Employee reviews. When they’re good, they’re great. But when they’re bad, they can be hazardous to culture, employee engagement, and ultimately profitability. While there’s no single recipe that makes employee reviews successful, small companies have a lot of flexibility to ensure employees get what they need from their employer – small and agile are our competitive tools for employee success. We should put them to use.
As you’re digging into your second quarter and, perhaps, are coming fresh out of your quarterly employee reviews, here are a few ideas to brew on for the next round.
Early and often
Check in with employees more than once a year. Try quarterly. Then, schedule time to touch base with every individual in your sphere of influence at least once a month. Informal as it may be, it keeps conversations and objectives flowing between bigger review events.
Use your firm’s strengths
Many of our customers count designers and product folk in their ranks. Those are great strengths to use in the design of a better employee experience. Just like the products and services we build and sell, the service we provide our own employees can be designed, measured, and improved upon.
Use the time wisely
Prepare for your reviews in advance. With just a few minutes of prep work preparing notes, doing ad hoc coworker interviews, and setting objectives for the meeting, you’ll not only create a better review, but you’ll send the message that employee reviews are productive and valuable.
Zoom up and beyond the employee
Reviews aren’t just about the employee. It’s important to get feedback on, and work to improve, the manager and the workplace as well. Set objectives for all three, and clear the road for constructive employee feedback on improving them.
Focus on objectives
Objectives and good job descriptions – one and the same? If you and your team members have a hard time creating objectives, you might take a page out of the book Hire With Your Head. Rethink the way you write job descriptions by making them more objective-focused, and employees will have an easier time aligning objectives to their daily jobs.
Get comfortable with the truth
The truth can be a hard gift to give. How well do you and your employees do in sharing real, actionable feedback? Jen Dary from Plucky, has some really good advice on getting comfortable with transparent, honest feedback.
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Remember: our number one job as employers is to ensure our employees are set up to succeed. Creating an effective, flowing practice of communication within your company is critical to accomplishing that. It takes practice and discipline, but when employee reviews serve a real purpose, they yield real results and become an indispensable tool in building a great workplace.
By Alex Yohn
Apr 22, 2015
As Kin’s resident space nerd, I frequently find myself filling the company chatroom with space-flavored trivia, news, and events. Doesn’t matter whether it’s the latest and greatest in rocket booster testing or as trivial as bringing a good cup of coffee to zero gravity, it’s all undeniably fascinating to me. Why?
Failure [\ˈfāl-yər\ noun]
To many of us, failure represents flawed execution of an undertaking, such as ‘failing a test’ or ‘failing to get a promotion’. Often times we discard our failures and look for an example of success to model a new attempt after. But what if your goal has never been successfully reached before? If failure is all you have to go on, you have to learn from it. You have to embrace it because nothing else will get you closer to success. There’s something we can all learn from this, and nowhere have I seen this idea championed more than by SpaceX.
The Beautiful, Glorious Failures of SpaceX
In the race to commercialize space travel, SpaceX is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. Their most audacious undertaking yet: reusable rockets. If you can recover the expensive and currently single-use propulsion system that typically falls to the bottom of the ocean – that’s a game changer. And that’s how they ended up here, attempting to land a falling rocket vertically on an autonomous drone barge floating in the ocean. Simple, right? Right.
So they tried. And boy did they crash. With, at times, spectacular results.
They failed loud, but more importantly, they failed proud. They wrote about it. They released video. They tweeted photos. They owned it. Elon Musk himself commented on events. To paraphrase? “Bring it on.”
Next rocket landing on drone ship in 2 to 3 weeks w way more hydraulic fluid. At least it shd explode for a diff reason.
The truth is, nothing is more instructive than failure. Failure sends a clear signal that change is necessary and imperative. Failure (when properly observed and measured) gives us feedback for improvement. And failure galvanizes us – it motivates to succeed and drives us to work for it.
So how do we embrace this? How do those of us who don’t own a space agency leverage our failures to our advantage? I certainly wish I could give you the answer to rule them all, but there isn’t one. What I can do is tell you about how we try to embrace this at Kin:
Letting Go of the Big Reveal
We all love to wow our customers, and it’s tempting to wait until we’ve dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s to the perfect product… but that’s typically not how the best products are made. We serve our customers but we’re also on the same team: we all have a vested interest in making Kin the best it can be. This is why we test our ideas in front of clients early and often – it may not be the most polished experience to present, but the sooner you find failure, the sooner you can learn from it.
Failure-Metrics
Not all endeavors culminate in either a triumphant climb into space or a burning fireball of despair. Sometimes only time can elucidate a failure, and it’s important to recognize these instances and plan for them. When we know a new feature or product for Kin may not be a resounding success, we make careful plans to measure, analyze, and evaluate our goal over the long haul. If you can’t identify failure, you can’t learn from it.
