For most businesses, July 2021 is recognised as a new financial year.

At businessDEPOT, we like to review and reset at this time of year. For our team, this involves completing a pre-session questionnaire that measures engagement and workplace culture, then completeing a goal setting exercise that covers off on performance.

Why a pre-session questionnaire?

The review/goal setting/performance catch-up can be daunting for many personality types, so we have found our team benefit greatly from having the chance to prepare and gather their thoughts before the session.

We also use this as an opportunity to get some feedback.

Below are some examples of the questions we include in our pre-session questionnaire:

  • How did we go as a business, where can we improve?
  • What do you like/dislike about working here?
  • What did your Director/Manager do well in the last 6 months that helped with your engagement?
  • What did they struggle with from your perspective?
  • How was your overall engagement and behaviours?
  • Are you meeting the expectations of the role?
  • Are we living our values and what values have you demonstrated?
  • Do you need any training to help you get to the next level?
  • How did you go with your goals/KPI’s in the last 12 months?
  • What went well/not so well?
  • Other than salary what motivates you to work here?
  • What do you want to achieve over the next 12 months personally and professionally?

The questionnaire is designed to consider engagement, culture, and performance. We want to know that our team members feel valued, they are enjoying coming to work, and they’re on board with the vision of the business.

We then use the questionnaire as the agenda for our goal setting meeting.

The goal-setting meeting

It is crucial that a team member walks out of a goal setting meeting at businessDEPOT with clarity on;

  • Their performance and our expectations – whether they are meeting them or not
  • Where improvements can be made and clarity on what those actions are
  • How they can exceed expectations and what those key goals will be, and
  • Any concerns they had, as we ensure these have been addressed

Setting Goals

It goes without saying that all of us seasoned professionals know a goal needs to be SMART, right?

Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, Timely.

Alas, for many team members, if this isn’t something they have done before [or regularly], they will not know how to do this.  So we always discuss and set goals for team members, together.

We walk the team member through the process to ensure it is CRYSTAL CLEAR what is expected, how they can achieve them and by when, and we break everything down into quarterly chunks.

We then set up 90 day check ins, to look at goal progress and see how they are traveling.

What else do we do?

We share goals with other team members so everyone is across what is happening in their team. Then we share the broader business goals with the team, so they have some context and can see how their goals fit into the grand scheme of things.

You would be amazed how a structured approach to performance with setting the scene and regular check ins can help avoid HR issues down the track.

If you would like some support or guidance on building better teams, goal-setting and the performance review process feel free to touch base with our People + Culture team. We can help you set something up that is simple and valuable.