Kin’s new Employee Reviews are a simple, powerful way to create, schedule, manage, and execute employee and performance reviews. Together with Employee Objectives, we’ve created a suite of effective tools to help you and your employees make the most out of one of your company’s most important assets: good feedback.
Read on to learn more about Kin’s employee review workflow and how each person on your team will be using the tools. If you’d like some help getting reviews setup for your team, we’re here for you! Send us a note and we’ll get some time scheduled to connect.
The Employee Review Workflow
Employee reviews in Kin start with the HR Manager (HRM), who can create a review for a single employee or a cycle of reviews for the entire company. The HRM’s job is to pair up manager(s) and employee(s) to conduct reviews together, and to provide a general timeframe and any specific instructions to managers. Once set up, HRM’s can sit back and track the progress of each review via the Manage Reviews dashboard.
Once the HRM has created a review, the responsibility turns to the Manager. Their job is to schedule and configure the review with specific types of feedback (employee self-assessment, feedback for manager, and feedback for the company) and then dive in to provide feedback to employees.
Once scheduled and configured by managers, Kin notifies Employees that a review has been created for them. They can now start entering their feedback, along with any progress notes they have on their employee objectives.
When it’s time to meet for a review, Manager and Employee can share their review feedback by clicking the ‘share feedback‘ toggle at the bottom of each feedback section.
Finally, once a review has occurred, Manager and Employee both update the review with any final comments along with a sign-off to confirm its completion. Once both have signed off, reviews are marked as complete and become a locked, read-only page for reference.
Learn more on how you and your team will be using Kin’s employee reviews:
HR Managers & Employee ReviewsHR Managers and Employee Reviews
Employee reviews start with the HR Manager (HRM) in the new section called Reviews. As mentioned above, a review can be created for a single employee, or the entire company, and it all starts with a click on the Create Reviews button. Once in the process of creating reviews, HRM’s pair up managers with the employees they’ll be doing reviews with, as well as assign a category (see below), time frame, and any comments/instructions to managers.
Once the new reviews are created, all managers who are responsible for leading reviews will receive an email notification asking them to set up and schedule their assigned employee reviews. Note that employees won’t be notified of the review until the manager has configured and saved it.
What are Review Categories?
Similar to how you might categorize files in the Files section, you can create categories to organize reviews. With this version of categories though, you also have the option of including a timeframe for the review to occur, along with any instructions you’d like to share with managers.
Tip: Get the team on the same page for how your review process will work by leaving instructions. Let your Managers know what feedback topics to select for the review, what to cover during the meeting, etc.
Tracking Reviews
You can see the progress of all reviews from the Manage Reviews page. Click on an employee’s review to see more detail and feedback that’s been shared. This is also the place you’ll come to reassign reviews to a different manager or change the category a review is listed under.
Managers and Employee Reviews
Once a review has been created in Kin, the responsibility turns to the manager to schedule a meeting, setup the review, and provide feedback to employees.
The new Reviews section houses all the reviews you, as a manager, are responsible for completing, along with any archived reviews.
Schedule a meeting and provide instructions
You have the option to schedule a meeting with your employees via Kin. The meeting will be added to the calendar in Kin, as well as the Google Calendar subscription. Do note that the meetings appear as events and there currently is no way for employees to decline the meetings.
You can also use the message box on a review to send any instructions or comments to your employees about the review – such as an agenda for the meeting, or guidance on objectives.
Tip: Leaving instructions is a great way to set expectations with the employee for how the review will work and what they need to do to prepare. (Update objectives, leave specific feedback, etc.)
Feedback Topics
It’s also your job to select the topics you and your employee will provide feedback on. There are three topics to select from: Self Assessment, Manager Feedback, and Company Feedback. Employees will only see the notes/feedback you’ve entered if you set the toggle underneath the text area to ‘shared’. Also note that it’s likely the Manager and Company Feedback sections are only used by the employee to provide comments back up to managers and the company.
Employee Objectives
Next up in a review is the Employee Objectives section. Any objectives which are marked as in-progress will automatically show up in the review, where you both can view and/or update any active objective’s progress notes.
Note that employee objectives are created in the Objectives section of each employee’s profile.
Files to Review
Finally, any files the employee needs to complete or review can be uploaded. Employees can also upload files they’d like to share for their review, such as certifications, 360-assessments, etc.
Now, you’re ready to save the review. Once saved, employees will receive an email notification letting them know they have an upcoming review and that they can start working on their feedback.
Final Thoughts and Sign Off
After meeting, you and your employee can add any final comments and then sign off to confirm the review’s wrapped up. Once both sides have signed off, the review will be marked as complete and become a locked, read-only page for reference.
Employees and Employee Reviews
When a review has been created for you in Kin, you’ll receive an email notification letting you know who is conducting the review, when it’s been scheduled, and requesting that you get started providing feedback.
Once reviews are created for you, you can visit the new section called Reviews under your profile. This is where you’ll access all of your current and past reviews.
Review Details
Details of a review include who your review is with and when you’ll be meeting. Other information, such as your start date and quick links to past reviews, is also listed for reference.
Feedback Topics
The Feedback Topics section is where you provide your feedback as well as where you’ll see the feedback your manager has shared. There are three topics you may be asked to leave feedback on: Self Assessment, Manager Feedback, and Company Feedback. Note that your manager will only see what you’ve entered if you have the toggle set to ‘shared’.
Employee Objectives
Any in-progress objectives you’ve created will show up in the review, where both you and your manager can view/add progress notes.
Files to Review
If your manager has shared any files for your review, they’ll be listed here for you to download. You can also upload any files you’d like to share as part of your review.
Final Thoughts and Sign Off
After meeting, you and your manager can update the review with any final comments and sign off to confirm its completion. Once both have signed off, the review will be marked as complete and become a locked, read-only page for reference.
