback regularly helps employees grow and develop. 

Continuous feedback adoption is another similarity between tech and other industries. Sixty-three percent of tech respondents currently use continuous feedback, vs. the 60% peer average.

Per the 2020 Performance Management Benchmark Report, there is room for improvement here. Since 2018, there has been a 170% increase in the percentage of leaders & HR professionals who expect managers to offer feedback to direct reports daily. Similarly, there has been an 89% increase in the percentage of employees who want formal performance conversations monthly or more frequently. One thing is clear — leaders, HR teams, and employees alike see the value of continuous feedback, and desire more of it.

Tech Industry Struggles with Organizational Alignment, Partnership with Leaders

Another area of opportunity for the tech industry is improved alignment with leaders, peers, and teams. This was a surprising insight for us: as professionals comfortable with technology, we thought tech respondents would have less difficulty staying connected to their colleagues. The survey data indicated otherwise! Tech respondents are:

• 3X more likely to have more frequent disagreements with leadership
• 1.7X more likely to say it’s harder to stay aligned with their team 

Similarly, tech respondents are less likely to partner with leadership on driving a culture of feedback:

• While 17% of all respondents said that they partner with leadership to run their continuous feedback program, 0% of tech respondents said that they do
• Tech respondents are 55% less likely to inform leadership about the change to a continuous feedback approach
• 38% of all respondents said that executive support was most helpful in shifting to a continuous feedback model — and only 23% of tech respondents felt the same (a delta of 65%)

How can tech companies improve organizational alignment? Consistent communication, as well as technology to support productive 1:1s and goal alignment, can help tech leaders stay connected while they’re remote. More best practices for goal-setting in times of change are available in this NextRoll blog post.

Fewer Workforce Changes in the Tech Industry

Another difference between the tech industry and other sectors is that the former was less impacted by the events of 2020. Per the survey data, tech respondents were:

• 2.1X less likely to have executed a Reduction in Force
• 73% less likely to have furloughed staff
• 76% more likely to report “no impact, business as usual” regarding the current climate

Tech respondents were also more likely to forecast smooth sailing ahead. Per the survey data, tech leaders are 1.4X less likely to anticipate changes in workforce planning later in 2020.

Tech Respondents More Likely to Use Data to Predict Employee Performance and Turnover 

Rachel Ernst, CHRO at Reflektive, believes that there are a few reasons why tech companies have fared well versus other industries in 2020. “Not only is technology crucial to all of our day-to-day activities, but tech firms also had robust talent plans available at the start of the pandemic thanks to their strategic, ongoing usage of people data. This forward-looking approach allowed tech companies to make smaller changes early, rather than waiting several months to execute major organizational changes.”

Survey data also reveals the tech industry’s data-backed approach to performance programs:

• 78% of tech respondents use people analytics to predict employee performance, which is 56% higher than the peer average
• 77% of tech respondents use people analytics to predict employee turnover, which is 48% higher than the peer average

Additionally, tech firms expect to rely even more on technology in the future. In the next 6 months, 48% of tech respondents expect more investment in technology, which is 37% higher than the peer average.

Per Taylor Orr, Talent Management Program Manager at Dropbox, “We’re continuing to look at more sophisticated ways to tie individual performance to team and company performance. We’re analyzing what makes individual contributors successful and managers impactful at Dropbox, and this requires synthesizing and analyzing many sources of data, including employee survey scores and performance data. By figuring out what makes people successful, we can encourage these behaviors starting at the recruiting stage and continue to pepper our learnings throughout the programs and processes that touch the employee lifecycle.”

Having a data-backed approach to performance management – as well as products and services that can be used remotely – has helped tech companies weather the up’s and down’s of 2020. With the right programs in place, all tech companies can boost communication and alignment, and ultimately achieve key goals for their organization.

Interested in learning more performance best practices for tech companies? Schedule a consult with an expert.

My brothers and I used to play a board game called “Pandemic”, where we each were assigned a role to play in stopping the spread of a dangerous virus before it became a pandemic. Together we had to work to protect people across countries from getting the virus, and it was a very difficult game to win. Never did we think this game was reflective of what was to come in 2020. Never did I think about what my role as a HR leader would actually need to be, if a pandemic were to actually happen.

When I look back over the past six months, working with the Executive Team at Reflektive, I am extremely proud of the role that every executive, manager and employee played to make us even more resilient and empathetic toward one another. None of us had a playbook of how to navigate this time; no one in the world does. However, we knew the most important ways to get started: keep our minds open, listen, ask for feedback and take action. 

