Some interesting results from our People and Performance Audit, on the use of 360 degree feedback in different industries and different company sizes. I’ll let the pictures do the talking…
Prevalence of 360 by organization size:
We’ve probably all worked at companies that have produced a handbook of policies and procedures: from what to wear, to how many days leave you get on the death of your grandmother’s cousin’s best friend’s dog, to why you’re not allowed to access Facebook, or Twitter, or YouTube.
Most of these policies are unnecessary most of the time; most employees will toe the line whether they’ve memorised the handbook or not (and they haven’t). Chances are you used common sense when employing the people who are now working for you, so why not assume they have the same facility? Unless you’re supremely dedicated to the cause, you’re unlikely to create a policy for every foreseeable situation, so why not make your life (and your employees’ lives) easier?
There are increasing calls for simplicity in HR policy – provide broad guidelines that assume your employees don’t need too much hand-holding: ‘be professional’, ‘be respectful, ‘don’t embarrass the company’. Possibly the most famous case of minimalist HR policy is US department store Nordstrom, which gave new employees a 5×8 card inscribed with the company’s one and only HR policy: Use good judgement in all situations.
While they’ve necessarily added more detail over the years (we live in a litigious age), the principle remains the same: treat employees like adults, capable of rational thought and possessed of common sense. Most of them probably are, and you’ll have more time to deal with the few who aren’t.
Ok the dust is well and truly settled from Chicago, so it’s time to reflect!
As always, it was a truly great show. It’s really rewarding to catch up with so many analysts, bloggers and other industry players in one place. In fact, I heard the HR Tech Conference described this year as the village square of HCM! We also caught up with lots of vendors we like, including my two top picks for creative rethinking and repackaging of HR processes: www.smartrecruiters.com – the FREE applicant tracking system, and www.rypple.com – for continuous personal feedback.
As you know, we didn’t have a booth at the tradeshow this year. Instead we went guerrilla, and it was a hit: Sonar6 wins the Guerrilla Marketing Award from HRCapitalist! Obviously not being tied to a booth meant we got to get around and talk to more people, and we found it really paid off.
It also seems that the influencers are starting to cotton on to our business model, as discussed by Brian Sommer in SMART Selling in the SaaS World. We’ve always maintained that we want to democratize performance and talent management – and to do that, it’s important Sonar6 is transparent and accessible to the people who need it. And who wouldn’t want to be called out for bringing “fresh light to the employee and team performance management darkness“?
Now for my only gripe.
As an industry we have some of the most confusing messaging I have ever come across. Honestly, I walked around the tradeshow and I couldn’t work out what a heap of the vendors actually did – it must be awful for customers!
We keep it easy though: we do performance reviews that don’t suck.
To lead a successful company you don’t need to be an expert in programming, in tax accounting, in surveying or construction: but you do need to hire people who are.
As ad guru David Ogilvy put it: If each of us hires people who are smaller than we are, we shall become a company of dwarfs. But if each of us hires people who are bigger than we are, we shall become a company of giants.
But it’s not enough to just hire giants. You need to be prepared to manage giants, and to keep them from getting dragged down by any dwarfs that may be lurking in your ranks. If you want them to deliver big, you have to build systems that enable and encourage giant achievements – and you need to give credit where credit is due.
Hiring giants is a great strategy from a succession point of view: if each manager hires a team of people smarter than they are, there’s a strong pool of potential successors. You want someone great to take over when you step down; it’s much easier than trying to groom a dwarf for greatness.
We’re a little bit behind in introducing them to you, but a couple of months ago Argest became the first paying Quick Start customer after completing the 30 day trial.
We’re thrilled to have Argest on board: in the brief time the team have been using Sonar6 they’ve made some good use of the system and given us some very valuable user feedback. Plus they’re exactly the sort of company we developed Quick Start for, so it’s obviously doing its job!
Read more about Argest in this month’s case study (part 1 of a 2-parter).
You’ve probably encountered the maxim hire slow, fire fast: most people accept that it’s important to take swift action when it comes to poor performers…
At Sonar6, we’re fond of many things. Performance reviews that don’t suck, pool, cat photos with humorous captions, eating.
Continuing the tradition of Staff Meetings with Scones, Staff Meetings with Ethnic Dishes was a resounding success. Our staff contributed cultural cuisine from all over the world: Holland, the Philippines, Croatia, Palmerston North…
Held every second Wednesday, the SMEDs were a great opportunity to get updates on new customers, present current development work and discuss the company’s progress. While eating, of course.
We’ve since moved on to SMeFoL. Anyone brave enough to guess what the newest acronym stands for?
Too often, hiring decisions are made too quickly to fill an immediate need: a deadline’s looming, an important seat has been vacated, a key skill is suddenly lost. The position’s advertised and awarded to the best of the applicants, even if the best isn’t all that great.
Ideally, you’ll only ever hire the best possible fit for your roles and your company, and you’ll keep looking until you find people who measure up. They’ll fit in perfectly, deliver from day one, won’t cause any problems, and they’ll make the company a better place just by being part of it. It’s not impossible to find these people, but it will take more time and effort to make it happen (but still less time and effort than it’ll take to get rid of someone you don’t want).
The best thing we can do for our competitors is hire poorly. If I hire a bunch of bozos, it will hurt us, because it takes time to get rid of them. The 7 Hidden Reasons Employees Leave – Leigh Branham
But if you’ve already settled, and it turns out your ‘good enough’ hire just isn’t good enough? Deal with it, quickly.
Our newest feature release is particularly appropriate given that it’s Māori language week…
Sonar6 now provides full support for macrons, so these special characters can be used in every field throughout the product. This is an important addition to Sonar6 – check out our case study on The Office of Te Rūnanga o Ngāi Tahu to see why.
Just a little change, but one that can make a world of difference!
Everyone in your workforce under 30 is Gen Y.
We keep hearing how this generation has fundamental differences in attitude to work to the Baby Boomers and Gen X. So we’ve been experimenting! We’ve observed groups of Gen Y in our lab doing performance reviews and scoured the available literature to answer the question: When it comes to performance management, do businesses need to do anything different with Gen Y?
@sonar6 (Mike) on Twitter @sonarjohn on Twitter @sonarkaren on Twitter @sonarpete on Twitter @sonarjason on Twitter
