Name: Perform Sept 3 Session 2 Perform Series Recording
Uploaded: 2026-09-04T16:16:27.406Z
Duration: 28 min 16 s
Description: Perform Sept 3 Session 2 Perform Series Recording

Transcript for "Perform Sept 3 Session 2 Perform Series Recording": Gloria, I guess it's still morning for you. Yeah? It is. Good morning from Seattle, Washington. Alrighty. So we are right at the top of the hour, 02:00 here on the East Coast. So I know a handful of folks will still be joining in. Feel free to drop in your name and your location. We'd love to see everyone joining us from all over the map. It's always super, super excited. Montbelo, California. Yay. Love that. So another Yeah. Well, cool. So today, we have another thirty minutes on the calendar. I'm super, super excited to see some familiar names, and some new names at that as well. We've got a stacked agenda for us today. So let's go ahead and jump in. Oh, I see. Debbie, you're from Charlotte. You're right down the road from me. I'm here in Raleigh, so very, very cool. Washington, Illinois, Florida. Very awesome. Keep it coming. Okay. So for an agenda, again, thirty minutes. I promise I won't be on my soapbox for too long today. I brought in a fantastic friend and colleague and expert in this space to join us. So thirty minutes, kind of our bottom line up front agenda. I'll do some brief introductions for those who don't know me and don't know Gloria, and then we'll get into the meat and potatoes of today. So we're gonna talk a little bit about what good looks like when it comes to the performance process. We'll get a friendly poll out there because we love your feedback and we encourage it. And then we're actually gonna break down a performance review readiness checklist, arming you with tools in that toolbox of yours to help really uncover, specifics around your process, how we can make sure that we're getting the fundamentals right, right, to create that adoption sticking us for you and your people, and then also empower your people with the right, elements and questions and insights to make a fantastic performance process come to fruition. And then kind of a look ahead. Let's take a beat. Let's let's stay ahead of some, interesting topics in performance management, and then we'll kind of do a a a q and a because we certainly wanna be able to hear from you all who are, the most important kind of meat and potatoes of of this conversation. Okay. So let me do some brief introductions. My name is Madison Fletcher. I'm the director of sales at MeetYourTek for our HR solutions. So while we're talking about performance management, NatureTech, we also support a host of the employee life cycles, from a compliance standpoint in solutions, and that's kinda where my bread and butter is. And then I also have Gloria Jerome here with me, who's our senior account executive, has been in the space for well over a decade, is our go to expert when it comes to PM. So I've invited her along for the the the ride. Oh, Joy. Appreciate the compliment there. Carrie Bradshaw. She, she is one to emulate. That's for sure. Okay. So let's do a quick recap of where we're at. Last week, we all met same time this afternoon, or I guess it was on a Friday to talk about assessing your performance process. We really got into the weeds there. Today, we're taking a step further, and we're getting into that preparation stage, really looking at how we can build a strong review cycle, put everything into process. And then next week, we'll also do, a transform, really kind of taking that next step to transform your process. So very, very excited and looking forward to kicking things off. So, Gloria, I'll toss it over to you. Thanks, Madison, and welcome, everyone. I'm Gloria Jerome. And over the last thirteen years, I've been helping organizations of all shapes and sizes get ready for a performance review cycle. So excited to be co hosting this session alongside Madison. So to kick things off, I first wanted to define what good looks like when we think about performance management. We have clients coming to our digital storefront all the time using words like clunky, cumbersome, antiquated, or no no formal process at all. So our guidance is really to create a process that is going to work for everyone involved and keeping that process super simple and easy. So for managers, that may mean, setting up clear expectations, knowing what they need to do and when they need to complete reviews by and how to actually evaluate their employees. For employees and individual contributors, we want them to come into this process with no surprises. It really should be like a summary of everything that happened throughout the year. We wanna ensure that they know the reasoning behind performance reviews, why it matters instead of it feeling like a just a end of year kind of checkbox exercise, what their role is going to be within the process itself. And for HR leaders, we wanna ensure that for HR, the process is, or has clear visibility. You are in the loop in terms of where managers or departments stand with performance reviews instead of, like, chasing people or paper down. And for leaders, we want to make sure that they are trusting the results because depending on how often you're doing reviews or the purpose, you are collecting quite a bit of data and reporting and analytics from the actual reviews themselves. So before we go any further, we do wanna take a quick poll from the audience, and we wanna learn when do you start, preparing for performance appraisal. So we'll take a quick second for y'all to submit your your votes. Excited to see the results here. Mhmm. So we'll give it a couple of more seconds. Alright. Moe said two to three months out, Gloria. Two to three months out. Okay. Which is kind of perfect timing this year as well knowing that review season beginning of the year January. If