Endeavors Fail. People Don’t.
We’re passionate about providing our customers the best service possible at Kin, just as many of our customers are passionate about serving their customers. It can be an enormous source of strength, but the same passion that lifts you up in the face of success can turn dark in the face of failure. It can tell you that you’re not good enough, and that you should give up. This is when it’s most important to remind yourself of who you are, what you do, and the distinct line that separates the two.
Who we are is a team of dedicated individuals striving to improve the work and lives of our customers and colleagues. Kin is the manifestation of that work. We do our best to build upon it and improve it, but like all things man-made it is imperfect. Rest assured though, we’ll keep on making Kin better – day in and day out. One small failure at a time.
And as for SpaceX? They haven’t landed that rocket… yet. But if you ask me, it’s only a matter of time.
An interview with the team at FLIPP AdvertisingBy: Lindsay Sanders
April’s customer spotlight is a cool advertising agency in Calgary, Canada, FLIPP Advertising. Not only do they have perks like an office jukebox and fresh, local coffee to keep the team humming, they’re constantly retuning their tools and processes to best fit the team. Here’s a peek inside the FLIPP team and workplace via Partner and Creative Director, Craig LePan.
Who are you, what’s your role, and your favorite hand-held food?
[CL] My name is Craig LePan and I’m a Managing Partner and Creative Director at FLIPP Advertising. My favorite ‘hand-held’ food is a campfire hotdog at the lake.
What’s the story of FLIPP?
[CL] FLIPP’s doors opened in February 2009 when my wife, Emily LePan, started the company. Our first office was a warehouse bay in Calgary’s South East industrial area. Three years ago, we moved to our 6th floor office in Calgary’s belt-line district. Our team started as 5 and has grown to a full service agency of 15. We’ve also recently expanded our office to Vancouver.
What’s great about working at FLIPP?
[CL]There is a long list of great things about working at FLIPP! We have an amazing team and a great work environment, from Friday team lunches to a stocked 1960’s beer fridge in the boardroom. Beyond a great benefits program and our modern approach to HR, there are two very important ingredients to a happy team: great coffee and good music.
FLIPP Jukebox: Music plays an important role here and our office soundtrack is powered by a web-based jukebox we built on the RDIO api. Everyone has a login and can make music requests throughout the day. The music is voted on by the rest of the office – if a song gets too many thumbs down it gets “gonged”. Positive votes keep that song in regular rotation.
Crickle Creek Coffee: Life’s too short for bad coffee. We worked with a local coffee roaster, Crickle Creek Coffee, on their branding, packaging and website. Crickle Creek is a common visitor at FLIPP, delivering freshly roasted coffee every 2 weeks.
Please share some insight into FLIPP’s approach to employee and workplace operations. How has Kin played a role?
[SB] We are always looking for new ways to leverage technology to aid in our workflow process and team collaboration. However, we haven’t forgotten the real value of face-to-face interactions. We like taping up and reviewing each others’ work at ‘the wall’ and keep the team connected with weekly ‘stand up’ meetings where the team reviews projects and upcoming work.
“Integrating Kin at FLIPP has revolutionized our entire HR process and organization.”
There are many areas where Kin has had an impact; from onboarding, to job descriptions, and file sharing. The biggest impact for employees was the ability to have direct access to their vacation availability and a central calendar for events, holidays and team availability. On the operations side, it expedited turnaround times and streamlined our ability to track schedules.
Some other tools we use include FLOW for project management and tasking, and Harvest for Estimates and Invoices.
Anything notable going on lately?
[CL]We have some pretty exciting projects on the go at FLIPP! Our recent work for Brewsters Brewing Company & Restaurant included an evolution of their brand, retail packaging for their beer, and just this month, the launch of their all new responsive website.
We’re also busy at work on the brand identity and campaign for a new, fast-food casual concept that will launch later this year. Last but not least, we’re excited to be involved with and sponsoring the JDRF Galas in Vancouver and Calgary. These events help raise funds for research to cure Type 1 Diabetes.
By Alex Yohn
Apr 1, 2015
At its core, Kin is a task management system for employees and HR/Operations folk. One of the most important and popular requests has been to improve task management by adding due dates. Well, ka-zamm-pow-bang! We just released due dates on tasks and files, along with some other really nice refinements to the file management feature in Kin.
Due dates on files
Setting due dates for files is easy-peasy! You can set a due date when uploading a new file or by editing an existing one. Even better is you can have multiple due dates for a single file! So if Lana needs to complete the file by Monday, but Brandon has until Friday, you can assign them individual due dates.
Assign file due dates to individuals or groups of employees.
Send email reminders to employees based on due date.
