Alfresco Improves Engagement by 3X in Two Years with Reflektive

The Challenge

Since 2005, Alfresco has helped organizations by providing innovative content management solutions. Brigid MacDonald, Chief People Officer, and Allison O’Toole, Director of People & Culture, were looking to improve employee engagement at the company.

Alfresco ran an engagement survey in 2018 with their previous performance management platform, resulting in a 30% engagement score. This was much lower than they were expecting. Brigid and Allison dug into the results and learned that employee sentiment was low for several different reasons. Employees at Alfresco struggled to:

• Grow their careers at the company
• Get helpful feedback on their performance
• Receive more recognition for their hard work

Per Brigid, “We needed one go-to place to help improve all of these areas. Specifically, we needed a performance management system that enabled folks to develop in their role, and drive more productive performance conversations with managers.”

The Solution

With unexpectedly low engagement scores, Brigid and Allison knew they needed an HR performance solution that could meaningfully improve their feedback culture. They were also looking for a platform that had performance appraisals, recognition, and engagement surveys all in one place. In 2019, Alfresco made the switch from their previous solution to Reflektive. Managers and employees loved that it was easy to use. Per Allison, “The analytics piece was important to us as well. Reflektive’s People Intelligence solution was way above and beyond what we’d seen from other companies. The depth of Reflektive’s analytics, and all of the pre-built reports already available, made it my go-to place for people metrics.”

After choosing Reflektive, Brigid and Allison started developing programs to address the aforementioned employee pain points.

Growing Employee Careers with Trainings and 1:1s

Alfresco took a holistic approach to addressing the developmental needs of their workforce. Brigid and Allison observed that many of Alfresco’s people managers were uncomfortable initiating career conversations and giving regular feedback. Additionally, more senior managers were oftentimes too busy to have development-focused conversations. To drive the importance of these conversations, Alfresco held dedicated half-day workshops for managers on the best ways to approach employee development. They also held employee training sessions on how to own their development, including determining their strengths and interests.

Brigid and Allison also encouraged both managers and employees to use Reflektive 1:1s so they can have developmental conversations whenever possible. Per Brigid, “We were really happy with employees’ usage of Reflektive Conversation Starters during their 1:1s. The Conversation Starters helped employees think outside of the box, and enabled them to have discussions that they may not have been comfortable with previously.”

Gathering Helpful Feedback with Performance Reviews

To address employee feedback gaps, Brigid and Allison looked to Reflektive Check-Ins. Instead of a traditional annual review, they launched more frequent, lightweight check-ins. Allison said, “Our main goal was to start a feedback dialogue. That’s why we only had a few high-level questions in our check-ins, which helped to drive a more natural conversation.” Alfresco’s new check-in forms also included questions on performance from the past six months, to eliminate recency bias.

Driving More Recognition through Multiple Channels

Finally, Allison and Brigid sought to encourage recognition among their workforce. They knew that recognition is not a one-size-fits-all situation — people have different preferences on how they receive praise. They leveraged three different channels to drive a culture of kudos at Alfresco:

• Reflektive’s Recognition Wall: “People love receiving public recognition, especially since their manager can see it too! Before Reflektive, recognition was untrackable,” said Brigid.
• 1:1 Conversations: Alfresco encourages employees to ask questions such as, “What am I doing well?” and “What do you like about my work?” in their 1:1s with managers.
• Email Communications: Managers send congratulatory emails to employees after big accomplishments. Alfresco also included recognition content in their manager trainings to ensure that bosses give kudos when appropriate.

The Results

By improving their company culture to focus on employee development, feedback, and recognition, Alfresco boosted their engagement score by 3X to 90% in only two years. Their high survey participation rate of 89% was also a testament to the improved workplace culture. “Reflektive really made a world of difference,” said Brigid. “We can now see that productive conversations are happening. Managers are accountable for providing feedback and recognition, and employees are empowered to drive their own development. With clarity and ownership, people are more likely to be happy and stay at Alfresco.”

Overview
Alfresco helps companies gain greater value from information with their open, secure, content services platform. The company provides a better way for people to work, ensuring they have the information they need, exactly when they need it. Alfresco helps more than 11 million people at 1,300+ industry-leading organizations, including Cisco, Pitney Bowes, the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, US Department of the Navy, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and NASA, be more responsive and competitive. Founded in 2005, Alfresco is headquartered in Massachusetts with operations in Atlanta, GA., Maidenhead and London, UK, and Sydney, Australia.

Industry
Computer Software

Year Founded
2005

Headquarters
Wellesley, MA

Employees
400

Mission
Deliver innovative content management solutions that connect, manage and protect your enterprise’s most important information – wherever it lives

Values
Achievement, Transparency, Passion, Commitment, Empathy