Earlier this year, Reflektive made the decision to support remote work indefinitely. This decision had a lot of benefits for me (I moved cross-country!) but also presented some challenges. How would I continue to build trust with my team of Business Development Representatives (BDRs), and continue to develop their careers? To address this key topic, I thought through my typical developmental activities for team members, and modified them to account for our new remote work environment. My recommendations are below:

Onboarding

Developmental Conversations

Networking

Team Learning

Gathering Feedback

Building Team Culture

If you’re interested in learning how Reflektive can support remote managers, set up a chat with one of our product experts!

Authored by Alex Griffin, Director of Business Development

This fall, Reflektive won two accolades that mean a lot to us. We’ve been named a G2 Leader in Performance Management, and the Best Tech Workplace for Diversity by Tech In Motion. These awards say a lot about our values and what we continuously strive towards. Our key priorities are building a solution that our customers love, and improving diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at Reflektive.

The G2 leader designation builds on our market presence and high customer satisfaction. Reflektive has received over 400 reviews from verified users, with dozens of testimonials citing our value in driving organizational alignment. Our full list of reviews is available on Reflektive’s G2 page, but we’ve included some highlights below:

• “Keeps us on track to reaching our goals overall as a company. It makes your work more meaningful with instant feedback and recognition.”
• “I love the Outlook extension that allows me to view the goals of any employee, add/edit topics for upcoming 1×1 meetings (saving tons of money on post-its) and give them real-time feedback and potentially rewards points right there. 89% of our users have given feedback and 100% have received feedback in the first few months of use.”
• “Reflektive provides a user-friendly platform (both desktop and mobile) that creates a “space” for managers and employees to have continuous 1:1s, feedback, check-ins, and developmental conversations. Unlike other traditional performance management systems, Reflektive is built with the users in mind and supports end-to-end performance management processes from setting goals, 1:1s, check-ins, 360s, praise, peer feedback, to performance review.”

Similar to our passion for building a robust performance solution, we are equally dedicated to improving workplace diversity. This past year, we focused on employee connectedness, communication and our responsibility to our people and customers. Some of the initiatives that helped us build an inclusive culture include:

• Regularly-scheduled company, departmental, and 1:1 meetings to allow employees to listen to one another and speak their feelings. We’ve also hosted optional company Listening Circles. 
• Expanded employee mental health and well-being education, along with offering resources like EAP programs, mindfulness training and behavioral health solutions.
• On a monthly basis, we provide a company mental health day so all employees can take the day off to rest and focus on their well-being. Should an employee be on call, leadership has taken proactive measures to ensure they have a day off within a week of the date.

While 2020 has been a challenging year for everyone, we’re grateful to have supported customers, team members, and partners during this tumultuous time. If you’re interested in learning how Reflektive can help your company, schedule some time with an expert.

Since 2007 Flipp has helped retailers create and distribute digital content that inspires discovery. The company has built its reputation on creating an amazing user experience — and Flipp is now applying the same user-centricity to their employee performance programs too. In 2017, Flipp partnered with Reflektive to drive ongoing feedback through high-quality conversations. Read our below Q&A with Tyler Moulton, HR Business Partner, to learn how Flipp boosted employee involvement in their new performance programs.

Reflektive: Can you tell us a little bit about Flipp?

Tyler: Flipp is the number one provider of digital circulars in North America, with over 50 million downloads across Canada and the US, and over one million product views per minute. We do this through partnerships with over 90% of the largest retailers in North America, including Lowe’s, Rite Aid, and Walmart.  

Reflektive: Why did the company decide to partner with Reflektive in 2017?

Tyler: Prior to Reflektive, everyone was managing performance in a different way. People used Google Forms, email, and Slack. We were unable to drive and track high-quality conversations. 

We looked at several vendors, but Reflektive really resonated with us because of their consultative partnership and commitment to ongoing feedback. We knew that Reflektive would enable us to drive our culture forward, and make it easy to develop our people. We also have observed great product improvements from Reflektive during our partnership.

Reflektive: How have you changed your performance processes with Reflektive?

Tyler: When we were using Google Forms, we had three formal reviews per year. We’ve changed this process to enable managers and employees to have more meaningful conversations throughout the year. 