Due dates for tasks
Just like with files, you can set a due date when creating a new task or add one to tasks that you’ve already created.
Want to view all outstanding tasks due on a certain date? Now, you can filter the task page by due date to see the outstanding tasks.
Friendlier files
We also did some spring cleaning to Kin’s files feature. It’s revved up performance, and improved the design of a feature you use almost every day.
Small, but mighty UX updates
A few smaller updates were made to tighten up the experience of files that make a huge difference! Now you can see all of your company files in a list view, and sharing files with employees has a more straightforward approach to easily see who has access to which files. Additionally, employees can now see and sort their files based on the file categories created by HR Managers.
Faster than a speeding….Kin file!
After some maintenance “under the hood” of the files section, the upload time is now up to 2x faster! Your files will now immediately upload and you’ll notice a new progress bar to show the status of the upload.
Until next time
That’s it for now, but you’ll hear from me again soon! In addition to improving these latest improvements to Kin, we have some really nice new features coming down the pike too, so stay tuned!
We’re here to help anytime, just write us as Support@KinHR.com or click “Need Help?” from the menu in your Kin account.
An interview with the team at PlankBy Lindsay Sanders
Working closely with many of Kin’s customers, I’ve been fortunate to learn about different workplaces and what it’s like to be part of workplaces around the world. To share all of this good stuff, I’ll be posting a customer spotlight each month to celebrate the business, culture, and happenings at these fantastic companies. First up, a digital agency based in Montréal, Plank.
Who are you, what’s your role, and your favorite hand-held food?
[SB]My name is Steve Bissonnette and I’m the Managing Partner at Plank. I oversee day-to-day running of the company, production, and HR. I thoroughly enjoy hand-held Mexican food, which we sadly have a shortage of here in Montréal.
What’s the story of Plank?
[SB]Plank was founded in 1998 by Warren Wilansky, along with 2 former partners, here in beautiful Montréal, Quebec, Canada. By 2004, Warren was the sole owner. Plank has proudly had quite a few team members stay on for a long time, but I have the distinction of being the longest standing (15 years) and as of 2014, I was brought on as a Partner. Our focus as an agency is to bring digital projects to life for our clients, be it websites, mobile apps, or other aspects of the online experience. We’re currently at 12 full-time employees, along with 3 part-time staff members.
What’s great about working at Plank?
[SB]There are a number of great parts of life at Plank!
We have a large, open office that’s well situated right downtown in Montréal. It’s easy to get here by bike, public transport, or even by foot for some employees. We have a rich culture that has really placed a high value on all of our relationships. We run on a pretty flat hierarchy, with a lot of the ego and BS kept firmly in check.
“We value craftsmanship, involve everyone deeply in work process, and allow a lot of team navigation of where our work takes us.”
Perks include a sizeable conference budget for every employee. Everyone gets generous vacation time, as well as extended time off around the official holidays in Canada. We have learning lunches, appreciation days, and as much R&D time as we can slice off. We’ve made it a point to give everyone the best tools we can afford and, to top it all off, we have the office rigged up with crazy fast internet (1000/1000mbps fiber)!
Please share some insight into Plank’s approach to employee and workplace operations. How has Kin played a role?
[SB] We value cultural fit greatly. We hire with the intention of that person staying with us for a long time. We trust our team and let them choose much of their path. Historically we weren’t great at proper HR tasks. Once we grew beyond 6-7 people we knew we needed something to better track vacation, personal data, a company calendar, etc.
“We began with another tool for a couple years, but it wasn’t a great fit. We wanted an HR tool that felt personal and friendly.”
In 2012, Warren attended a new event called OwnerCamp, that brought together 30 small digital studio owners within a unique peer-to-peer retreat format. This seeded an alumni network of people that grew over time and happily included Craig Bryant. Once we knew who We Are Mammoth were, KinHR was quickly on my radar and I was impressed by the clean design, clarity of information, and feature list, which matched our needs. There was also the confidence that this product came from a studio like ours, who was putting out work we respected.
The biggest improvements KinHR has brought to our team revolve around onboarding new hires and tracking employee time-off. The lovely onboarding template has been very well received by new employees. We have it setup with the pre-hire tasks, as well as some of the 1st week to-do items. Kin makes it so much easier to not forget a key step or piece of the puzzle, and really gets us all off on the right foot.
The other huge improvement has been clear time-off policies that are easy to manage. This took vacation tracking from being a real stressful task, to something we all [almost] take for granted in it’s simplicity. A much smoother experience for all involved!
Anything notable going on lately?
[SB]It’s been a very exciting beginning to 2015 for us! We just hired a couple new team members; Jason Koskie coming on as our 3rd full-time Project Manager, Marie-Ann Beaudette as our newest Front-End Developer, and we’re hopefully just about to fill an open Back-End Developer role.