This is how we continued to build a close knit, inclusive, and open culture — even while all Reflektors were working remotely during the pandemic. During this unprecedented time, I’m proud to say that we solidified our corporate culture. Reflektive’s overall engagement score increased by eight points, and two areas that drive the most engagement at our organization increased by an average of 19 points. How did we do it during extremely difficult global conditions? I’ve included the top seven ways that helped us strengthen our corporate culture.

1. Measure sentiment during onset of COVID

When we first went remote, we had to quickly figure out how to best support our employees in a newly remote environment. We ran a survey to learn how the transition went, how supported our employees felt by the company and their managers, and if they had what they needed to do their best work. We made several changes based on feedback we heard. When we ran the same survey six weeks later, we found positive improvement, and our employees were grateful to have a forum to voice their needs.

2. Create regular communication forums

As COVID-19 rapidly began to spread, our Employee Success and Executive teams met to discuss how we can keep our employees connected. We decided on: 

• A weekly Fireside chat with our CEO to provide company updates
• Weekly office hours with our executive team members
• Regularly scheduled team stand ups
• Frequent informal social hours
• A virtual social calendar listing activities around the world to participate in.

As time progresses, we continue to assess and adjust this frequency so that it aligns with employee needs.

3. Drive productive manager-employee conversations 

A huge focus has been to ensure managers and employees are having high-quality conversations on a regular basis. We created “Working Remotely” Conversation Starters that our managers and employees can use to prompt conversations that may not naturally happen in a 1:1 meeting. Some of those Conversation Starters include “How can I best support you while we continue to work remotely?” and “Are there any risks to your achieving your goals? How can I support you?” Prompting important topics is key in helping our employees to feel supported and motivated during this challenging time.

4. Form an employee DEI Task Force

When the killings of George Floyd, Tony McDade, Amad Arbery, and Breonna Taylor happened, our CEO wrote a note first to our company, and then to our customers about our stance against racial injustice and our support of Black Lives Matter. We held an open conversation with the company the day after he sent the memo, and also organized donations, which we matched, to organizations to support causes against racial injustices. We were happy to receive an influx of ideas from our employees on how Reflektive could be even better in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. We gladly welcome this input, and formed a DEI task force of 20 employees interested in helping the company define focus areas. We ultimately decided to focus on four areas:

• A company audit to determine where we could improve company practices
• Our product and ensuring we take a DEI lens on our product design 
• DEI Conversation Starters that drive meaningful 1:1 conversations about the topic among employees and managers
• Education about Votership.

This task force has met regularly and made significant progress in a short period of time, bringing in a DEI consultant to help us, facilitating education about voting, and solidifying DEI conversation starters. I am looking forward to continuing these efforts with this talented team at Reflektive.

5. Run a gratitude campaign

“Gratitude for the present moment and the fullness of life now is the true prosperity.” – Eckhart Tolle

As Michelle Wax, founder of The American Happiness Project, shared at our Virtual Sales Kick Off, gratitude is a big component of building resilience during difficult life situations. To help employees build resilience, our Employee Success team launched a gratitude campaign in June. In this campaign, we prompted employees to share gratitude for their colleagues on Reflektive’s Recognition Wall. We saw overwhelming responses to our weekly question prompts, including “Who/what has made you laugh or smile this week?” “What’s one thing someone did recently that made your job easier?” This focus on positive thinking helped strengthen bonds across our workforce.

6. Create organizational clarity

COVID has caused widespread uncertainty for employees. With such uncertainty, our executive team felt it imperative to create a “Reflektive Playbook” that aligns the company around our mission and vision. We addressed five simple yet impactful questions including:

• What do we do?
• Why do we exist?
• How will we succeed?
• What’s most important right now?
• How do we behave?

With guidance from Patrick Lencioni’s organization, The Table Group, we articulated brief and clear answers to these questions, and have spent time communicating them regularly to our organization. This has kept us hyper-focused and aligned as we ride the bumpy waves of economic uncertainty.  

7. Build manager strength 

Knowing that managers play a significant role in our daily happiness at work, Reflektive invests heavily in building manager skills. Our focus areas over the past six months included: 

• Addressing employee mental wellness
• Managing remotely
• Leading productive remote check in conversations
• Building resilience.

