How are you managing performance and personal development conversations? Once a year? Twice?

Dubbed the ‘dreaded’ performance review, we typically find ourselves discussing old goals that may have been dropped or forgotten, whilst filling out a Word document that then gets stored in a file for HR. And when review time comes around again, how are we ensuring that these goals are on track or remembered in the first place? How can we ensure that personal and career goals are still aligned with the business? Or showcase that they have changed or flexed?

Performance should be an ongoing thread of conversation that is conducted and updated, so personal development and evaluation isn’t an isolated or static occurrence. However, too often organisations lack the tools and visibility to support these conversations or better yet, to keep track.

 

Companies are seeing the effects

●  Four out of 10 workers are actively disengaged when they get little to no feedback. (Source: Shortlister)

●  70% of employees would leave their current employer for one that invests in employee learning and development (Source: EDS)

●  Companies adopting continuous performance feedback significantly outperformed competition at a 24% higher rate. (Source: Shortlister)

●  Companies with continuous performance management outperform traditional ones in these areas: increased productivity (66%), motivating the entire workforce (65%), and achieving top goals of the organisation (64%). (Source: Shortlister)

To set ourselves up for success, it is paramount that learning and development is on track and that employees' progression goals are a front and centre driver of performance.

In a world of flexible working, it’s never been more necessary to possess tools that a) recognise growth both in and outside of work allowing employers and employees to be held accountable, b) that provide a central place to track career goals against business objectives, and c) to stay up to date with personal development and harness the chance to reflect.

With all this in mind, it was a no-brainer that led to the creation of brand-new features known as Journal and Learn. And better yet, the two  complement one another.

This is how Journal and Learn work together to form the hub that revolutionises personal development – though engaged and centralised learning, goal setting and journaling:

 

No more multiple LMS’s

The Learn feature removes the faff around having multiple LMS’s and centralised everything your workforce needs to learn. We understand the value of time and that people can’t afford to waste it on trying to figure out confusing systems. That is why it was important for us to enable a space where people can consolidate their systems and curate content in a digestible way.

Centralising also allows a more consistent user experience with fewer distractions and frustrations. Staff may even find themselves duplicating their efforts by creating and maintaining content across multiple LMSs. This redundancy wastes time and resources that could be better utilised for other tasks. With Learn, this frustration is removed.

 

Fewer clicks to learning materials

It was found that the average worker spends 84 minutes each day looking for information to get their work done. (Source: TechRadar)

The fewer clicks, the less ‘out the way’, the more likely we are to engage. With Learn you’ve the ability to create a featured smart tile in your Hub, serving as an immediate visual for people to engage in learning. And only a click away. We want to avoid over-stimulation and disengagement. The less work for people to gain access to their essential resources, the better.

 

Ongoing opportunities for growth

74% of people say they aren’t reaching their full potential at work due to a lack of development opportunities (Source: Go1). There are various ways to facilitate growth, e.g. giving employees visibility to business objectives and a chance to link to their career goals, clarifying an accountable path to progression. This way, it’s easier to attribute employees' progression to the business with a centralised location (such as with soon-to-launch Journal).

This new feature was created to unlock goals, reach potential and facilitate that all-year-round connection between employee and employer - keeping the thread of conversation going between performance review windows.

It provides a dashboard, reporting the % with which an individual has progressed and the opportunity to share the results or keep them confidential. In this way, both employee and management have the chance to spotlight impact.

 

Enable people to bring their whole selves to work

This feature was also built with wellbeing in mind. The benefits of journaling are endless but with noted perks such as reduced stress and anxiety, and boosted productivity. This enhances creativity to accelerate day to day performance.

Between setting, tracking goals and accessing journaling to create live-time reflections, employees have a chance to better understand themselves and give that wider understanding to managers.

40.1% of our day is spent multitasking with communication tools (Source: Forbes)

Providing staff the right tools can feel like an overwhelming burden resulting in many tools and solutions, and no one-size fits all. With features such as Learn, Kudos and Journal, HulerHub centralises those tools so people have everything they need in one place.

 

View, measure and adjust

Greater visibility by a streamlined dashboard allows managers to have a birds eye view of where personal and professional goals are stacked. For the first time managers can see what makes people tick, what motivates them, and how the business can encourage this and create a better roadmap.

Flexibility is important. Business objectives change, departments adjust and people too, which is why we need a system that offers flexibility with goals, deadlines, progression or course of action. And the ability to draft goals that are no longer relevant.

 

Celebrate the wins together

Importantly, we must celebrate and encourage, to show that we care and appreciate the value of an individual’s contribution. It can be hard not to get lost in the everyday. This is why we’ve created prompts – like the congratulations message when a goal is completed – the ability to check-in so staff don’t check-out.

 

Courtney Coyle 

Marketing Executive at Huler

Introducing ‘Journals’ to the HulerHub in April 2023, with ‘Learn’ arriving May 2024.