We now have an annual performance review, and a mid-year check-in. Throughout the rest of the year, we have:

• Quarterly developmental syncs
• Quarterly peer feedback conversations
• Monthly goals syncs
• Weekly or bi-weekly manager meetings

Reflektive: How are employees having these discussions with their managers?

Tyler: We encourage folks to use Reflektive 1:1s. With the 1:1s, team members can keep track of what they discussed in their conversations. And the pre-built Conversation Starters help folks initiate important discussions too!

Reflektive: That’s great to hear! How else have you improved Flipp’s performance processes for your different stakeholders?

Tyler: We took advantage of all that Reflektive had to offer to create a better experience. Specifically, the platform saved employees time and effort and consolidated all of their information — that was one piece of feedback I’ve heard a lot. With Reflektive and our new processes, we really made a difference with our stakeholders:

• Leaders: We were able to create a one-stop-shop for our executives. They don’t need to reach out to people to get reviews completed or see performance data. With Reflektive, we can trigger automatic reminder emails for all folks that haven’t completed their reviews. Leaders and HR also have access to holistic review data so we can see performance trends over time.
• Team Members: Similarly, employees have a go-to place for their individual performance information. They go to Reflektive to ask for feedback, provide recognition, and see their performance reviews. An employee-centric solution like Reflektive enables them to better own their growth and development.
• HR: My life is a lot easier with Reflektive! I can answer questions that execs have really easy with data from People Intelligence. From seeing how many people requested feedback to our review completion rates, I can easily keep track of all of our people programs.

Reflektive: I’m glad that the experience improved for all of your stakeholders! You run several different performance programs at Flipp — how do you drive employee adoption of these programs?

Tyler: We used several strategies to educate people and link performance programs back to our strategic people goals. Specifically, we leaned on:

• Videos: Short, simple videos help the HR team demo Reflektive in a scalable way. 
• Confluence Pages: These more detailed pages included the goals of our new program, what it looks like, and what is expected from different stakeholders.
• Onboarding Programs: Covering Reflektive in our onboarding helps us ramp up new hires super fast!

Reflektive: Glad you took a multi-pronged approach! What results did you achieve in terms of employee adoption of your programs?

Tyler: We were really happy with employee participation in our new programs:

• 100% of our team members have goals that are tracked in Reflektive and aligned with departmental and company goals
• 92% of our team members have goal conversations with their managers on a monthly basis
• 100% of team members receive feedback from their peers and give feedback about their managers
• 100% of team members receive reviews 2X per year, which include a self review, peer feedback and manger review

Reflektive: That’s great to hear! Final question: can you talk a little bit about your experience with the Reflektive services team?

Tyler: Our CSM is so great. I’ve never had to wait more than an hour to hear back from her. I feel confident asking her any question that she’ll give me a helpful answer or point me in the right direction. And the rest of the support team is awesome — I always feel that my tickets are being worked on, and receive frequent status updates. 

Building a strong relationship with your boss can be challenging, even in normal times. Add in a pandemic and remote work, and it becomes even harder! So what can you do to strengthen ties to your manager, from afar? Our step-by-step guide covers the best ways to form a strong relationship.

Calibration. A big word for a complex process. 

Whether you’re aligning on performance reviews or selecting future company leaders, calibration is often an emotionally-charged term. Calibration has historically been a manual, frustrating process for all involved. And it often doesn’t accomplish its objectives — eliminating biases, addressing ratings inconsistencies across teams and managers, and adding clarity to talent management decisions.

For years, companies have either endured the time-consuming and sometimes ineffective process – or scrapped it all together.

It’s no wonder that calibration brings frustration and fear to mind — when was the last time a calibration session left you feeling empowered?

A New Start: Calibration in 2021

But what if we turned traditional calibration into a modern, data-driven process—one that not only saves time, but also incorporates multiple data sources to create a more complete, unbiased view of performance and talent? 

We’re excited to announce Reflektive Calibration is coming soon! 