In these workshops, not only do we teach core principles, but we also create a forum for managers to share their own best practices and learn from each other. Most importantly, we want to make sure our managers can help support one another as they play crucial roles managing our employees every day. Having a great manager during this tumultuous time is critical, and we want to know we’ve done everything within our power to support and motivate our employees.

The best way an HR leader can gauge progress of engagement efforts is through employee feedback. Our Employee Success and Executive teams are very proud to see that the hard work put into supporting our culture have proven successful from our employees’ perspectives. I’d like to end with a few great quotes that our awesome employees have shared in a recent survey:

I am very grateful to be working with kind, thoughtful, and intelligent people who support and believe in one another, which honestly means the world to me!

I’m very proud of the organization’s resilience through everything in the past year, and think our leaders are truly dedicated to the company’s success.

Enquero is committed to continuous improvement — they do not take a “set it and forget it” approach to their performance programs. The global technology company continuously improves all of their processes, from goal-setting to recognition. Our below Q&A with Marietta Harvey, VP and Global Head of HR, and Cana Trahan, Senior HR Specialist includes best practices on building a high-performing culture for a newly remote workforce.

Reflektive: Can you tell us a little bit about Enquero?

Cana: Enquero is a technology solutions company headquartered in Silicon Valley. We have 600 employees around the world, including Hyderabad, India and Lafayette, Louisiana. Enquero was founded in 2014, and we help organizations digitize information, skills, and experiences.

Reflektive: What was performance management like prior to using Reflektive?

Marietta: The platform we used before did not fit our culture and the continuous feedback model we desired. We weren’t seeing the results we were looking for.

Reflektive: What was the turning point that inspired you to make a change?

Marietta: We were planning our next review cycle, and really needed a customizable solution that would fit our needs. We wanted to modify questions, send nudges, and incorporate feedback into our reviews. Reflektive enabled us to accomplish those things. And it equipped us with powerful people insights to consistently improve our programs.

Reflektive: That continuous improvement is great to hear. Can you speak more about Enquero’s recent transition to a remote workforce, and how you’re continuing to prioritize talent management while employees are working from home?

Marietta: Since our employees are working remotely, we knew it would be crucial to maintain our culture, and focus on the employee experience. We needed to create programs and activities to foster connectedness, morale, and collaboration. In light of this, we accelerated virtual meetings and social events such as:

• 25+ social events to foster connectedness (snapshot below)
• Town hall meetings with executives to improve communication and transparency
• Technology such as Reflektive to drive a continuous culture of feedback, collaboration, regular employee/manager check-ins, and recognition
• Virtual training sessions

Reflektive: Those initiatives sound like great ways to keep your culture going while employees are remote. How did you decide which programs to launch?

Marietta: We leverage Engagement data from Reflektive to understand how employees are feeling, and how our performance programs are going. The data enables us to strategize, rather than just checking the box. It also supports our talent management efforts, as we can coach and develop employees based on our insights.

Cana: We like sending quick employee surveys and often leverage the pre-built survey templates in Reflektive — it makes our work so easy!

Additionally, we use People Intelligence to pull insights on how our programs are performing. For instance, we saw that we hit a 100% completion rate for our most recent check-in, so we know we made the right improvements to that process! Other powerful insights come from our engagement surveys.

Reflektive: How do you decide when to send out surveys, and what questions to include?

Marietta: In the past several months, we’ve sent out the following surveys:

• December – Full Engagement Survey: This provided benchmark data that we can use to see how sentiment changes over time. We were also able to slice the data by location to understand how sentiment varies for US-based and India-based employees.
• April – Coronavirus Sentiment Survey: Reflektive’s survey helped us see what Enquero is doing well and where we can improve regarding our handling of the pandemic. 
• May – Work-from-Home Survey: We achieved a 98% completion rate for this survey! The survey helped us assess how employees are feeling about their remote work set-up, and where there are opportunities for improvement.
• July – Employee Activity Survey: This survey helped us better identify the types of activities and events that employees would like while they work remotely. 

We also have onboarding and exit surveys in Reflektive for new and departing employees.

Learn more engagement survey best practices with Reflektive’s Ultimate Guide to Employee Engagement Surveys.

Reflektive: What changes have you made based on insights from your most recent engagement surveys?

