Within the early days of Assist Scout, our CEO and co-founder, Nick Francis, was impressed to construct not solely an ideal product for our prospects however an ideal firm for our teammates to do their greatest work. We knew we didn’t need to copy and paste a conventional (and meaningless) efficiency evaluation course of, so we bucked the pattern and created our personal Assist Scout-y model.
Alongside the way in which, Nick coined the time period for the “Participant Highway Map,” which grew to become the grounding artifact in our twice-a-year street map check-in course of. Whereas it served us within the early years of Assist Scout, it grew to become clear it wouldn’t swimsuit us for the lengthy haul. At this time, our course of appears to be like a lot totally different — and we’re excited to share the place we’ve landed.
What we used to do
Twice a yr, everybody at Assist Scout would put aside a while to finish a self-assessment that included prompts about beforehand set objectives and whether or not they had been achieved, what work was shipped that they had been pleased with, any challenges confronted, and what they wished to work on within the subsequent six months. Then, the teammate and supervisor would meet to debate the self-assessment and co-create new objectives for the following six months.
We thought we had created a light-weight however significant course of — however it quickly broke for a number of causes.
Why it broke
The street map course of we created couldn’t scale with the expansion of our staff. One of many greatest ache factors that emerged was that we weren’t utilizing a device to correctly facilitate it. As an alternative, everybody wrote their street maps in numerous Google or Paper Docs after which archived them in our inner Wiki device, Slab. 12 months over yr, it grew to become arduous to maintain monitor of individuals’s street maps and whether or not the conversations had been taking place. There was no solution to monitor development over time, and there was actually no solution to achieve any sort of high-level perception into what was taking place throughout the corporate.
Along with missing instruments and consistency, we realized we weren’t specializing in the fitting issues. Our street map check-ins had been changing into nebulous conversations about objectives that weren’t rooted in precise efficiency and outcomes that impacted the enterprise. It was clear we would have liked an overhaul.
4 steps to create a performance-driven tradition
Whereas each staff and firm is exclusive, there are just a few methods we shifted to a extra performance-driven tradition at Assist Scout. Right here’s what we recommend:
1. Outline what efficiency means in your firm
If we wished to maneuver to a performance-driven tradition, we would have liked to take a beat and spend time defining and documenting what efficiency meant to Assist Scout particularly. We needed to clearly articulate why we had been shifting to a twice-per-year efficiency evaluation cycle, join it to our firm values, and clarify why this may be a greater final result for our teammates in addition to for the enterprise.
A snippet from our “Efficiency at Assist Scout” doc:
The nice Dolly Parton stated, ‘Discover out who you’re and do it on function.’ We’re all right here to help you on that journey, and as a way to do this, we’d like a chance for everybody to supply particular observations and actionable suggestions about what we do properly and the way we will enhance.
We additionally determined that it was time to introduce efficiency assessments. We consider that efficiency is the worth of a teammate’s contributions to the group over time, and that worth must be assessed as a way to assist make selections about compensation and promotions. Utilizing a shared framework like a efficiency evaluation helps everybody know the place they stand and helps managers know who wants additional steering and who is able to transfer to the following degree.
We additionally really feel strongly that utilizing efficiency assessments really results in extra equity and fairness — everybody understands how and why they’re being assessed, and that info is shared transparently. Utilizing efficiency assessments additionally permits for a chook’s-eye view of worker efficiency to assist us perceive how we’re doing holistically throughout the group.
At Assist Scout, we use a 1-4 evaluation rating system:
1: Not assembly expectations | Efficiency is falling constantly under the expectations of the position. This consists of managers of groups whose performances have constantly fallen under expectations. |
2: Partially assembly expectations | Efficiency has been inconsistent within the interval main as much as the evaluation. This particular person could also be assembly some objectives or demonstrating some behaviors anticipated of the position whereas not assembly others. Somebody additionally might obtain a 2 if they’re new to the position or took on new duties and are making progress towards assembly expectations by the following evaluation cycle. |
3: Assembly expectations | You’re superior! Efficiency and behaviors are constantly robust and according to expectations for the position. |
4: Exceeding expectations | Efficiency is constantly exceeding expectations for the position and degree. The individual displays an distinctive degree of feat and a capability to ship outcomes that considerably influence the enterprise. |
We additionally moved to connecting compensation to our efficiency cycle. Beforehand, it hadn’t been completely clear the best way to get a increase or promotion at Assist Scout, so connecting our compensation to efficiency felt like the fitting iteration. As an organization that wishes to reward robust efficiency, it made sense! Now, following every efficiency cycle, there’s a chance for managers to submit their teammates for raises or promotions the place applicable and primarily based concretely on their prior efficiency. We additionally felt this was according to our values round DEI to make sure we had been inspecting everybody for raises, not simply the loudest voices.
