Employees are wanting feedback more than ever; 96% of employees want to hear feedback regularly. The demand for feedback has far surpassed once-a-year reviews; employees want feedback weekly. Despite the increased demand for feedback, some employees may find receiving feedback to be challenging or discouraging. For feedback to be effective, it must be constructive, consistent, factual, and unbiased. Some employees find it tough to hear they have things they can improve on, ev

Whether you are a startup or a mature company, employee performance management is critical in order to achieve growth and success. The antiquated annual performance reviews have evolved, and for good reason - they simply don’t work. If you work in a matrix organization, you know better than most that the traditional annual reviews cannot accurately assess an employee’s performance. In this article, we outline some of the performance management problems often faced by matrix o

We are two months into 2021, and there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding companies returning to the office or continuing with fully remote work. Many people still want to work at home, while others want to go back to working at the office. Although there is no definite answer for whether organizations will be allowing people back into the office, organizations need to be ready for this new normal of a hybrid, flexible workforce. In this article, we outline how organiz

There is an overwhelming amount of research suggesting that traditional performance management just doesn't work. If you are a talent leader, you probably are already familiar with some of these statistics: 95% of managers reported being “unhappy” with traditional performance management. 65% of employees want more feedback. 98% of employees fail to be engaged when managers give little or no feedback. Disengaged employees have 37% higher absenteeism, 18% lower productivity and

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (otherwise known as DE&I) have been at the forefront of many talent leaders minds in the last several years. Diversity in the workplace includes traits and characteristics that make people unique; this includes different ages, genders, and races in your organization. Inclusivity refers to what makes people feel included, valued, and welcomed in the environment. Inclusivity enables a sense of belonging in the work culture. “Diversity is being i

Over the last few years, there have been many changes in the workplace. This includes the ditching of traditional annual performance reviews. This should come as no surprise since assessing employees once a year simply does not work (for more details, you can look at our previous articles on the problems of traditional performance management here, here and here). Nowadays, employees want feedback more than once a year. They want the opportunity to learn and develop in real-ti

Managers want to be supportive and friendly to their employees to gain their trust and to build a positive workplace. With the end-of-the-year performance conversations coming up, managers are starting to prepare their feedback for their direct reports. For managers, finding the right spot between being the friendly manager and the tough one can be tricky. It is important for managers to have positive relationships with their employees, while still being able to provide const

Over the last two decades, performance management has gone through a major revolution (for more details, you can check out our previous article on the history of performance management). But despite improvements to the system, employees still complain that performance reviews are biased. One survey found that only 29% of employees strongly agree that the performance reviews they receive are fair, and only 26% strongly agree that they are accurate. There are many disadvantages

The younger workforce, consisting of Millennials and Generation Z, currently comprises over half of the workforce in 2020. The ability to attract and engage these generations is top of mind for many organizations. Baby Boomers and Generation X have primarily been conditioned to the hierarchal company structures with the mindset that they must “work their way up the corporate ladder” (where they expect promotions and increase in status as the main form of progression in their

For startups, when to hire your first HR person can be tricky question. Many startups have a tight budget, so it’s easy to delay recruiting a HR hire and instead focus scarce resources on sales, marketing, or other personnel. However, having an employee dedicated to HR tasks is important. HR is not only for compliance, payroll, or recruiting/ outboard purposes, but they also help build and maintain a corporate culture, layout employee expectations within a company, and help d

Every organization wants to have great leaders. Great executives not only have the skills to understand and comprehend a complex situation, but they can make strategic decisions based on the information allocated to them. But where can organizations find these ‘rockstar’ leaders and how can they attract these executives to work for them? Below we suggest some tips on how to find and attract top executive talent. How to attract great executives to your organization 1) Evaluate

Whether organizations should change how they approach their performance reviews has been a question on the minds of many HR professionals and executives as the end of 2020 draws near. With the switch to remote work and the economy shutdown, looking back at the goals you set 6 months ago or last December is most likely comical right now given the recent events of 2020. Should I skip the performance review all together? Our recommendation: No, do not skip the performance review

New Report From The Starr Conspiracy Lists Pavestep in the Top 10 Startups to Watch SAN FRANCISCO — (Sept 18, 2020) — — The Starr Conspiracy, a B2B marketing agency for workplace innovators, today announced that Pavestep appears as a Top Startup to Watch in its recently published Brandscape™ 2021 report, Talent and Learning: All Together Now. The Starr Conspiracy is the premier agency focused on companies creating the future of work. Work Technology is bigger than just HR T

Creating a good company culture and building team morale can be challenging on a remote team. To better support your remote employees, you need to ask the right questions. Here are some questions designed to facilitate more meaningful conversations and help you build a strong connection with your remote employees and teams. Remote Work Lifestyle • What’s your favorite part about working remote? • What’s does your daily working routine look like? • What’s most challenging for

There isn't a one-size-fit-all approach when it comes to developing your talent. Developing and motivating the wide range of talent in your organization can be tricky - particularly those underperforming. In this article, we suggest how to approach and manage your underperformers. When should managers approach underperforming employees? While we naturally fear giving feedback, feedback is paramount, and it is in your employees’ best interest to say something sooner rather tha

Do you track the hours of your employees work daily? Do you require your remote employees to cc you on every project-related email? Do you constantly overcorrect your employees' work? You then might be micromanaging your team. For most employees, being micromanaged can be annoying and demoralizing. When you micromanage, you’re telling the employee that you don’t trust them enough to work on their own and still produce good results. Micromanaging also discourages employees to

The number of people working from home increased dramatically this week. The coronavirus is forcing organizations to rethink the way they do business and dust off policies for business continuity and remote workers. Shifting to a ‘home office’ might be a first for many employees, which means managers and their teams need to figure out how to focus, work, and ultimately be productive in a new (remote) environment. Here are a few ways to keep your team productive during remote

It could be that a once solid performer just doesn’t seem as motivated and productive as before. Or maybe you hired someone who seemed like the best fit for the role, but as the new employee settles in and weeks go by, you begin to realize they’re not performing as well as you had anticipated. Should you fire them? Before you write them off, consider another role that they may be better suited at in the company. After all the qualities that made them a good candidate are prob

Employee engagement is a hot topic right now. And yet, employee engagement worldwide is dreadfully low. To add to this problem, myths about what actually creates engagement are rampant—and are making the problem worse. Here we list 4 common employee engagement myths that simply aren't true. Myth 1) Open office space will make people more engaged and productive The open-office design was supposed to encourage employees to interact face-to-face. And yet, it gives us a reason to

Everybody has experienced workplace stress or anxiety at one point in their career. In fact, up to 94% of workers report feeling stress at work. And while we all have heard that performance can increase with stress (“Yerkes-Dodson law”), too much stress or too high of a stress leads to a reduction in performance and can eventually lead to employee burnout. Employee burnout is characterized by chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. Employee burnout ha