Marietta: We’re always making changes based on our learnings! Instead of “set it and forget it”, our motto is “set it and improve based on employee feedback”. We’ve enhanced the following programs:

• Onboarding Process: We learned that new employees felt overwhelmed by information on their first day. Now, we’re separating out the first day orientation (covering pay, benefits, and other crucial items) and a monthly new hire orientation. The latter includes a deeper dive on policies, procedures, company culture, and tools.
• Ongoing Feedback: Employees desire continuous feedback to grow in their roles. To address this need, our HR Business Partners ensure that managers and employees are conducting regular 1:1 conversations and having quarterly check-ins.
• Career Mapping: We developed “Grow with Enquero” career paths for each role so employees know how to develop and advance.

Reflektive: Are there any other unique performance programs you’ve rolled out differently, that have benefited your employees? What results have you achieved?

Marietta: We are using OKRs (Objectives, Key Results) as part of our check-ins. We take a bottom-up approach on setting goals. This helps employees focus on their unique developmental goals, while still enabling them to view and support company and business unit objectives. And we’re seeing results from this unique approach too – we’ve observed 80% OKR adoption since launching Reflektive, with an average of 3 goals per employee. We have 1,424 goals total – and this is less than six months after we rolled out Reflektive’s Goals module!

Cana: The added goal visibility in Reflektive definitely helped. I accomplished my two biggest goals – implementing our iCIMS platform on a global scale and enabling HRBPs with reporting knowledge. Seeing these goals front and center in Reflektive was a helpful reminder!

Reflektive: That’s great to hear! Are there any company-wide goals that you’ve been able to achieve?

Marietta: One of our company-wide goals was creating a culture of thanks, and Reflektive helped us do that. 77% of Enquero employees have received recognition already. The recognition lives on an employee’s profile — it’s really quite motivating! Employees like that they can give recognition directly through Microsoft Teams.

Reflektive: It sounds like Reflektive’s integration with Microsoft Teams is really helpful for driving a culture of feedback. Do you use other Reflektive integrations?

Marietta: Yes, we use the ADP Workforce Now integration. It feeds data into Reflektive so employee information is always up-to-date. This was crucial for us in selecting a performance management system. Now everything is digital, and I never need to do manual updates!

Reflektive: Are there any other benefits for you and the HR team in using Reflektive?

Marietta: Yes, we’ve seen many. The HR Business Partners are having a higher level of collaboration and partnership with employees and management. We’ve been able to support employees more effectively through productive conversations. For instance, with our remote workforce, the boundaries between work and personal time have become blurred. We’ve uncovered that some employees feel that although they are motivated, they have workload challenges. We are working with both employees and managers to address this.

Reflektive: Final question: can you talk more about your experience with your Customer Success Manager and Support team?

Cana: I love my Reflektive team! My CSM is so helpful and a great partner, and responds faster than I could imagine. Reflektive support is the most responsive support team I’ve ever worked with. Even getting the developers involved has been so timely. With other companies, it can take a month or weeks of wait time. Even if it’s a complex issue with Reflektive, support is great and keeps me informed every step of the way.

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the workplace is critical for so many reasons. It helps address unfair treatment that underrepresented groups have had to endure for far too long. It helps all employees feel that they can be their true selves at work. And it fosters positive business results, such as driving retention and improving the quality of decision-making. 

Many executives have spoken about the importance of DEI, but haven’t taken action yet. But how do leaders and HR teams know which actions will make the biggest difference? Where should they start?

Best practices from SHRM include surveying employees to “shed light on their perception of the company in relation to encouraging and appreciating DE&I in the workplace.”

Reflektive has developed a DEI survey, dashboard, and benchmark to help companies assess and improve their inclusion efforts. The DEI survey template was created in consultation with ReadySet, a high-touch boutique consulting firm specializing in making more human-centric, inclusive work environments.

DEI Survey

Reflektive’s survey template covers five factors crucial to driving inclusivity, including “Belonging” and “Opportunities”. With 20 questions and a 7-minute completion time, taking the survey is easy for employees. Sample questions include:

• “I feel like my workplace provides a positive and healthy environment for me.”
• “I feel safe being vulnerable with my coworkers.”
• “My manager cares about my well-being.”

Each question includes a text box for qualitative comments, enabling HR teams to gather additional insights on the employee experience. Answers are anonymous to drive authentic employee responses, however aggregated results can be analyzed by department, location, manager, and more. 

