people ops stuff
play it back, pls ⏪
Is it me, or was this week basically Monday every day? If that’s the case, I’m treating this Friday’s deploy as a Tuesday, aka right on time ⏰
It feels like last week I was just lollygagging and watching hours of Burn Notice. In case you’re wondering why Burn Notice – I have the watching habits of a midwest suburban mom from 2005.
Speaking of throwing it back… 🤳
As part of our year-end wrap-up, we held Replays, our version of Performance Reviews. If you’re reading this newsletter, you probably have had some variation of a Performance Review. You probably have a completed one on Lattice, CultureAmp, or a similar platform. Let’s face it, they all suck.
Often, they feel compelled to revisit a list of recent accomplishments tied to compensation. In deciding whether and how we wanted to approach reviews, we had to begin with our "why." We knew a few things:
Manager feedback is most effective when provided in real time throughout the year. Rarely does anyone say, “I’ve been waiting for this feedback all year!!!!”
Self-reflection is critical for progression.
There aren’t many times throughout the year when you get to review your work at a macro-level.
Generally, we tend to prioritize the things we know will get us the next raise or promotion.
We move so quickly.
Knowing this, we crafted Replays, a biannual reflection that allows employees to intentionally reflect on the past six months. Our goal is to decouple compensation and reviews and create an avenue for true reflection, given how quickly things can change even within a quarter. Naturally, there would be overlap between Replays and compensation reviews, but we generally avoided linking them directly. Even more importantly, we wanted this to be easy to adopt rather than trying to force-fit a platform. So, we used Google Docs. I know, blasphemous. But, hey, I want people to do it and don’t want adoption to be a huge barrier.
Sample Replay Prompt:
Reflect on a recent project or task this past quarter where you made an impact on our company’s growth and/or goals. What steps did you take to maintain momentum and quickly get results? Looking back, what did you learn from shipping quickly that will help you improve in future projects?
Employees can respond in short or long form, e.g., bullet points or paragraphs, whichever best conveys their reflection. Once employees have completed their Replays, managers can come in and provide input via comments, similar to how we use Docs in general. 1:1s would follow, similar to a traditional process but without the stress and worry that typically ensues.
What was the employee consensus? Overall, employees showed strong support for continuing Replays and valued the structured reflection and manager reviews. They also noted that the prompts and reflections helped guide their conversations with their managers, leading to more thoughtful one-on-ones. We used responses from a pulse survey to inform the next reiteration.
This is our second time doing Replays, and I’m so thrilled about its reception.
This wasn’t the "easier" path, by any means. But it feels genuine and productive. It was also brought to fruition with leadership support. Their openness and willingness to experiment helped us find a suitable alternative. It was/is powerful to be able to screw convention and try something different (and have it work out).
So, to recap:
Just because it’s always been done a certain way doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it.
Reflecting on work doesn’t have to be a painful process.
I’m on the final season of Burn Notice ❤🔥
therapy stuff
hinged therapist advice 🗒
Giphy
Attachment patterns can also inform how you navigate work dynamics 😅