This solution helps HR teams by:

• Improving calibration quality with helpful information all in one place
• Ensuring rating consistency and data integrity, so organizations can make the optimal talent management decisions
• Saving time for HR professionals and managers, so they can focus on other strategic priorities

What makes our solution unique is that it incorporates employee feedback and recognition, so managers have a broader understanding of performance over time instead of anchoring on the most recent performance anecdotes. Reflektive Calibration supports annual, quarterly, monthly, and even on-demand calibration sessions. 

We’ve heard from several customers that they appreciate having one go-to place for all performance data. Specifically, they like being able to:

• Visualize distributions for performance and talent ratings, including the 9-box grid
• Have easy access to decisions and comments from calibration sessions

Our early adopters have also benefited from the solution’s ease of use and time savings. Per Taylor Orr, Learning & Org Development Program Manager at Dropbox, “The ROI of Reflektive Calibration is definitely there for me. With our previous manual process, I had to export all our data, blend it with demographic data, upload it into our calibration system, and export the results to be uploaded back into Reflektive. It was a massive effort, and a huge time drain. With Reflektive, I didn’t have to do manual work — instead I was able to spend more time enabling HRBPs to have successful calibration sessions.”

But technology alone can’t drive an improved calibration process — it takes effective leadership and communication to ensure that performance and talent planning are equitable. Below are some common questions we receive from customers, and the best ways to drive calibration forward.

Calibration FAQs

Interested in early access to Reflektive Calibration? If you’re already a Reflektive customer, reach out to your customer support team. If you’re not currently a Reflektive customer, schedule a chat with an expert.

Author: Marc Caltabiano, Chief Product Officer

With more employees working remotely than ever before, productivity is becoming a major challenge for companies. From taking care of family members to lacking technical resources, there are many reasons why employees aren’t performing optimally when they’re at home. 

However, companies of all sizes can drive productivity through their performance programs — including employee reviews. In fact, research shows that those who like their review processes are 2.9X more likely to work harder than they have at past companies.

So how can companies leverage their existing performance programs to drive productivity? Our step-by-step guide covers the best ways to make performance reviews work for you.

Looking to learn more productivity best practices? Schedule a consult with an expert.

While many companies have made the smart decision to pivot from traditional, annual reviews to frequent performance conversations, a key question remains: what should HR teams do after the performance evaluations? Specifically, Reflektive customers ask us how they can drive improved employee productivity, performance, and development after their reviews. This step-by-step guide covers the best ways to get more out of your performance appraisals.

Looking to learn more reviews best practices? Schedule a consult with an expert.

This summer, Reflektive launched a Performance Management Benchmark Report to identify both consistencies and changes in how companies run their performance programs. While the analysis in the reports spans all industries, we decided to share interesting trends in the financial services industry in this blog post. 

Our responses from 445 HR professionals and business leaders uncovered some similarities between finance and other industries, such as approaches to performance conversations and the involvement of leadership in continuous feedback programs. Where finance leaders have responded differently is in their emphasis on employee productivity. Financial services firms are also more likely to use 1:1s, and anticipate more workforce changes in the future. 

Consistencies with Peers in Performance Conversations, Partnership with Execs

First, let’s start with the similarities between the finance industry and other sectors. Sixty-three percent of finance respondents – and 63% of all respondents – separate performance conversations from developmental conversations. Per Rachel Ernst, CHRO at Reflektive, this is a best practice that all companies should strive towards. “Having separate conversations on development gives autonomy to the employee — they can initiate these career discussions when they’re ready. Additionally, performance conversations can be stress-inducing for employees, so having a separate dialogue on development helps workers get into the right mindset for career discussions.”

Another commonality between financial services firms and their peers is the usage of performance ratings as one of many factors in determining employee compensation.

Finally, finance leaders responded similarly to the peer average regarding their partnership with leadership. When launching continuous feedback programs:

• 37% of finance respondents (vs. 31% of their peers) reported that an executive initiated the change
• 37% of finance respondents (vs. 33% of their peers) said that an executive sponsor is involved in the program strategy
• 26% of finance reponsents (vs. 28% of their peers) reported that executives are informed of the shift to continuous feedback

Finance Industry More Likely to Leverage 1:1s, Employee Trainings

To drive their continuous feedback programs forward, financial services firms reported higher adoption of 1:1 conversations and employee training sessions. Regarding 1:1s, finance respondents were:

• 34% more likely to provide employee feedback via 1:1 conversations
• 47% more likely to encourage leaders and managers to address employee concerns via 1:1 meetings

“Regular 1:1 meetings provide a great forum for having different types of conversations,” says Rachel Ernst. “Whether it’s providing feedback on a recent project or learning about employee needs, a recurring meeting enables managers and employees to have productive conversations on an ongoing basis.”

