The new year is an interesting and exciting time. Many are starting new jobs, diving into larger projects, and setting new year’s resolutions. But at the same time, a lot of us may not have made any drastic changes to kick off 2022, and could be feeling stuck. To ensure your team is feeling good about themselves and their work, here are some questions to think about so you can better support your people and drive retention in this new year.
Performance check-in frequency: How are you giving feedback?
How often do you talk (formally or informally) about team performance? Are your employees aware of how they're doing and how their work is contributing to the success of your business? With my team, we have weekly check-ins, quarterly performance discussions with peer reviews, and annual performance reviews – that way, everyone is constantly aware of how they’re performing. The weekly check-ins are designed to build trust, the quarterly discussions talk about roadblocks, what I’m doing and not doing as a manager, and the annual review is where we formalize career growth.
At no point should a performance review be a total shock, which is why exercising real-time feedback is pivotal. Real-time feedback drives high performance through flexibility, accuracy, and consistent engagement, and is a catalyst for building trust. Managers capture micro-moments of employee behaviour and coach them based on observations. Expectations or goals are then set to actualize feedback, in place of traditional performance reviews, to see how the employee has grown. To better understand real-time feedback and how you can adopt it as a people leader, check out our ebook, 10X your team’s performance with real-time feedback.
What do you talk about in check-in meetings?
You might have mandated weekly check-ins, maybe you schedule them as needed, or perhaps you’re more likely to schedule formal check-ins throughout the year. Regardless of how frequently you facilitate these conversations, their purpose remains the same: to keep the lines of communication open between you and your people to effectively engage and manage performance.
At minimum, I encourage you to have quarterly check-ins with a solid checklist of action items. Discuss goal and project updates, recent accomplishments, career development, etc. and check in with the employee. Request feedback and discuss areas in need of any change across their team and the company.
Not as formal and usually undocumented, I like to use ‘stay interviews’ as a way to check in with high-performing team members. They’re great in understanding what’s going well and what would make Humigos more motivated to stay with the company. We’ll be releasing an e-book very soon diving deeper into this topic and HR strategic planning (which includes templates and tips), so keep an eye out for it.
How do your performance check-ins build trust?
Brené Brown said it best when she emphasized there is no mastery without feedback, but it’s hard. Early in my career, I fell into the habit where I booked feedback meetings with my team, but didn’t leave room for them to provide me with feedback; they felt accountable to me, but I wasn’t doing my best to be accountable to them. It impacted a sense of true trust between us because ultimately our happiness and career success is a two way street – it has to be reciprocal.
When Brené talks about the anatomy of trust in her podcast, she builds that trust by using the acronym BRAVING, to build a strong foundation. I use this framework when thinking about feedback and building a strong framework for performance discussions. The trick? These discussions aren’t an annual, quarterly, or even weekly formal discussion but an active process.
Do your perks, rewards and recognition align with performance?
Don’t forget about perks. As some of us head into benefits renewal season, it’s important to make sure your perks and benefits not only make financial sense for your business, but align with what your team is looking for.
Spend time digging deep into your current plan and take a look at changing employee benefits providers. Ask your people what they like and what they’re missing. This year, the Humi team has asked its Humigos what perks and benefits are most important to them, including external partnerships, reward and recognition, and professional development support. The team is using this feedback to design its revamped perks, rewards and recognition programs.
With budgets being or having recently been finalized, now is the time to confirm what tools and/or platforms you’re using for recognition. As we work on building our own formal recognition program here at Humi, we’re excited to be partnering with Bucketlist Rewards on January 27th at 1 PM EDT to show you how you can make a great program happen at your company. Click here to register for the event!
What are your goals for the new year?
The new year can bring about feelings of anxiety for some people, and as people leaders, it’s an opportunity for us to make fruitful changes in how we set intentions and structure to build trust, and a stronger ability to lead meaningful projects and initiatives.
In 2021, Humi doubled in size and is on a continuous growth plan. In 2022, my team is digging deeper into the foundations of our team’s development and growth. We’re building our performance management philosophy, building on our culture at work, and reevaluating our perks and benefits alignment. With the ultimate goal of understanding “what makes Humi a great place to work?”
My advice to you, is to integrate professional and personal goals for team members into your 2022 planning, and tie that into a greater overarching goal. Be thoughtful, consider every team member and their role and personal goals when setting intentions for 2022, and you’re bound to accomplish what you set out to do, and make your team (and company) a great place to work.
