Nobody actually wants complexity. People usually just want to get a job done effectively, and quickly (and probably for the lowest possible cost). Most of the time what we actually need is ‘good enough’…

Unnecessary complexity making your life miserable? Feel better: read the Good enough is the new black color paper online or download from http://www.sonar6.com/colorpapers/good-enough

Sometimes it seems like we know we need performance management (after all, we have a review once a year – usually) but we’ve forgotten why…

Really useful performance management starts with really useful performance reviews, but it doesn’t end there!  Read the ‘Really useful performance management’ color paper online or download from http://www.sonar6.com/colorpapers/really-useful-performance-management

We’ve recently added a bunch of friendly new support staff to our US office, so we’ve had to find somewhere a lot bigger to keep them all. After a bit of a search for just the right spot, Sonar6’s US base has moved to new premises in Sausalito:

Sonar6 in the USA
2658 Bridgeway
Suite 207
Sausalito
CA 94965

In addition, we’ve just opened an office in Sydney, Australia. Sales Exec Peter Romeyn will be heading this up, and we’ll be hiring more local support for our Australian customers in the very near future.

Sonar6 in Australia
74 Cascade Street
Paddington NSW 2021

If you’re in the area – any of them – stop in and say hi!

Remember last year, when we were named in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific  top 50? We thought you might like to see the award itself, as cheerfully accepted by Sonar6 Finance Manager Amy Booth (R).

HR Happy Hour is a weekly online radio show – hosted by Steve Boese and Shauna Moerke – that features various HR experts, analysts, commentators, vendors, listener call-ins and a level of hilarity not usually associated with HR.

Excitingly, Sonar6 has been invited to come along and talk about our unique take on performance reviews; how it’s increasing user engagement and helping companies get better results.

So tune in on August 5 at 8PM EDT (12pm Friday 6 for the kiwis) to hear Mike discuss the Sonar6 perspective and some of the cool things we’re doing in the coming months. Participation is encouraged so if you have burning questions you’d like answered, call in and put him on the spot…

You can listen to the show live at the HR Happy Hour BlogTalkRadio page, or call +1 646 378 1086 to hear the show over the phone. Quizzing Mike live on air is as easy as calling up and pressing ‘1′, so we expect to hear from you!

Join Sonar6 on HR Happy Hour!

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Steve-Boese
Thurday August 5 2010 8-9PM EDT (Friday August 6 12-1PM NZ)

We’ve all heard the standard complaints about members of Gen Y – they’re disloyal, lazy, have short attention spans, you practically need to throw parades when they accomplish the simplest tasks, they want the top job on day one, don’t respect experience, won’t be long term employees, are only motivated by money, need work to be fun… But then every generation complains about the next one.

Now Gen Y is among us, what can they teach us about better performance management?

Read the ‘Never Should Have Added My Boss on Facebook’ color paper online or download from http://www.sonar6.com/colorpapers/added-my-boss-on-facebook

Recently we hosted a discussion on the use of attributed or anonymous feedback in organizations’ 360° reviews. Here’s the recap:

Anonymous seems to be the baseline; the jumping-off point for multirater feedback. More useful in low-trust environments, anonymous feedback encourages honesty and reduces (hopefully eliminates) the possibility of retaliation for negative feedback.

Sharon Searle “I have used 360 degree in a lot of different environments including international (highly multicultural) over the past 30 years and have found that anonymous is a great place to start as you build towards trust.”

Most participants agreed there should be some level of access (by managers or HR) to attributed 360° information, even if the reviewee never sees it. It’s useful to aggregate feedback by type (what peers are saying vs customer feedback), and it’s possible to dig deeper if there’s something wacky going on.

Christina Mazzella-King “My personal belief is the manager or human resource person should have knowledge of who is submitting the information. This will allow for more clarification if needed. There are times when individuals give bad feedback because of personal reasons rather than work related issues.”

There is a move towards greater transparency and openness in performance feedback that supports the case for attributed feedback. After all, if you trust that the people you work with have your best interests at heart you’ll be only too happy to listen to their feedback (even if it’s not glowing, it’s still likely to be useful…)

Timothy Wallace “One of our core values is speaking the unvarnished truth. Thus, we don’t use anonymous feedback. Historically, I find anonymous feedback is usually tainted with emotion and focuses on the negative versus the positive.”

But companies embracing open and transparent communication probably aren’t relying on a once-yearly formal 360° review for performance feedback and may find the whole debate a little pointless…

Jenny Kempa “I am a great believer in ad hoc positive acknowledgement and placing the responsibility for a good job done squarely on the shoulders of the relevant staff. In this way, the reviews become a simple procedure and are a consolidation of what the manager and staff member already knows.”

To sum up: we have anonymous, attributed and mixed feedback, formal and informal review processes and low and high-trust organization cultures. Seems to be a nice solid win for ‘it depends’.

Agree or disagree with anything our participants brought up? Join the discussion or drop a comment…

Just had another fantastic review where you ended up discussing things that went wrong 8 months ago?

Our latest color paper looks at ways performance reviews should be redesigned to help managers do a better job of managing year-round (not just a better job of reviewing once every 12 months).

Read the ‘Do I need to thank my manager’ color paper online or download from http://www.sonar6.com/colorpapers/better-managers

Enjoy playing games and often found yourself wondering if there was a way to make tedious work tasks more like something you actually enjoy?

Our latest color paper looks at the concepts behind the incredibly popular social gaming phenomenon, and how they can be applied to (not incredibly popular) performance reviews.

Read the ‘Lessons from FarmVille’ color paper online or download from

http://www.sonar6.com/colorpapers/lessons-from-farmville