DEI Dashboard and Benchmarking

To easily view DEI survey data, HR teams can see real-time information in Reflektive’s pre-built DEI dashboard. Sample visualizations include: 

• Factor scores by demographic
• Heatmap by demographic
• Highest- and lowest-scored questions
• Highest-impact questions
• Comment themes and sentiment, using Natural Language Processing

What’s more, HR teams can see their company’s scores versus those of the Reflektive DEI benchmark. Reflektive’s benchmark data consists of 1,000+ employee responses, representing voices from different geographies, roles, and industries. HR teams can also use their own previous survey responses as benchmark data, to see how diversity, equity, and inclusion is trending at their company over time.

Ready to drive inclusivity at your company? Schedule a consult with an expert.

HR teams are busier than ever now with managing remote workforces, improving employee engagement, and planning for 2021. Addressing inclusivity is also top-of-mind for many companies, but often they’re not sure where to start. Reflektive partnered with LifeLabs to share the best ways companies can start building inclusivity, now. We’ve also learned best practices from Reflektive customers Allbirds, Stack Overflow, and Symetra on how they’ve created inclusive cultures. 

Getting Started

Before launching DEI initiatives, companies should assess their current state of inclusivity to identify the highest priority actions to take. Is there bias in hiring practices? Do women feel that they lack a voice in meetings? With these insights, HR teams can better plan and prioritize their inclusivity efforts.

LifeLabs recommends starting with surveys and focus groups to gather these insights. Per Megan Wheeler, LifeLabs Leadership Coach, it’s often difficult for leaders to know employee sentiment on inclusivity. “It’s like wearing sweaters,” she said. “The higher up you are, the more sweaters you put on, and it’s hard to know the temperature of the broader workforce.”

At Stack Overflow, Melissa Bruno, VP of People, says: “Data is your friend. It validates the business case.” Her approach is to run real-time office pulse surveys on a monthly basis for the entire company. And on a quarterly basis, she runs targeted surveys to capture specific data on underrepresented groups. These surveys help ensure that Stack Overflow is living one of its core values of being a flexible and inclusive work environment.

Creating Inclusive Systems

Once employee sentiment data is gathered, the next step is to identify the system that you’d like to tackle first, per LifeLabs. Systems include:

• Recruiting & Hiring
• Benefits & Work Conditions
• Reviews & Promotions
• Meetings & Connections
• Learning & Growth

Read below for quick ways to drive inclusivity within these different systems.

Recruiting & Hiring

LifeLabs recommends starting at the beginning of the candidate experience, with the job description. Does it include words like “dominate” and “ninja”? Terms like these tend to attract more male candidates.

Additionally, clear hiring criteria and structured interviews – in which every single applicant has the exact same questions in the same order – help remove bias as well. “When companies are treating candidates differently, that’s like giving different exams to students, and really creates an unfair playing field,” says Megan. Processes including salary negotiations should be evaluated too. “They reward individuals who are better at negotiating with a better salary,” Megan pointed out.

Benefits & Work Conditions

To stay in sync with employee needs, LifeLabs recommends Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). Per Megan, 70% of recent college grads are more likely to apply to an organization that has ERGs.

Reflektive customer Symetra regularly turns to its ERGs to provide insights and ideas for the business. Per Lisa Bruno, HR Business Partner at Symetra, the company now has seven ERGs to engage members and allies and foster a sense of belonging. “We really look to these groups to represent diverse voices and thoughts in our business and policies. We’ve had webinars and forums with our ERGs, and they’ve helped us see new ways of doing things at Symetra.”

Another way that companies can be more inclusive in their benefits and work conditions is by providing paid time off, especially after tragedies. With this time, employees can grieve, protest, or get involved with their communities.

Finally, LifeLabs recommends inclusion training with simple, actionable steps that all employees can take to create a more welcoming workplace. Reflektive customer Allbirds dedicated significant time and resources to their inclusion training program. Per Jessica Barhydt, Associate Director of Talent Development at Allbirds, the org hosted a company-wide allyship workshop with a DEI consultancy. They also hosted two inclusive leadership workshops: one for the executive team, and one for all people managers. “These workshops really focused on voice, belonging, objectivity, and having a growth mindset,” says Jessica. “They helped us build the baseline skills, and open up dialogue, for people managers.”

Reviews & Promotions

Another area in which bias frequently occurs is performance reviews. LifeLabs recommended Reflektive’s performance reviews for their behavioral assessments. “Reflektive’s solution really helps remove the blurriness that happens when we give feedback,” says Megan. Reflektive’s behavior-based feedback, including questions such as “Talk about a time when this employee demonstrated our core values,” creates more objective reviews. Symetra leveraged Reflektive’s reviews and check-ins to tailor their theme around inclusivity. “We included questions such as, ‘What can I do better as a manager to make you feel included?’ Our quarterly check-in process was updated to connect better to employees’ daily lives,” says Lisa.

