The Managers Guide to WorkStory
As a manager, effectively coaching and evaluating your team's performance is key to driving growth and success. WorkStory empowers managers to streamline their coaching efforts and conduct performance reviews with ease.
In this comprehensive guide, we will walk you through the essential steps and strategies for utilizing WorkStory to its fullest potential.
From reviewing team performance and feedback, conducting regular Check-Ins, to creating formal performance reviews, this guide serves as your one-stop resource for mastering the WorkStory platform and coaching your team towards continuous improvement.
Reviewing Team Performance and Feedback
Q: How often should managers review their team's performance and feedback?
A: Managers should aim to review their team's performance on a weekly or biweekly basis. This regular cadence allows them to stay updated on the feedback coming in and track the team's performance statistics.
Q: How can managers review their team's performance using WorkStory?
A: Managers can utilize the Team Dashboard page on WorkStory. This dashboards provide an overview of the team's performance, highlighting key metrics, competency scores, and feedback trends.
Then, diving into each individual team member's dashboard, managers can gain deeper insights into their performance and feedback.
Q: How can managers provide or request additional feedback for team members using WorkStory?
A: WorkStory offers the flexibility for managers to provide additional feedback through "Manual" or direct reviews within the system. These manual reviews can be completed alongside the automatic feedback process, allowing managers to capture specific feedback when it can be most effective. This personalized feedback provides valuable insights and helps employees understand areas for improvement and growth.
See our Completing a Direct Review page to learn more.
Moreover, managers can also utilize the "Request Review" feature on WorkStory. This feature enables managers to send a review request where peers can provide feedback to one another. By requesting additional reviews, managers encourage a culture of feedback and collaboration within the team, fostering a supportive environment for growth and development.
Learn more about Requesting a Review.
In using these features, managers can enhance the feedback process, providing targeted insights and encouraging team members to learn from each other's perspectives.
Conducting Regular Check-Ins and One-on-One Meetings
Q: How can managers conduct effective Check-Ins or one-on-one meetings with team members using WorkStory?
A: With WorkStory, managers can now establish more effective check-ins with their team members. The competency scores allow managers to quickly identify areas of strength and areas for improvement. They can also reflect on the feedback received for each competency, finding opportunities to develop and provide targeted support.
Q: How can managers leverage the competency scores in these meetings?
A: The competency scores on WorkStory provide valuable insights into an employee's performance across various skill areas. Managers can use these scores as a starting point for discussion, focusing on both the strengths to acknowledge and the areas for improvement to address. This helps guide the conversation and ensures that development opportunities are aligned with the employee's specific needs.
Keep in mind that employees have access to these dashboards as well so check-in conversations should never be a surprise. Coach your team members to review their feedback and scores regularly so that everyone is working towards the same development goal.
Formal Performance Reviews and Dashboard Reports
Q: How can managers utilize WorkStory for more formal performance reviews?
A: WorkStory offers dashboard reports that enable managers to summarize an employee's performance over a specific time period, such as a month, quarter, or year. Managers can review the feedback received for each competency, assess progress, and add their own notes to provide a comprehensive performance review.
For more on reports, check out our Creating a Report FAQ page.
Q: How should managers approach sharing the performance review with the employee?
A: Managers can share the performance review with the employee, allowing them time to review it and provide their input. This step promotes transparency and encourages open communication. Managers can then schedule a meeting with the employee to discuss the review, offering constructive feedback, identifying areas for growth, and jointly setting goals for the future.
Maintaining Optimum Review Relationships
Q: What is the role of managers in checking review relationships and ensuring they are appropriate and up to date?
A: Managers play a crucial role in ensuring that review relationships within WorkStory are appropriate and aligned with team dynamics. They have the responsibility to review and adjust the assigned peer reviews for team members, ensuring that individuals who work most closely together are providing feedback to one another.
By optimizing the review relationships, managers can facilitate a more meaningful and relevant feedback process, enhancing the quality of insights and fostering stronger collaboration within the team.
See more on our Assigning Review Relationships Page.
Q: Can managers adjust the frequency of reviews for team members?
A: Yes, managers have the capability to adjust the review frequency for team members within WorkStory. This feature allows managers to ensure that team members are being asked for their input enough, striking the right balance between gathering sufficient feedback and avoiding overwhelming individuals.
The system automatically caps the maximum number of reviews per day at two to prevent excessive burden on team members. Through adjusting the review frequency, managers can customize the feedback process to best suit the needs and capacity of their team members.
Learn how you can change how often reviews are asked on our Adjusting Review Frequency FAQ page.
Actively managing review relationships and frequencies can optimize the feedback process within WorkStory, ensuring that team members receive high-quality feedback from those they work closely with while maintaining a balanced workload for everyone involved.
Implement Your Own Process
How you'd like to manage with WorkStory is up to you. We'll help to collect all of the relevant performance data so that you can stay focused on effectively coaching team members towards improvement, providing timely feedback, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and development.