we kinda count backwards a little bit, that's 'tis the season. It is. We're actually entering review season now. Clients are starting to prepare in September for the beginning of the year or end of year review, so that does align with what we're hearing as well. And there is actually no perfect answer to that question. The amount of time really is going to depend on the size and complexity of the organization. I think what matters is how we're actually preparing and and investing our time in. We wanna ensure that we are aligning our leaders, preparing our managers versus spending too much time on things that are more like, you know, sending out spreadsheets and tracking emails and sending things manually. If you feel or find yourself working on a lot of manual tasks such as just like distributing forms, you know, organizing spreadsheets by departments or employees, you may wanna look into performance management tools that can help simplify and streamline that for you. So moving forward, we're gonna actually, go a little bit deeper into preparing for review season. So whether you have two weeks or two to three months to prepare, we kind of consolidated into four simple priorities that you should be thinking about. And we are gonna cover these into more, or granular in more detail. So the first one is just locking down the process. What is the driver or the outcome, you know, for the performance review going to be? And from there, we can start getting granular in terms of the setup. So who's gonna be participating? When are those due dates going to be? What are the forms going to look like? And once we have those two elements ironed out, we can start preparing and training our managers and employees. And for HRs and leaders, again, we wanna stay ahead by being able to see where everyone is currently at with completion once we actually go live. So to drill down into each of these elements further, I first wanna talk about locking down the process. So when I'm working with clients or or different organizations, the reason that they launch performance reviews are gonna be a little bit different. It varies by organization. So some are launching reviews because they are looking to collect data to inform decisions around compensation or bonuses. Other organizations are more focused around development, developing people, identifying training needs, and others are just around accountability. Are we hitting our metrics or goals within the organization? But once we finalize what the driver of the performance reviews are going to be, it then helps us identify, for example, the scope. Who's gonna be participating in the performance evaluation process? Is it going to be the entire organization? Is it going to be certain, groups of employees? And is it just going to be managers that are gonna be actually filling out the performance review documents or employees also gonna participate in a self assessment? Occasionally, I'm also working with organizations such as, like, accounting firms and law firms where it is more of a collaborative environment. So in those cases, may may wanna even consider some peer feedback to be able to get feedback from other, you know, individuals that employees work with, throughout the year. That outcome or driver can also help determine what specifically are we measuring employees on. Is it going to be core values? Is it going to be job specific competencies? Is it going to be goals? Sometimes I even see a combination of all of those three. And then from there, we also wanna think about deadlines and when specifically do we wanna have this data or be able to have those conversations with our staff. And then working backwards, can then determine, okay, if we wanna have conversations this specific month or week, when do we then need to iron out the approval workflows or when do employees and managers actually have to complete their portions by? And then the last step to this is ownership. So once we do have this setup ironed out, it's also determining that who's gonna own what, who's going to be approving these reviews, who's gonna be, you know, sitting down having the conversation, and then who's also going to be your go to resource if there are any questions or exceptions that happen throughout the cycle itself. Moving on. So once we know the driver of the reason we're we're doing reviews, that's when we can start focusing on the setup. We like to call this, like, getting the basics right. So first, we also want to look into assignments. Are employees assigned to the right managers? That may sound very simple, but just like even having incorrect assignments could either, you know, delay or cause confusion when we're actually going live. We also wanna determine what the criteria and rating scales are going to look like in your performance review templates. So, again, a lot of clients are launching reviews for many different reasons. So depending on that driver is gonna depend or determine what we're actually measuring on. Is it going to be goals and KPIs driven? Is it gonna be more in alignment with our core values, core competencies? Or is are we using performance reviews more as a development where we are gonna evaluate on specific job specific competencies or skill sets to determine, okay, where are we gonna then up level our our teams and staff? We wanna ensure too that this process is going to be simple and easy for managers and employees to complete. Sometimes when I am working with clients, sometimes the process is so complex and the forms are so long that it almost may, like, overcomplicate the the process itself. So, we just wanna make sure that the process is going to be intuitive and simple for everyone involved. And last but not least, when we're launching reviews, we wanna give our employees and managers one central centralized place or source of truth