Biases can also be removed from performance reviews by leveraging them for developmental purposes, rather than tying them to promotions and compensation. “When people know that compensation is tied to performance reviews, they’re going to exhibit bias and skew positive in their feedback,” says Megan at LifeLabs.

Learn how Reflektive customer HoganTaylor crafted development-driven performance reviews 

Meetings & Connections

Outside of formal performance programs, companies can still make a huge impact on corporate inclusivity. In team meetings, LifeLabs recommends equal turn-taking to ensure that everyone’s voice is heard. Team members should ensure that everyone has time to finish their thoughts.

LifeLabs also recommends that attention be paid to the time of day that meetings are happening. Is the time convenient for all attendees? If it’s not, can the time be rotated? Finally, LifeLabs suggests that companies make room for phatic communication, aka small talk. “This is the number one way for employees to know whether they’re in or out,” says Megan. “It creates a feeling of care, so employees feel like they’re part of the ‘in’ group.”

Learning & Growth

Providing opportunities for development helps drive cultures of inclusivity. LifeLabs suggests mentorship programs so employees can learn how best to advance their careers. Consistent 1:1s also provide helpful touchpoints in which employees can ask managers about key skills and competencies that they should develop. Additionally, norms on giving consistent feedback throughout the year drive helpful performance insights for employees.

80% of staff at Kittelson agree that their colleagues provide them with timely and meaningful feedback. Check out our case study to learn how they accomplished this.

Ready to measure and improve inclusivity at your company? Talk to a Reflektive expert.

With all of the changes that companies have experienced in 2020, many HR teams are asking themselves: “What data should I pay attention to now?” Evolving roles, priorities, and workforces have contributed to the confusion. But fear not! We’ve included the most important metrics for HR teams, leadership, and managers to monitor — now and into 2021. Read below for key data points to ensure that your organization is aligned, engaged, and productive.

HR Teams

While HR teams are especially busy with talent planning and managing remote workforces, it’s crucial that they drive alignment. Employees working towards key organizational priorities are more likely to stay productive and engaged. Our recommended metrics for HR teams are below:

Alignment Metrics

• Total active goals, goal completion rate, and at-risk goals (e.g., goal completion is less than 60%): Provides insight into productivity and at-risk projects that need to be prioritized.
• Number of 1:1 conversations by department, and 1:1 topic breakdown: 1:1s are a leading indicator of alignment and engagement. Additionally, HR teams can recommend more coaching- or career-related conversations if needed.

Engagement Metrics

• Overall favorability, and engagement by department and location: Engagement is a leading indicator for attrition, and by observing where sentiment is low, HR teams can intervene early.
• Flight risk by department, and greatest impact of loss by department (coming soon in Reflektive!): Helps HR teams assess the departments at highest risk for turnover.

• Top performers by department: Helps identify key employees to ensure that they’re engaged, motivated, and likely to stay at your company
• DEI sentiment (coming soon in Reflektive!): Assess employee sentiment on diversity, equity, and inclusion to discover opportunities for improvement.

Leaders

Leaders need to stay informed on the performance of departments and teams. They also need to know the current state of diversity and equity to drive inclusion initiatives forward.

Productivity Metrics

• Total at-risk goals and at-risk goals by department: Provides insight into projects that are falling behind deadlines so they can be re-prioritized
• Performance ratings and goal completion by department: Helps assess productivity and performance by department.

DEI Metrics

• Performance review scores and engagement by gender, URM, and other demographics: Helps leaders assess the inclusivity of their workplace by viewing and addressing current biases.

• Updates in overall favorability, and engagement by factor: Provides insight into how employee engagement is evolving, and engagement domains that may need more attention (e.g., leadership, work culture, etc). (Reflektive customers can use their previous Engagement scores as benchmark data!) 

Managers

Given their responsibility of nurturing high-performing teams, managers should pay attention to productivity and engagement among their direct reports. 

Productivity Metrics

• Numbers of goals and goal attainment by direct report: Provides a quick snapshot on employee productivity, and enables intervention if employees have too many goals.
• Performance review scores and corporate values by direct report: See if your top performers are more likely to incorporate company values into their day-to-day (viewable in Recognition hashtags), and get ideas to drive performance among the rest of your team.

