Four Adoption Best Practices for Performance Programs

Fact: 82% of HR leaders struggle to drive adoption of their technology. Even if there are required HR activities, such as completing performance reviews, HR technology adoption still often lags that of department-specific software.

Adoption is a leading indicator of a company’s ability to drive successful organizational change and improve employee behaviors. When employees are using performance technology regularly, they’re able to boost their productivity, and better align with key organizational objectives.

So, how can companies take the first step in this journey and instill productive employee behaviors? We’ve gathered adoption best practices from six very different Reflektive customers. How do we know that their ideas are awesome? Check out their adoption results below.

Strong Adoption Rates from Reflektive Customers

Best Practice #1

Build Performance Management into Existing Programs

One insight we gleaned across several of our customers was that they leveraged existing programs to promote usage of new tools. There were many creative ways that they went about this. Two of the customers (PHD and Kittelson) integrated goals into review cycles to drive adoption of both modules. Not only did this help the professional services firms boost usage of the solutions, but it also drove alignment. Having meaningful conversations on employee goals and how they support organizational objectives ensures that every employee is helping their company grow.

Enquero leaned on employees’ existing workflows to drive adoption. Specifically, their integration with Microsoft Teams helped boost employee recognition. By letting employees give kudos in their most frequently-used apps, Reflektive customers can generate 3X more feedback.

Other tactics that customers pursued? Flipp ensured that all new hires were familiar with their performance programs by building them into their onboarding process. PHD used their All-Staff meetings to encourage employees to provide recognition. By identifying existing technology, programs, and forums that team members use, you can create synergies that boost your company’s feedback culture.

Best Practice #2

Develop Helpful Assets & Resources

Another observation from our customers is that they leveraged a variety of resources to help their employees be successful with their new performance programs. Videos were a particularly helpful content type (used by Flipp and HoganTaylor), as well as Reflektive Support Center articles (Hogan Taylor and Physicians Insurance). Other notable tactics?

• Flipp covered detail-heavy content in their Confluence pages
• Physicians Insurance led multiple training sessions, with some targeted to managers and others for employees, to provide more customized content
• HoganTaylor also took a segmented approach to their review cycle content, providing best practices for individual contributors, and technical resources & tips for managers

While there’s no silver bullet in creating the perfect content for your stakeholders, leveraging existing communication channels and tailoring your content for your audience are some good best practices to follow!

Best Practice #3

Gather Insights from Engagement Surveys and Team Debriefs

Another trend we observed from our customers is that none of them take a “set it and forget it” approach to performance management — they continuously evolve their programs to better deliver value and address employee needs. Specifically, they gather feedback and data to understand what’s working and what can be improved.

HoganTaylor has a Talent Advisor team debrief after review cycles to discuss the questions that generated the most feedback, and those that didn’t. They use these insights to inform review form content for future check-ins.

When HR teams at PHD and Enquero were looking to better understand employee needs during the COVID-19 pandemic, they turned to engagement surveys. The HR groups were looking for insights to shape their culture of feedback, as well as their performance programs.

Interestingly, the companies took slightly different approaches to engagement surveys: PHD sent weekly pulse surveys, while Enquero sent out a meatier survey every few months to gauge employee sentiment. But both approaches generated powerful insights that HR teams acted on. PHD was able to address work-life balance and feelings of isolation, while Enquero made targeted improvements to their onboarding process, feedback culture, and career mapping. With input from employees, Enquero and PHD could adjust their programs and culture to better suit their unique workforces.

Best Practice #4

Take a Development-Focused Approach

Another way to make performance programs valuable for employees is to ensure that team members receive helpful feedback for their career growth. All of the six aforementioned customers took a developmental approach to their review, goal-setting, and other programs. Some of their unique tactics to drive professional growth are below:

• Kittelson’s “Roles & Responsibility” performance conversations include a one-page document on the “traffic light model”. This includes key insights on behaviors that employees should stop, start, or continue to benefit their career.
• The HoganTaylor Talent Advisor team discusses trends in developmental needs after their review cycles. Then they’ll bring in the L&D professional at their company to consult on programs and resources that address those needs.
• Physicians Insurance uses Reflektive Goals to help employees drive their own growth. Per Yelena Neuman, Human Resources Manager, “Direct reports are encouraged to discuss their professional growth during 1:1s too. The more frequent conversations allow managers and employees to better align on performance expectations as well.”

Taking an employee-centric lens to your performance programs – by making processes easier, gathering feedback, and focusing on professional development – makes a big difference in driving adoption and engagement. With continuous iterations and insights, the aforementioned customers achieved their goals and drove meaningful behavior change. If you’re interested in learning more performance best practices, schedule a chat with an expert.