2. Lay out the method
We determined that our efficiency evaluations would come with three components:
Self-assessment — A abstract on contributions, accomplishments, and areas of improvement during the last six months in addition to your personal evaluation (1-4) of the way you’ve met efficiency expectations in your position.
Supervisor’s evaluation — The supervisor writes their very own model of the prompts above and selects an evaluation quantity between 1-4.
Upward evaluation — Everybody has a chance to submit temporary suggestions for his or her supervisor.
3. Decide the fitting device
As soon as we had been clear on our course of, we needed to decide the fitting device to make all of it work effectively. After evaluating just a few merchandise, we landed on Lattice and have been very proud of our selection. It appears like night time and day between our previous course of, and now, due to Lattice, we will simply monitor completion charges, see progress over time, and report on analytics throughout the corporate.
4. Set everybody up for fulfillment
Shifting to a model new efficiency administration course of required a lot of communication with our staff and quite a lot of documenting our work! We additionally had a number of Zoom conferences with managers to stroll them by way of the brand new course of, guarantee alignment on the evaluation classes, and make area for Q&A.
It was additionally important to ensure each staff had a profession framework loaded into Lattice in order that teammates knew how they had been being assessed. It’s not a good course of in case your staff doesn’t perceive what nice efficiency even appears to be like like, so ensure you’ve completed that work upfront.
What we’ve realized
We’re within the midst of our second cycle utilizing our new course of, and we have already got quite a lot of learnings to report! After our first cycle, we heard suggestions that it could assist managers to have even clearer steering on what actions ought to occur relying on what evaluation class somebody lands in. We additionally included peer suggestions within the first cycle, however we heard again that that course of added quite a lot of further work, so we’ve shifted to a tradition of steady peer suggestions as a substitute of saving all of it up for evaluation cycles.
Lattice has an ideal “suggestions” function the place anybody can submit suggestions to another person at any time, so we’ve created “Suggestions Focus weeks” outdoors of evaluation weeks to encourage utilization and to remind folks to get into the behavior of usually giving suggestions.
What’s subsequent?
Following this cycle, we’re excited to dive into Lattice’s “Develop” function, which is an area to plan and seize progress in your profession improvement. One in all our Folks staff objectives for the primary half of the yr is to make sure that 100% of our firm has a Develop plan so that everybody is crystal clear on what they need to be targeted on and the way their progress might be assessed. If we wish our efficiency administration course of to be honest and significant, then we’ve to make sure expectations are clear.
After evaluations are written, we’re going to have our first full calibration. Our Folks enterprise companions will facilitate a collection of conferences with managers, administrators, VPs, and C-suite to calibrate everybody throughout the corporate to make sure consistency and equity. It’s essential to assist leaders perceive what efficiency appears to be like like on their very own groups in addition to the way it compares throughout the group and to ensure everyone seems to be evaluating by way of a shared lens.
Efficiency evaluations don’t need to suck
Efficiency evaluations understandably have a horrible fame. Usually, firms slap collectively inconsiderate processes, then managers undergo the motions, and groups are pressured into sure curves and outcomes to maintain executives blissful. To be clear, that’s not what we’re constructing at Assist Scout or encouraging.
Each staff and corporations can profit from a course of that’s considerate and intentional. When completed proper, everybody at your organization may have an entire understanding of their efficiency, development edges, and alternatives for profession development. The enterprise will then have clear perception into how the group is performing, who to reward pretty, and who wants extra help.