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To start off, I have a confession to make. I don't have a background in HR.
In fact, for most of my career, I was on the opposite side - being on the receiving end of all the latest and greatest HR interventions that were being rolled out across the organization. The problem is that most of these interventions added very little value to the way I led my team (I headed up Product Development at a large retail bank). You see, most of the time, the results ended up being about numbers rather than insights. "We got 5.2 for this metric and we got 5.1 last year, so well done guys" was a typical response from my fellow managers. What they failed to appreciate was that numbers are meaningless in themselves - it's what the numbers tell you about the business and its people - and how you can improve it - that should be the real focus. |
Gavin Symanowitz (PhD),
FeedbackRocket Founder
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It always degenerated into silly contests, with managers from the various departments comparing their scores against each other. It was much more about beating your fellow manager than about identifying areas for change in your team and your department.
I also hated the way they reported the numbers. There were hundreds of dense tables, with complicated phrases like "this score is 2.4 standard deviations above the mean and is statistically significant at the 5% level". I'm a statistician and actuary so I actually understand that statement - but I know that very few people in other professions have a clue what that means. So why report it like that? Why not translate it into language that people can actually understand, and more importantly, in a way that helps them make better decisions about their business?
A Better Way
I was so frustrated with the way that the traditional HR tools are used that I decided to leave and create a business that would do it properly. At FeedbackRocket, we've solved all the problems with the traditional tools and completely reinvented them to add real value to the business. Our approach is based on a combination of award-winning interactive feedback technology and a powerful actuarial analysis methodology.
But the tools we use are actually not that important - they are a means to an end. The ultimate aim is for you to have effective managers, happy employees, low turnover of talent, and a more profitable business. That's what really matters.
I also hated the way they reported the numbers. There were hundreds of dense tables, with complicated phrases like "this score is 2.4 standard deviations above the mean and is statistically significant at the 5% level". I'm a statistician and actuary so I actually understand that statement - but I know that very few people in other professions have a clue what that means. So why report it like that? Why not translate it into language that people can actually understand, and more importantly, in a way that helps them make better decisions about their business?
A Better Way
I was so frustrated with the way that the traditional HR tools are used that I decided to leave and create a business that would do it properly. At FeedbackRocket, we've solved all the problems with the traditional tools and completely reinvented them to add real value to the business. Our approach is based on a combination of award-winning interactive feedback technology and a powerful actuarial analysis methodology.
But the tools we use are actually not that important - they are a means to an end. The ultimate aim is for you to have effective managers, happy employees, low turnover of talent, and a more profitable business. That's what really matters.