We just re-launched Rush.com in partnership with our friends at HappyCog in Philly, which has gotten an amazing reception from fans of the band, the design and web development communities. Even one of the VP’s at Adobe! I have it on good word that the accolades aren’t over — but nothing official to report yet.
We have a lot planned for 2015 and it feels like it’s full steam ahead right now!
By Alex Yohn
Mar 3, 2015
This is a series of articles on the process and experience of building products and, ultimately, daughter companies from within a parent company. Our experiences building Kin (and DoneDone.com) from within our parent company, We Are Mammoth, have unfolded over the course of eight years. We’re self-funded, and we build companies out of the products when the time is right. Our way isn’t the highway – we definitely slow roll because, in life as in business, it’s about the journey not the destination. The first article in the series was about money and knowledge equity. This one’s about the critical role of the founders.
Founders find the unfound.
I come from an agency background and Kin’s parent company, We Are Mammoth, designs and builds software for other companies. So, after 12 years of being in the client services industry, it’s been really fulfilling to spend almost three years building, launching, and growing Kin.
My greatest sense of professional fulfillment is seeing an organization, that I helped build, find an identity and carve out its place in the world. It’s been a privilege to experience this not once, not twice, but three times. I love being a founder.
I think founders find peace in a space most people don’t feel comfortable – between unrecognized problems and undiscovered solutions. This space is everywhere – in our workplace, in our markets, and in the place where family, life, friends, and passions blur together. We see opportunity everywhere; it’s our canvas, and it’s key to understanding why we’re integral to innovation.
We get the thrill in seeking the next challenge – not just in products and companies, but inside ourselves, our teams, our cultures. Yet it’s a double-edged sword. It carries massive amounts of responsibility – to customers, employees, and family. I’m eight years deep, and I’ve seen my ups and downs as a leader.
After this many years, I’d have expected to have figured out a strategy to success purely by virtue of having failed so many times to do the best thing. But I haven’t. I have, however, found a few simple protocols that help keep me grounded as a founder through the valleys and peaks of life, work, and creating.
Founders need to make a choice.
A great place for companies to fail in building a solid team and product is at the founder’s doorstep – the dreaded pet project syndrome. What’s hot one week may be cold and stale the next. Chances are likely that founders are highly in demand at the parent company – from leadership, to clients, to projects. Starting a new product and company takes an enormous amount of discipline, commitment, and resources though, and the precedent in character and dedication which the founder starts with is a critical ingredient in the company’s performance.
Founders need to un-hire themselves from the breadwinner, roll up their sleeves, and dive in at the street-level of their new product. There’s no way to do an excellent job at both companies – a choice must be made.
Founders need vision.
Founders need to be visionaries because vision is all there is in the beginning. The founder’s first job is to get the ship out of port by evangelizing, demonstrating, and leading the way to a product, team, and culture. Founders are the flashlight for the team; without them there is no direction home, only darkness, howling wolves (aka, client projects!), and rain.
This job does not stop with the product shipping. Just like the digital products we build, vision is not static. It evolves with the company as it learns and grows. Founders need to carry the torch for the life of the company. If you wanna see what I really mean about carrying a company’s torch, check out Burt’s Buzz – the story of the guy who started Burt’s Bees.
Founders chop wood, carry water. Earn that title.
In the beginning, there is an idea, a market, and a team. In the words of Derek Sivers though “The most brilliant idea, with no execution, is worth $20.” So, what the team needs is someone to lay out the first several months of the roadmap – something tangible, doable, and something by which success can be measured. Then they need to roll up their sleeves and set an example as a work horse.
The founder’s work ethic sets a precedent for the team and proves that this thing is real and happening. Startups are ALL HANDS ON DECK and THE BOAT IS ON FIRE and THIS REALLY FEELS LIKE HELL. Founders need to bail water, chart the course, and row the boat, all at the same time.
Founders must practice humility.
Founders mess up a lot, and must learn the practice of icky, stinky humility. There are countless corrections needed along the way, from cutting the time given to well-paying consulting clients, to cutting features, to groveling to early customers who only paid you $9 but are yelling at you on Twitter. Humility is what brings a leader back to the team for solutions and support. It’s a fundamental ingredient in the making of team culture.
Founders walk the line.
Being a founder is an awesome opportunity. How many chances in life do we get to start from scratch and see where something goes? But with great opportunity comes great responsibility. While founders aren’t the only indicator of success at a new business, they are the most critical element in a company’s success DNA.
We have a dirty, taxing job which I’ve found many people admire, yet few actually want, and for good reason. Yet here we are, seeking, starting, failing, succeeding, and hopefully creating some really excellent companies along the way.
