Because Sonar6 is so easy to configure to individual organizations, it’s easy to get carried away tweaking the system and making heaps of cool changes. However, we’ve found that keeping it simple pays off in terms of increased engagement (ie, people don’t get bogged down in detail and actually want to use it!)

Our configuration recommendations are the result of several years working with a really diverse range of organizations. Basically, we’ve discovered that customers who introduce too many changes really complicate the process for the administrators who set up Sonar6, for people doing their performance reviews, and for the poor souls who have to analyse all the extra information…

The standard Sonar6 configuration (which is what you can see in the free trial or Quick Start plans) is really the optimal setup in terms of information and complexity: numbers of role types, factors, goals etc. We advise organizations who want to configure Sonar6 to use the standard configuration as a guideline – everyone we’ve helped has seen better results that way.

We are aware that organizations coming to Sonar6 with existing performance management programs might require a little more tweaking to translate their data into Sonar6 form. That’s definitely doable; we have Implementation Consultants who can advise how to best make it happen – while keeping your configuration manageable.

In his recent article on Purpose Built Analytic Applications, Vish Agashe singled out Sonar6 as an example: developed to address a specific business area (performance), delivered via a purpose-built UI, and with holistic data visualisation and analytic capability. He predicts there’ll be more of these types of applications developed as we see increased business need for data visualisation to assist in decision making.

It’s an interesting piece and well worth a read!

Mike recently spoke with Dave Lavinsky over at Growthink about the importance of performance reviews. Even if your company’s tiny and you think you have better things to spend your time on, you should still be reviewing your people (they’ll thank you in the end).

Check it out!

Steve Boese is one of the more prominent HR experts in the socialmediasphere, and recently had some rather lovely things to say about Sonar6 .

“Sonar6 … possesses what is likely the most unique and innovative user interface in the market. The interaction and flexibility of the applications make managing employee performance and developing reviews almost fun.  Sonar6 also has a very refreshing and sort of offbeat approach to marketing and publicity that is a welcome change in what can be a very staid market.”

Lovely.

Now go and read the rest of Steve’s views on developments in HR tech!

Sonar6 has been recognized as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the Asia Pacific region, thanks to a whopping 704% revenue growth over the past three years.

The Deloitte Fast 500 Program recognizes those technology companies with the fastest rates of annual revenue growth from 2006 to 2008.  At number 40, Sonar6 came in third out of 51 New Zealand companies named in this year’s list. Congratulations to our fellow Kiwi top-50ers: NextWindow, Telesmart and TracMap!

It’s a fantastic result – Sonar6’s phenomenal growth has been both exciting and challenging, so our ongoing success is a great testament to the team’s hard work over the past few years (and proof that our commitment to providing really useful performance reviews is paying off!)

It’s great to be recognized: we’ve added a lot of new clients in 2009, and our 2010 forecast shows excellent opportunities to continue our success in the USA and Australasia.

Can we get a w00t?

This year’s Sonar6 Christmas extravaganza saw us head out to Muriwai for a morning of golf, horse trekking and surfing – all followed by a typically Kiwi afternoon of eating, napping, swimming and games at Only Fools and Horses.

Aside from some redder than usual faces and one slightly bruised leg, there were no major mishaps and a great time was had by all.

Happy Holidays from the Sonar6 team, and best wishes for a fabulous 2010!

We’ll be introducing some improvements to the review completion screen in our next product update (due for release in time for Christmas), so it will provide even more useful and up-to-date feedback on review progress.

When you load your Team’s Performance Reviews, you’ll see a screen similar to this one:

Along with overall completion bars for each review phase, you’ll get more detailed information on the progress of your team’s reviews, self assessments and 360° reviews. Additionally, you’ll be able to share reviews with your manager or employees and send email reminders and 360 review invitations (if you’re using Sonar6 360°!) all from the one screen.

You can also access this completion screen by clicking the ‘Details’ button next to the progress bar in the bottom right panel of your Team’s Performance Review screen.

These improvements will really streamline your managers’ review workflows – keep an eye out for them!

Now you can invite anyone to have their say at review time: as long as they have an email address, they can contribute to a 360º review. Check out the details.

Aggreko, the global leader in the provision of rental power and temperature control services, will implement Sonar6’s online performance management solution internationally.

Sonar6 will provide Aggreko with a single point of performance information for the entire company, offering online performance reviews, self-assessments and development planning.

Aggreko’s North American subsidiary has used Sonar6 for managing the performance of almost 500 employees since early 2009. The decision to roll Sonar6 out internationally was made on the back of the existing relationship and continued positive results from the system’s straightforward and user-friendly reviews.

Aggreko Global HR Director Siegfried Putzer says the decision to introduce Sonar6 globally will encourage individual and company growth: “(It is) a simple, meaningful online performance management tool that engages employees and enables managers to give valuable feedback, and to have discussions around existing capabilities and future development.”

This expansion will position Sonar6 as the performance management vendor of choice for Aggreko’s global community. The international nature of the implementation will also see reviews and training conducted in 6 languages within the Sonar6 system.

Sonar6 Head of Experience Mike Carden says Aggreko’s decision to use Sonar6 across its entire business is an exciting one.

“It’s a true success story: Aggreko started out with fewer than 200 employees profiled in Sonar6, and now the majority of its 4,000 staff globally will be using the system. It goes to show that if you have a really useful system delivering useful results without costing the earth, companies are going to want to use it.”

That would be Sonar6 graphic designer Kai Crow: world famous on bus stops around NZ.

Kai’s mountain biking prowess recently scored him a photo shoot for Mizone, which involved “4 hours of me hopping around on the back and front wheels of my bike from various angles and riding around on a skate ramp til I got dizzy.”

The resulting poster can now be viewed in various public places around the country. No word yet on whether we’re getting one for the office…