Saffery Champness engages staff with on-the-job feedback and dynamic objectives
“The advice and guidance we have received from Performance Leader has been very, very helpful. Not just in the way we’ve designed and implemented our system, but also in thinking about how we can improve what we do already internally, and how we might want to look to improve further in the future.”
Saffery Champness is a UK accounting firm that has approximately 700 staff, including 80 partners, and is part of the Nexia International network.
The firm wanted a way to engage staff in giving and receiving more frequent, quality feedback. It also wanted to help their people track objectives throughout the year as an active process.
One of the issues the firm faced was the existing process for “job appraisals” feedback, which is given by audit leaders to team members at the close of a job or project. It was a departmental headache because it took too much time and administrative effort to provide feedback on employee strengths and suggestions for improvement in a consistent and trackable way.
Saffery Champness was also keen to bring the firm’s values to life in performance and feedback discussions and to enable colleagues to recognise the contribution of others in real-time – anytime, anywhere.
We created a dynamic approach for setting employee objectives that was aligned to the firm’s strategic plan and tracked throughout the year. This helped connect everyone to the mission and purpose of the firm.
To solve the job/project-based feedback issue, we collaborated with the HR team and Audit partners to synchronise Performance Leader software to the firm’s existing job appraisal process. A key element of the design and workflow was helping team members reflect on their own project performance before seeking feedback from project leaders on their strengths and development areas.
We were also able to capture on-the-job and other feedback received across the business in check-ins with line managers. This was then included in formal reviews for more reflective discussions and career planning.
Working in this way has led to high levels of engagement with all aspects of the Performance Leader system across the firm at all levels. User feedback has been positive, and the client is delighted that all objectives set for the implementation of the system have been fully met.
“I personally like the instant feedback tool and the approach to objectives. I also really like the way it’s laid out. It’s not something that sits in a drawer. It’s something that I look to go in and track progress, to show what I’m contributing.”
Book a discovery meeting with us to explore your firm’s approach to building a sustainable high performance culture.
