One of the more frequent suggestions we pass along to our customers is a little outside of the box, but can produce some intriguing options when looking to expand what is possible with Small Improvements.
On the surface, it is simple: Create a user profile for your company. What becomes available however, requires a little creativity, and can open up the scope of your account.
Read on to see how you can leverage feedback and goal setting for the company as a whole!
Adding the user
First things first, you’ll need to add another user. For instance: We do this ourselves here at Small Improvements, so our HR Admin has created a user called, you guessed it, Small Improvements.
Our HR Admin has simply used a spare email for the log-in details (which only they have access to), uploaded our company logo as the profile picture, and will log-in as this “user” when facilitating the feedback conversations centered around the entire organization.
Reporting structure
Who does the company as a user report to? Does anyone report to the company? Interesting question! There are two options we recommend:
Leave the company profile outside of the reporting structure, as an admin account whose sole purpose is to facilitate this unique feedback. The simplest option, this approach saves you having to consider the implications of hierarchy.
Embrace the implications of hierarchy. The CEO reports to this user, and thus everyone reports up to the company. Everyone is working towards the same target of creating a successful business right? So in many ways, everyone in the company actually does report to the company itself. This option also carries one specific benefit in using our performance review tool, which we cover in a moment.
360s
Let’s look how you can use this new profile in action by starting with our favorite: Run peer feedback cycles on the company itself.
Looking for ways to get a general pulse check on team moral? How about feedback on the company’s latest roadmap update? Or perhaps you’ve just returned from a company retreat and want feedback about what was accomplished during your workshops?
The 360 tool is perfect for this. The entire company, or just select groups like your leaders, could give feedback about the company directly. You’d just need to:
Configure a dedicated cycle for company feedback.
Add the company user profile as the reviewee.
Select which employees will participate in the feedback round.
Kick off and send out your notifications.
All of the options we provide for a typical 360 cycle apply. Anonymous feedback, flexible questionnaire formats, short cuts for upwards feedback, etc.,. are all settings you could consider when gathering feedback on the company.
If you are not already familiar with how Small Improvements supports the power of peer feedback, have a look at all of our 360 resources here.
Objectives
Another great benefit of this approach is the ability to communicate company wide goals to your team, opening up the possibility of them aligning their individual goals around these rallying points.
They can be super long term and tailored around the company’s vision and strategy, or they can be about quarterly company targets. Or a variety of other goals that would be considered owned by the company, as opposed to an individual.
One quick idea to promote alignment of individual Objectives around broader company goals: Use Categories!
When crafting structure and guidance by creating Objective cycles, pop your company objectives in the description section of your cycle.
Cross reference these company objectives in the customizable categories you can include in any cycle.
Then your team can can communicate how their individual goals align with company ones via the category label. For more detail, check out this article.
Reviews
A regular dilemma we’ll see companies run into is: How does the top of the org structure participate in a performance review when they have no manager?
Our Reviews tool is designed to facilitate a formalized check-in between managers and their reports. With each side writing an assessment of the reviewee’s growth, successes, and areas that need improvement.
With the company as a user approach, you can have your CEO participate in a review, with the company stepping in to play the role of the manager. Your CEO will obviously write a self assessment. But who writes the assessment of them? A lot of options to consider, but the most common options are: another senior executive, a board member, or even the HR Admin as they often act as a people and culture coach for members of their executive team.
The HR admin responsible for maintaining the account would simply need to provide temporary log-in access to the company “user”. Or gather the feedback externally, later populating the form with the responses which were passed along.
Praise
Pretty simple: Your team can praise the company.
Positive reinforcement is most powerful when individuals feel recognized for their accomplishments, but scenarios are definitely possible where your staff might want to praise their place of employment.
Here’s one example! You’ve spent two years working at your employer. During this time, you’ve seen your professional skill-set (including leadership) grow in deeper ways you’d not experienced at previous jobs. A lot of factors contributed to this: your own drive and willingness to embrace new challenges, but also the great feedback you’ve received from your colleagues, the values of the company which inspired you to do more, and the support of management to help you develop. It feels great, you want to praaaaaise. Well, now you’ll just praise the whole company for helping you achieve this! 🙂
Feedback Requests
You can use feedback requests to solicit feedback from individual users outside of a 360 cycle. This is a great way to conduct exit interviews.
When you create a feedback requests, make the request about the company. You can even set up a feedback request template specifically for exit interviews.