We’re excited for Kin’s latest feature, Employee reviews and Objectives, because we need better tools to accommodate the way we do our own reviews.
Kin’s parent company, We Are Mammoth, has been around since 2006. When we hired our first employees, there was no need to formalize the review process with our employees because, frankly, they sat right next to us and we talked all the time.
These days, the broader team (25 folks on three company teams: Kin, We Are Mammoth, DoneDone) is spread throughout 14 states, and it’s harder to make sure we’re doing right by both employees and company to keep everyone rowing in the same direction.
The way we run our employee reviews
We call our reviews “check-ins.” We do them quarterly, and we separate them entirely from compensation reviews, which are scheduled around employee anniversaries.
In addition, at the second and fourth quarter intervals, we do peer reviews – asking the broader team to share feedback on their coworkers based on our companies’ team member values. These are not anonymous – we decided as a company to be transparent with our peer reviews to ensure coworkers get in the habit of providing direct feedback.
Finally, everyone participates in both employee reviews and peer reviews, including us founders. At the end of the year, every employee has had no fewer than 7 opportunities to discuss objectives, compensation, company direction, and manager performance.
Tools we’ve used in the past
The best tools have always been and will always be preparation and respect. Preparation because ad hoc conversations are great, but taking the time to gather feedback, objectives, and next steps are not something thrown together on a whim. Respect because good talent is hard to find and equally as hard to hold on to. We work hard to ensure every team member is listened to and treated individually instead of being jammed into a one-size-fits-all HR process.
In terms of software, we’ve used Small Improvements for years. It’s a solid tool backed by a solid team. But, it’s way too much for us. We base our reviews on objectives and open dialog – we don’t need a huge software platform to manage it. The tool we were using was getting in the way so we’re moving everything over to Kin.
For our peer reviews, we’re in our second year using Google Apps to run the questionnaires, generate reports, and share results. It’s not perfect, but it’s allowed us to adapt software to our process, rather that us molding ourselves around an overly prescriptive tool.
Setting up administratively
Getting 25 people lined up to do check-ins takes a lot of coordination. We have five folks in the managerial role here, but our office manager, Alana, actually does all the scheduling which is a headache for her.
With Kin’s new tools, the workload gets more evenly distributed. Alana knows we do check-ins at the beginning of each quarter, so she’ll use Kin to set up the quarter’s cycle by pairing managers with employees and specifying details such as time frame or process. Once the review cycle is set up, managers are automatically notified to schedule and execute the actual check-in’s with their employees.
Feedback period
Next up is the feedback period. This is an opportunity before the actual meeting for employees and managers to get their feedback put together. Kin’s new tools are a great way to capture notes before, during, and after our check-ins on three primary topics: self-assessment, company feedback, and feedback on managers.
Most of our employee review experience is focused on creating, discussing, and creating next steps for employee objectives. Kin puts all objectives in easy reach – they’re embedded right there in the employee review page to edit and leave notes on.
With this latest release of Kin, we’re also going to be collecting more regular feedback on how we’re doing as managers and as a company, as Kin’s feedback tools are two-way and employees are the best source of suggestions for how we, as employers, can improve.
The meeting
The check-in meeting itself is largely a dialog between employee and manager. I’d say we don’t just sit there and stare at a screen the whole time, but because we’re a distributed team that’s actually the way we do it! Our weapon of choice for one on one meetings is the good old Google Hangout.
The meetings last between 30 and 60 minutes and we don’t over-structure them. Quarterly check-ins are regular enough to feel like natural segues from the last time we caught up, so we start with objectives then naturally turn over to more ad hoc discussion.
Having our prepared notes in Kin right alongside employee objectives is a great way to keep the the conversations focused and on time.
The follow up and sign off
Did I mention next steps? Reviews and objectives are great, but they’re useless without actionable follow up and next steps. Managers are there to help employees stay productive, learning, and contributing. Objectives and their actionable next steps are a primary way to do that, and Kin’s final thoughts and sign-off feature make sure both sides of the table understand and agree on where things are headed. Ka-boom!
Wrap up
Kin’s employee review and objectives features are simple to use for managers and employees, and their administrative tools will save a whole lot of work for our operations team. Just like with Kin’s customers, we’ll see how well the tools do over the next several months and I’ll follow up with any insights I have.