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Making Performance Reviews Suck Less, with Elevo

By  Adikteev  ·  2 minute read

Things change fast in Startup world. And it’s a good thing they do, because speed and agility are the key to Startup success and our competitive advantage over larger corporations. But in Startup environments where change happens all the time and we’re constantly innovating in the name of keeping clients happy and excited about our product, it can be difficult to implement a company-wide process for feedback.

 

Performance reviews play a pivotal part in the long-term growth of a Startup — by ensuring employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention. But they can also be tedious to manage. So how do you make performance reviews suck less at your Startup? Read on to find out how Adikteev leveraged Elevo’s software to implement a standardised performance review process for the whole company.

The Problem

Adikteev is an advertising technology company with over 130 employees in 5 offices, globally. We started out as a small team and through a series of successful acquisitions, we now have two key lines of business that have seen the company grow exponentially in a few short years. But thanks to these acquisitions, a number of the HR processes at Adikteev are legacy processes from the two companies we acquired. Performance and productivity is a big part of our working culture, so we’ve always had performance reviews but we needed to standardise our review process to ensure every employee in the company received regular feedback and equal opportunity to discuss career growth plans.

Why We Chose Elevo

Our HR team spent months researching performance review software companies but became frustrated at the inflexibility of most software tools. We needed a platform that we could customise to fit our needs, and one that was simple enough that would not require complex setup or training for employees to use. A number of HR professionals mentioned Elevo and after checking out their awesome features, we knew it was a fit.

What Are The Benefits?

  • Using a software like Elevo’s means that all performance reviews are standardised and fair across the board. All employees should have the opportunity to get feedback from their manager and their peers and this approach ensures the whole company receives feedback in a way that is structured and timely.
  • Tools like Elevo are a godsend for managers who have multiple direct reports. It also forces managers to spend time talking with their team about their performance, expectations and career goals. It may be surprising but in fact, many managers (particularly those working at Startups) are so busy that they don’t have these conversations with their team naturally. This can present major employee retention issues as most employees cite a lack of feedback as a common reason for leaving companies.
  • There’s a common belief amongst Startup leaders that HR is a soft science and that decisions are made by rule of thumb. Performance reviews that are organised and managed in a software tool used company-wide provides important data for HR departments into training needs, career goals, mobility and performance. This data can help HR departments to build relevant HR roadmaps and budgets which in turn allows HR departments to be better advocates for their employees.

Tips to Make Performance Reviews Suck Less

  • Share the review format with the employee well in advance so they understand how they will be assessed and know what to expect on the day.
  • Solicit feedback from the employee’s peers to ensure more perspective and fair appraisal.
  • Performance reviews should be a conversation, not a one-sided assessment. Allow the employee enough time to accept the positive and negative points and provide suggestions for improvements and next steps.
  • Try to find out what motivates the employee, their expectations for the role, and their career goals so you can set common goals and measure progress more effectively.
  • Performance reviews should occur frequently, not just once per year. At Adikteev we have performance reviews every quarter. This allows enough time for the employee and the manager to properly assess performance and set priorities and action points for the next quarter.

If you’re ready for your next career move to a company that values honest feedback above all else, check out our career’s page!
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Originally posted on Medium.