where they can access all of the information, things like instructions, forms, the rating scale definitions. So if you find yourself that you have performance information scattered across different tools, you may, again, wanna invest in a performance management system that will put all of these resources in one place. Next, once we have the process and setup complete, the next step would be preparing your people. I think it's very important to train managers and employees on that conversation, not just the process itself on, like, deadlines and instructions of the performance reviews. So for example, managers. It's important for us to train them on what those rating scale legends actually mean and the definitions and criteria behind it. So what does a meet expectations mean within the org, and how does that different than, let's say, an exceeds expectations? We also wanna train staff on having meaningful feedback and conversations with their direct reports. Things like, you know, when they are rating their staff, do they have commentary and examples to support those ratings that will help, you know, drive those conversations that they are having? So for managers, again, it's not or it's important to train them on the process, but most importantly on those one to one conversations. And employees, again, there shouldn't really be any surprises. They should know, you know, what, the outcome of these reviews are going to be, whether it's compensation, development, promotions, and and being able to also provide continuous feedback throughout is important. That way, at the end of the year, again, they know exactly where they stand and and are not surprised by anything that we are covering within that review itself. Last but not least, on our checklist, we have staying ahead. So for HR and lead HR leaders and managers, we wanna ensure that you're just staying ahead and tracking where managers, departments, teams are out throughout the process instead of waiting to to towards the end or towards the deadline of reviews. Being able to identify, like, bottlenecks or where things are being stuck may be easier, like, during the cycle itself. We wanna be able to support managers and employees throughout being able to resolve questions quickly. That's why having one centralized place is, easier where managers and employees have a go to. And before anything is finalized, being able to look at some reporting and analytics. So, for example, here at NutriText track star, we have, like, a manager rate or bias report to identify, hey. Do we have any managers that are just scoring the same, some that are scoring really high, or some managers that may have different expectations than others, or, you know, some managers scoring really low. So just being able to access some of that information, especially if it is going to tie back to compensation is important. And for reporting, purposes, being able to keep leadership informed. So, again, we started off this session with determining what the driver of the of the reviews are going to be. So that data and analytics should be able to support, basically, those drivers being able to give leadership details around, pay for performance or where we can identify areas where we can strengthen our staff or workforce, that would, you know, keep everyone in in alignment. So those, again, are the four different areas that we'd like to focus on, Madison. Anything else here to add? A couple of things. I dropped in a question, around performance management, ease of use, and I know that's always a topic that that we hear of Gloria and something that I know is very near and dear to the hearts of so many is how do we make all of these staying ahead and the readiness and goals and metrics? How do we take all of that criteria and put it in a process that is still super easy, but it doesn't lose its luster. It's not so simple that it's no longer effective. And I see a handful of people, Tammy and Chelsea and Sharon all said that or gave me a a kind of, like, an emoji here to, I think say, yes. This is what we need to focus on. We need to make it simple, but it also needs to be effective. So a couple of things. Certainly, MitreTalk, our performance management system is designed to be able to support organizations like yours to keep the process simple, mirror your culture, mirror your organization, but also do it in a manner that, you know, creates adoption, creates stickiness. So there's a lower barrier, or there's no barrier to entry rather when it comes to the performance management conversation. So that's worth high highlighting. And then we also do have an updated performance review starter kit that we'll be sharing out as well that really kind of highlights a number of these best practices that Gloria walked us through. Any questions, that anyone wants to drop into the chat while we have a few minutes? We have some q and a that we'll get to, but just to take a beat while we have ten minutes or so, wanna see if there are any questions that you all have that you feel like you wanna drop into the chat. While we are maybe waiting for some, shy folks to type in maybe a next, we're gonna do a transform system. We're really gonna highlight the actual performance review process, and even utilizing, you know, some best practices that a number of organizations are founding their performance review principles upon and how we've kind of guided some of those conversations and, the momentum of an organization when it comes to assessing and preparing and transforming the the performance management conversation. So we'll really kind of get into the weeds on what does that strategy look like, how does that actually function within a performance management system, how can we maybe mirror your process today even though it might be paper, or it might be an HRAS module? How can we closely mirror