From Annual Evaluation to Fast Feedback Loops
The annual evaluation is an exciting time for individuals in the team mostly because of the chances of knowing their points of improvements. You may not know it, since the team now is a fresh, new team, but it has been doubly exciting for the first people who worked in SEO Hacker because of the surety of a financial raise.
Needless to say that it was not a wise decision and culture because along the way we have rewarded people who were lazy, tardy, disloyal and downright stagnant in their career growth – not to mention that it was also not financially sustainable for the company. Thankfully, because of our mechanisms with teeth, this is no longer the case.
The evaluation period for an individual in our team comes in the 6th month and then in November – which is the supposed end of our internal fiscal year. This is now going to change.
We are now going to disregard evaluations in terms of ‘the day’ of feedback. Instead, we will (and should) give feedback at least each month. And we will give it right before the salary day so that everyone will remember that it has to be given.
It doesn’t have to be long. In fact, it must not be long. It has to be summarized to up to three points of improvement which will be addressed in the following format:
- What are one to two things that you are having difficulty with in your work?
- How can I help you out with those?
- Okay, here is where I think you can improve as a (job description)
This should be emailed by the team leader to each of the team members in order for them to hone each other with their work. Likewise, I will email this to each of the team leads who report directly to me. I believe that fast feedback loops will help us iterate and improve at least twelve more times than our annual evaluation (which is the current system).
I know that it means more work for the team leads and that is also why I request each of the team members to try and carry the burden of the team leaders so that your team leaders could help you become better team players.
As good as it sounds, I’m afraid that we as a team would ask these three questions and not act upon it. So I’m going to put this as a project in our Teamwork and we’ll be able to see the momentum of this new implementation as-we-go.