Engagement Metrics

• Team favorability breakdown and top engagement drivers: Understand what is most important to your team members, and see if improvements in these areas positively impacts engagement.

• Positive vs. constructive feedback, and amount of feedback per direct report: See if there are opportunities to provide helpful feedback for your team.

Accessible people data helps leaders, managers, and HR teams ensure that employees are productive and engaged during this uncertain time. A dedicated performance management solution such as Reflektive surfaces the most important people data to help your company continuously improve its performance programs.

Looking for additional resources to get started with your people analytics initiative? We recommend taking a peek at the content below:

• Gallup article on optimizing people analytics
• SHRM guide to using workforce analytics for competitive advantage
• Deloitte article on people analytics trends

Dr. Akilah Cadet joined our team earlier this summer for a discussion on racism, privilege and how we can show up for our black community. She founded Change Cadet, a consulting firm which aims to drive equity and belonging in the workplace. We covered a lot of ground, so we consolidated the discussion into the following Q&A.

Reflektive: What is white passing and white assimilating?

Cadet: White passing is someone who can look closer to white and they can pass in white spaces. White assimilating means a person of any color may identify with white behaviors that add to either the benefits of white privilege or white supremacy. 

Black people live in a very white space. In America, all aspects from the workplace, store, cafe to how you drive, are upholding values of white supremacy. It comes from the history of slavery in America. So in order for some cultures to survive, they will assimilate so they can benefit from white supremacy.

Reflektive: What is earned and unearned privilege, and how does it affect us?

Cadet: Unearned privilege are things like access to education, being non-disabled, born heterosexual, and growing up in an upper or middle class family. Earned privilege is being able to have access to certain types of privileges such as learning a language or earning an advanced degree. 

We all have some kind of privilege. I have privilege. Some of my unearned privilege is that I’m US born, grew up middle class, and am educated. I’m also a light skinned Black woman and in America anything that is closer to white is viewed as better or supreme. Hence white supremacy. 

My earned privilege includes being a business owner and having a doctorate. I am also someone who lives with a rare heart condition. I used to be non-disabled but now am protected by the American Disabilities Act allowing me access to support like my ADA placard.

It’s important for all of us to do the work and understand our privilege. There is power that comes along with the privilege we have. For non-Black people, learning how to check your privilege is one step toward dismantling white supremacy. For Black people, use your privilege to have boundaries or find ways that are safe to advocate or educate. Remember it is not the responsibility of Black people to do the work. Non-Black people and white people also need to be uncomfortable and do the work! 

Reflektive: How can we be better allies and accomplices for our Black communities? 

Cadet: An ally is someone learning, actively listening and researching the community they want to learn and advocate for. They are beginning to understand privilege and may be able to recognize and may even call out some microaggressions. Allyship is the pathway to becoming an accomplice. An accomplice is someone who is aware of their privilege and how it adds to systemic and institutional oppression and racism. They understand how their privilege upholds values of white supremacy. It’s showing up personally and professionally in a way that helps dismantle systemic issues.

Reflektive: Do you think we’ll finally see change? What’s your outlook? 

Cadet: I’ve been doing this work for a number of years and well, we’re seeing a lot of momentum around being anti-racist these past few months. I’m hearing from businesses who are actively working to be an anti-racist organization and taking the step to ensure their consumer knows they are not racist. People are realizing the power of the Black dollar and Black businesses, and that’s amazing.

We’re also seeing the rise of the conscious consumer. Primarily white people who want to actively participate as an ally and want to spend their money in places that are antiracist. They are also holding companies and brands accountable on their antiracism journey.

I want everyone to understand that as you are doing the work, it’s important to connect back to joy. There’s a spiral of emotions, anxiety and even tears with advocacy, learning, and unlearning. I want people to know that those feelings are okay and just remember to not get stuck. Not doing anything is a form of privilege. The goal is to keep moving forward and celebrate the little wins along the way. There is not an end date for this work. Mistakes will happen, you will just make less. Remember antiracism is a triathlon not a sprint.

Interested in more?

• Follow Dr. Cadet on Instagram,  LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Check out this on-demand webinar with Dr. Akilah Cadet about elevating the voices of women of color in your workplace.
• Sign up for the Ally Nudge, 2-3 texts per week over a month for learning and action prompts  to continue your allyship journey.

At Reflektive, we’ve learned a lot these past few months and are committed to making diversity, equity, and inclusion an ongoing investment. It’s up to us to commit to change.