what you're doing today, but put it in a whole new light and perspective within maybe our performance management system to create some of that adoption and and stickiness and and ease of use, but give you a whole slew of data and analytics to be more proactive in performance conversations as opposed to reactive. Let's see here, Gloria. Ashley dropped a question in the chat. Can you give an example of ratings you recommend for data, so, like, meets versus exceeds expectations or numbers, kind of some of the rating scales that we recommend, organizations use in in the performance management conversation. Of course. Yeah. So when I'm working with clients, I typically see that they are using, like, a four or five point rating scale, whether it's like a Likert, meets expectations, exceeds expectations, something similar to that. So I see that quite a bit when clients are looking to tie back performance back to compensation, salary increases, and and bonuses like that. But for clients, sometimes they're more more focused on development versus compensation. So sometimes I see more of, like, proficiency scales, like, okay. They're in training or they're proficient in a certain area or they've excelled. That's important, again, if we wanna iron or get a little bit deeper on where should we be training and developing our staff. Like, where do we wanna up level skill sets so that we can take on more projects or more, opportunities within the firm or organization. I also echo that sentiment as well. I think it's also really important to, often at times, even associate rating scales, with more of an opportunity to learn more about an employee or set expectations. I think often at times we think of rating scales as kind of like the grade school mentality, kinda like the a, b, c, d, e, f. Right? We're really that's no longer relevant. A rating scale is really there to help us understand what is proficiency, what should we be working towards, what are the expectations for me as an employee, as a leader, to better understand how I can continue working towards kind of that North Star. And so one of the things that we always recommend is regardless if you use, a numerical rating scale or, like, a meets versus exceeds is we always provide additional documentation or anecdotes to help employees and managers or people leaders understand what exactly is the difference between maybe an EE or an ME. And even providing an example as a part of the review process So you have a little bit more anecdotal information to say, you know what? Meetings exceed isn't bad. That means I'm actually doing my job very well, but I still have some room to grow. And in fact, one of my mentors told me, one of the first times that I stepped into management leadership was if you're giving yourself, a exceeds expectation on every performance review, you know, we have a entire organization of CEOs because we're all, like, selling. Right? And it was kind of one of those things that was rhetorical of, wait. You're right. That doesn't mean that I'm underperforming. It means that I just kinda have to recalibrate and reset my own expectations of what a performance review kind of rating scale actually looks like. Okay. I see another question in here. Do we have any suggestions on changing verbiage for a DEI rating on performance reviews? Do you wanna take a look at that, Gloria? Let's see here. Suggestions on changing verbiage for a DEI rating. I have to put some thought into that one. Yeah. I think I think there's probably a couple of options here. I'd love to learn a little bit more, Chelsea, on exactly what you mean by that. Feel free to, message our team directly. I'm sure we can get connected to kinda better understand some of those DEI ratings that you might be using today. I know a recommendation for us, you you know, often at times, we might use some additional options like culture and belonging or inclusive collaboration, or inclusive behaviors or collaboration and respect. I've seen some of those, kind of help, again, like, recalibrate or set some expectations and demonstrate still a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, but also making it a little bit more holistic, in changing that that verbiage. And that way too, we can just kinda manage expectations and use a little bit more, or additional inclusive inclusive language. Any other questions, team? Alright. We have an exit poll that is live, so that is fantastic. Please please please make sure that you share some feedback on that poll. We would love to hear from you. Also, feel free to write in. We'd love to meet you. If we're not already set up with, any kind of demo or discovery conversation, We'd love the opportunity to meet all of you, and share some additional perspective and learn more about you and your environments and how we can maybe support you all. I saw a couple of notes here about the, recording links, and then also about the handout that we're sharing. So, yes, we will be sending that out. And then our Sloan also just dropped in some additional information here in the chat. So please make sure that you, take that link, and save it. And then we hope to see you back next Thursday. Any parting words, Gloria? Now just, yeah, if you need any support, feel free to reach out since we are in the thick of, entering our review season prep for the end of year. So feel free to reach out if there's any way that we can we can assist or support. Yep. We would we would love to have a conversation. We appreciate everyone joining us for, this late Thursday afternoon. For those of you within The United States, we hope that you have a fantastic holiday and a long weekend. I know we're all looking forward to that. So enjoy your long weekend. Thank you again for joining us, and we hope you have a a a fantastic holiday weekend. Alright. Thanks, everyone, everyone.