Similarly, financial services firms prioritize their culture of employee growth and development:

• While 62% of all respondents said that educate managers and/or employees on continuous feedback, 84% of finance respondents said that they do
• Financial services firms are 27% more likely to spend time on learning and development versus their peers

Finance Sector Places Higher Value on Productivity

Another difference between the financial services industry and other sectors is that the former places more emphasis on employee productivity. Per the survey data, finance respondents were:

• 74% more likely to say that productivity is the most important purpose of performance management
• 42% more likely to measure the health of their performance programs via productivity

However, the emphasis on productivity may come at the expense of employee workloads. Survey data also indicates that finance respondents are:

• 1.2X more likely to expect team members to work longer hours
• 82% less likely to encourage managers to revisit employee goals and workload

Marc Caltabiano, Chief Product Officer at Reflektive, uses 1:1 conversations and leverages data from Reflektive engagement surveys to gauge employee sentiment around workload. “Questions from our surveys on remote working and work-life balance, as well as what I learn from 1:1 conversations, help me easily understand key themes for the product team and where I should be taking action.”

Looking Ahead: More Workforce Changes

Finally, finance leaders anticipate more workforce changes versus their peers in other industries:

• 37% of finance respondents expect workforce changes later in the year, which is 1.2X higher than the peer average
• 53% of finance respondents are spending time on workforce planning, which is 39% higher than the peer average

Per research from Oliver Wyman, leading financial services companies will lean more on technology to drive up productivity and increase returns. “Ensuring that employees are aligned and engaged will help finance firms of all sizes navigate the rest of 2020,” says Rachel Ernst. “Performance management systems such as Reflektive help employees stay on track and prioritize the most critical projects.”

Financial services firms are leveraging 1:1s and employee education to drive improved productivity, but can benefit from better alignment and efforts to address employee workloads. Per Rachel Ernst: “By really listening to employee feedback – and taking steps to address their needs – financial firms can create a culture that motivates people to do their best work.”

Interested in learning more performance best practices for finance companies? Schedule a consult with an expert.

Physicians Insurance is a company where employees want to stay for the long-term and grow their careers. Case in point – Yelena Neuman, Human Resources Manager, has been at the organization for nine years, and the average employee tenure is over nine years as well. But building a culture around talent management did not happen overnight. Read our below Q&A with Yelena to learn how Physicians Insurance fostered employee development within their performance programs.

Reflektive: Can you tell us a little bit about Physicians Insurance?

Yelena: Founded in 1982, Physicians Insurance serves more than 8,500 members in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, and provides risk-management consulting, continuing medical education, and claims administration services. The company has grown to be the largest insurer of physicians and hospitals in the Pacific Northwest.

Reflektive: What was performance management like prior to using Reflektive?

Yelena: We were using Microsoft Word and paper for our performance programs. We had one review per year, and employees were updating their goals once per year too. There were pain points around this — goals were no longer relevant, and it was difficult to improve employee performance with only one meaningful, annual conversation. 

Additionally, the review process was really clunky for everyone. The annual review was a three-month process end-to-end, which is much longer than it should have been. For the HR team, simply setting up the review cycle was painful — it took us several hours of manual work.

Reflektive: What was the turning point that inspired you to make a change?

Yelena: We knew that the review process had to change! Not only was it time-consuming, but it didn’t support the talent management culture that is key to our employee retention and productivity. We wanted to drive more frequent conversations around coaching and development opportunities. Additionally, we wanted flexible goals that could be updated to reflect our business needs. 

One of our managers knew someone who had a really great experience with Reflektive and encouraged us to check them out. After speaking to Reflektive about our business needs, we realized that they met all of them — and they had a Recognition product, which we were super excited about!

Reflektive: We’re glad you made the switch! Can you talk a little bit more about how you improved your performance review process, and used it to support your talent management efforts?

