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I need to gather feedback regarding an entire team, which consists of six members, from members of several departments? Any tips on techniques?

jhack's picture

Do you mean that you need to collect data on their performance?

John

US101's picture
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You could have the other depts complete a short online survey. SurveyMonkey www.surveymonkey.com is a good and free tool for this. They have even have templates. Clearly communicate the purpose of the survey and what you're going to do with the information.

Personally, I would just go talk with those other departments.

Two MT casts that might help are 'Performance Reviews in a Matrix' and 'Performance Reviews with Little Time in the Role.'

HMac's picture

If your objective is to improve perfromance, involve the department in the design of the survey. Ask what's important [i]to them [/i]that you measure.

Then, involve them in the interpretation of the responses, in planning improvement actions that result, and in sharing the results/findings and plans with those who were surveyed.

Be very open. The endgame is NOT to conduct a survey - it's to improve.

Be transparant, and build support. The only exception is survey feedback that's critical and names people on the team. If you share that at all, do so privately.

-Hugh

AManagerTool's picture

We actually began using surveys at the beginning of this year. We run a scientific engineering and services organization. Out of the 20-30 or so work orders each of my directs do every month, I select 1 or 2 WO's at random (I designed a macro to do it) to send out a survey to that the team designed themselves.

As Hugh pointed out and my experience with it verifies, designing the survey themselves was important to them and they seemed to be more critical than me so I let them go with it. I would have only asked the "Would you recommend this person's services" question. I'm posting the actual survey but TRUST me on this, we are NOT statisticians or survey designers therefore, use at your own risk!

Answers are rated from 0-5 and they need to score an overall 3 this year to be considered to have met expectations on their perf eval for this objective. It's actually a very small part of their evals but it's amazing how important they think it is. Obviously, what gets measured gets done.

For results at the beginning of the year were that they were averaging 3.7 for the team with some notable exceptions. With individual feedback and the total number being posted on our shop door. It has risen to 4.2 over the last 6 months. There was a single gaming issue that the team brought to my attention and was corrected. You need to watch for that.

Overall, I'd say that it has been positive as an improvement tool. It is a way to create some heat in the organization and keep them focused on customer service. It also gives me a way to help justify training and coaching when needed as well as measure results. It's alot easier to say that the team needs training because overall they get good marks but the knowledge marks are low. Also, I had a direct that would get low marks on responsiveness and was coached on that.

Survey:

[quote]Please rate Joe Baggadounuts's performance, regarding this specific request, on the following attributes.

Responsive
{Choose one}
( ) Very Good
( ) Good
( ) Fair
( ) Poor
( ) Very Poor

Knowledgeable
{Choose one}
( ) Very Good
( ) Good
( ) Fair
( ) Poor
( ) Very Poor

Friendly/Courteous
{Choose one}
( ) Very Good
( ) Good
( ) Fair
( ) Poor
( ) Very Poor

Helpful
{Choose one}
( ) Very Good
( ) Good
( ) Fair
( ) Poor
( ) Very Poor

Reliable
{Choose one}
( ) Very Good
( ) Good
( ) Fair
( ) Poor
( ) Very Poor

Would you recommend Joe Baggadounuts to others?
{Choose one}
( ) Definitely
( ) Probably
( ) Not Sure
( ) Probably Not
( ) Definitely Not

Overall, how satisfied were you with Joe Baggadounuts's performance regarding this specific request?
{Choose one}
( ) Extremely Satisfied
( ) Very Satisfied
( ) Satisfied
( ) Dissatisfied
( ) Extremely Dissatisfied

Is there any additional information you would like us to know about Baggadounuts's performance or our department overall that we've not already covered? (Please answer in the space below.)
{Enter answer in paragraph form}[/quote]

lucaminudel's picture

[quote="AManagerTool"]
...
Survey:

[quote]Please rate Joe Baggadounuts's performance, regarding this specific request, on the following attributes.

Responsive
{Choose one}
( ) Very Good
( ) Good
( ) Fair
( ) Poor
( ) Very Poor

[/quote][/quote]

Not sure about Responsive...

Is it good a team member that is responsive even when he is told to do a wrong task ? or is it better a team member that question when he is told to do a task that seems to be wrong ?

HMac's picture

[quote="lucaminudel"]

Not sure about Responsive...

Is it good a team member that is responsive even when he is told to do a wrong task ? or is it better a team member that question when he is told to do a task that seems to be wrong ?[/quote]

You're creating an unecessary either/or choice here.

If your directs have customers -internal or external - you want them to be perceived as Responsive. You [i]also[/i] want directs who understand they may need to clarify a request or a directive that comes from a customer, and to do it in a way to demonstrates they are looking for understanding and clarity.

-Hugh

TomW's picture
Training Badge

[quote="HMac"][quote="lucaminudel"]

Not sure about Responsive...

Is it good a team member that is responsive even when he is told to do a wrong task ? or is it better a team member that question when he is told to do a task that seems to be wrong ?[/quote]

You're creating an unecessary either/or choice here.

If your directs have customers -internal or external - you want them to be perceived as Responsive. You [i]also[/i] want directs who understand they may need to clarify a request or a directive that comes from a customer, and to do it in a way to demonstrates they are looking for understanding and clarity.[/quote]

Exactly.

A member of my team is really detailed and really thorough, but it sometimes takes him longer than our internal customers would like to get back to them. He gets the request, works out their issue, then calls back the customer. The customers had no idea they were being helped until a week later when they got a response.

All it took for him to be perceived as more responsive was a quick email that said "I got your request and am working on it." During that time he bought, he could also check out the validity of the request.

I have another member who sacrificed everything for responsiveness and we had to teach him the opposite skill: that it was OK to say "let me get back to you" so he could check out the request, even though he could solve the issue on the spot. Before that, his responsiveness was awesome but his results were low.

Both can now be perceived as responsive and achieve high results.

AManagerTool's picture

Thanks Tom and Hugh...exactly.

I wanted to add:
TRUSTWORTHY
LOYAL
HELPFUL - Got that one!
FRIENDLY
COURTEOUS
KIND
OBEDIENT
CHEERFUL
THRIFTY
BRAVE
CLEAN
REVERENT
But the team wouldn't let me.

dave445's picture

The most effective reviews I've ever recieved have been when my manager has spoken directly with the people he's gathering the feedback from. AND the worst (least helpful) were those based on survey forms.

As Mark would say, it's all about behaviour. Surveys have never given me the "When you ....., What happens is ......" feedback that can be used to improve behaviour and performace.

Gather the information in person. It matters to your directs.

lucaminudel's picture

[quote="AManagerTool"]Thanks Tom and Hugh...exactly.

I wanted to add:
TRUSTWORTHY
LOYAL
HELPFUL - Got that one!
FRIENDLY
COURTEOUS
KIND
OBEDIENT
CHEERFUL
THRIFTY
BRAVE
CLEAN
REVERENT
But the team wouldn't let me.[/quote]

How would you feel to be measured with a survey like this?

Do you think it could highlight the value you deliver to the team you are part of and to the customers ?

Do you think it could help to improve your performace ?

tmckercher's picture

Great feedback, thanks. I am going to attempt to combine the suggestions by sending a short survey followed by a face-to-face if I can complete both in time.