Now more than ever, performance programs play a crucial role in driving employee productivity and engagement. Processes for feedback, recognition, and 1:1s help workers stay connected and aligned.

Given the significant changes that leaders, HR teams and employees have experienced, Reflektive launched a 2020 Performance Management Benchmark Report to follow-up on our 2018 Report. With responses from 445 HR professionals and business leaders and 622 employees, the report provides helpful data on how HR teams are approaching their performance programs — and how employees feel about these programs. In addition to the current state of performance management, we’ve also included best practices from forward-thinking organizations. 

This report includes powerful insights to help HR teams identify performance trends among their peers. Readers will take away:

• Insights on performance reviews, ratings, and feedback
• Employee needs to stay productive and engaged
• Executive and employee sentiment on the future state of work

…and more. TPG (a Reflektive investor), Dropbox, and One Medical also share how to drive future organizational success.

Ready to see performance trends and how your company can better engage and motivate employees? Download the free report.

The events of 2020 have had a profound impact on how businesses operate. Specifically, companies have had to make major decisions on where and how employees work. Some firms have decided to keep employees at headquarters (HQ). Others have allowed workers to be remote while maintaining a HQ presence. And still other organizations have decided that their workforce should be entirely off-premises.

Regardless of the model that your company has selected, performance management plays a vital role in driving employee productivity and engagement during this uncertain time. Below are our recommendations on key performance management programs to prioritize based on your workforce model.

Significant HQ Presence

A significant HQ presence means that over 50% of employees are spending some percentage of their workweek at their headquarter location.

When to use this approach

An HQ-centric approaches make sense if:

• Local regulations permit your business to re-open
• Productivity and/or revenue is significantly higher when employees are in the office (recommended formulas for analyzing productivity and revenue are available in this blog post)
• Your company has resources to make the office safer with plexiglass shields, frequent sanitation, personal protective equipment, etc

Performance Management Best Practices

Per Megan Kusanovich on Reflektive’s Employee Success team, “Returning to the office during COVID-19 may cause a level of discomfort among some employees. Companies can alleviate some of this uncertainty by communicating regularly and remaining open to employee feedback.”

• Prior to returning to the office:
  • Run a survey to better understand employee needs and sentiment. Gauge employee comfort and desire to work from the office. 
  • Communicate expectations and guidelines on the return to the office. More guidance from the World Health Organization is available in this Q&A.
• At the office:
  • Leadership should share information regularly on any changes related to working from HQ. Weekly or bi-weekly all-hands meetings, company-wide emails, and intranet pages are great ways to reinforce key updates.
  • Managers should schedule weekly 1:1s with their direct report to check on employee stress and potential improvements to in-office work.
  • Send pulse surveys to HQ employees on a monthly basis to better understand what is working well and what can be improved.
  • Boost positive sentiment by encouraging employee recognition. Drive adoption by creating a recognition challenge! (More recognition best practices are available in Reflektive’s Guide to Recognition Programs).

Remote Workforce

A remote workforce means that over 50% of employees are working fully remotely.

When to use this approach

Remote work is beneficial when:

• There is a high risk that employees can contract COVID-19 — from the office or from commuting to the office
• Employees can work productively at home
• Employees prefer to work from home
• The additional costs to make your office safer for employees are exceedingly high or burdensome

Performance Management Best Practices

Per David Laszewski, Chief Sales Officer at Reflektive, “Staying aligned while the sales team is remote has been so important for us. We use 1:1s daily, and update goals on a monthly basis, to drive accountability and run improved sales processes that yield more wins.”

• Drive a culture of praise and development with recognition and feedback:
  • Plan lightweight, quarterly check-ins that cover performance and career development. After the check-ins, run a pulse survey to ensure that employees received value from the conversation.
  • Ensure employees can request and provide ad-hoc feedback to help them grow and develop
  • Encourage workers to provide recognition in their favorite apps, such as Slack, Gmail, Outlook, and Teams
• Boost alignment with frequent 1:1s and goal-setting:
  • 1:1s can cover work and personal conversations, since employees are lacking their usual social connections
  • Use goals to drive alignment as well — they help employees better prioritize their projects and use their time effectively

Regardless of the approach that your company takes, performance management enables managers and employees to stay better connected and aligned. Consistently gathering employee feedback – through pulse surveys and 1:1 conversations – helps employees feel heard and supported during this ever-changing time.

If you’re interested in boosting alignment and engagement with your performance programs, schedule a conversation with an expert.