Yelena:  We now have two formal check-ins per year, and continuous 1:1 conversations. Our check-ins generally include 3-5 questions, and cover employee development, goal-setting, and performance feedback. Sample questions include:

• What areas would you like to improve or develop professionally?
• What gives you the greatest job satisfaction?

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.

Reflektive: That’s great to hear! Has the new process been helpful for your stakeholders?

Yelena: Definitely! We’ve cut the end-to-end review process time by more than 67% — what used to take 3 months now takes less than one month. For the HR team, it takes us 75% less time (from several hours to less than an hour) to set up a cycle.

Reflektive: How did you achieve those time savings?

Yelena: The Reflektive Support Center provided steps on set-up and training tools for users. The training also had screenshots that I used to develop guides for employees. 

Less time is now spent on tracking down paper forms and making sure they are signed and stored. Now reviews are in one place, and accessible to managers, employees and HR. They can also be referred to at any time.

Reflektive: Has your new performance review approach moved the needle on employee retention?

Yelena: I believe it has! Employees know that they can grow their career at Physicians Insurance, and that their manager is there to support them. Reflektive allows employees and managers to track development plans together in a shared tool versus the outdated paper version. This fosters continuous conversations without details getting lost in a paper shuffle.

I also believe that our changes implemented during COVID-19 – such as the ability to work from home and stay connected with video team meetings – has helped us eliminate turnover.

Reflektive: How did you know what changes to make during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Yelena: We used Reflektive’s engagement surveys to better understand what our employees needed. Specifically, we used Reflektive’s Coronavirus Sentiment Survey because we liked the questions and approach. It was easy for employees to access the survey, with a link sent to their email. I think that’s how we achieved a completion rate of more than 80%! 

Our HR team used pre-built Reflektive reports in People Intelligence – such as comment themes and favorability scores – to analyze the survey results. We learned that employees appreciated the ability to work from home, but also wanted to stay connected to their peers. A big insight for us was that employees wanted to come into the office from time to time, so we developed standards and procedures to help them stay safe while they were on site.

We also saw that the most commented-on theme was employees’ remote work set-up — people missed their office workstations. So we worked with IT to address this by getting employees the resources they needed to be most productive at home. 

Reflektive: It sounds like Physicians Insurance is very responsive to employee needs while they’re remote. How else have you been driving talent management forward during this time?

Yelena: We’re using Reflektive to encourage employees to take ownership of their career development. Specifically, we’re using Reflektive Goals to help employees drive their own growth. Rather than an annual goals update, employees now adjust goals on a regular basis to reflect changing business needs.  We’ve done a few training sessions on the value of goals and how to use them in Reflektive.

Additionally, managers and employees are using Reflektive 1:1s to have ad-hoc conversations on professional development. We’ve received a lot of anecdotal feedback from managers that they really enjoy using the 1:1s. Managers make better use of their time with an agenda, and can easily refer back to previous conversations. This helps them know who was assigned to what, and the topics they’ll cover next week. 1:1s are especially important now that we’re all remote!

Reflektive: Final question: how have you driven adoption of your performance programs?

Yelena: There are a few strategies we took to boost employee participation in our programs:

1. Trainings: We led multiple training sessions, with some targeted to managers and others for employees. We’ve leveraged the Reflektive Support Center for a lot of helpful content (I just type into the Search bar my question and can pull up all types of resources).
2. Communications: We always let employees know what performance programs are changing, and why. In follow-up communications, we list out the steps that employees need to take to complete their check-ins or add their goals. It’s always good to have bullet points so the content is more digestible!
3. Advisory Team: We have a group of 10 people, including managers and employees, to be advocates for our performance programs. They encourage colleagues to take action and are very well-versed in Reflektive and performance best practices. 

Today is World Gratitude Day, and even though your day or week (or year) may seem tough, there is a lot to be grateful for. At Reflektive, we’re thankful for the opportunity to partner with our fantastic colleagues and hundreds of global companies, and our ability to help firms build a culture of recognition across their workforce. Check out the below FAQs to learn best practices from Reflektive, Enquero and PHD on driving positive sentiment across a dispersed workforce.