What do you do as an HR leader when you need to get your entire workforce aligned and firing on all cylinders to achieve a major long-term strategic initiative? For Andrea Malec, manager of talent management and development at The Driving Force Group of Companies, the answer was to create a game-changing people-first approach through continuous performance management.
Driving Force provides a network of transportation solutions that spans nearly 40 locations and includes almost 600 team members across five companies throughout Canada and the US. Its performance processes were disjointed — often localized or non-existent. But when you’ve got to align a geographically dispersed workforce around a big, overarching growth initiative, everyone has to be in the same orbit.
The organization’s five-year strategic “Mission to Mars” initiative has two components: financial profitability and return on asset revenue and a people component around teamwork, collaboration, delighting customers, and caring for the environment. “For us, it shows the importance of a balance between performance and relationships,” Andrea explains.
Driving Force chose Betterworks because of the partnership Andrea realized she would have with Betterworks. “There’s a whole team working together to help us succeed — and that’s been true from the support we received through integration to the support we receive today from our client success manager,” Andrea says.
Mission No. 1: goal alignment
The first order of business was achieving employee understanding of the mission’s goals and alignment with them because every employee has a role in the mission. With Betterworks Goals, people have visibility into the executives’ goals — and they’re clearly spelled out for all to easily understand. The company not only achieved 100% goal adoption among its leaders but also surpassed its target of achieving employee clarity on their goals and responsibilities,” at 88%.
“When people are clear on goals and feel they are part of our bigger ‘Mission to Mars’ picture, that makes them feel like they belong,” Andrea explains.
Promoting inclusion through employee-led performance
Employees wanted employee-led performance reviews and learning and development. They get both now with Betterworks Conversations. “It’s employee-owned but manager-supported and organization-enabled,” Andrea says.
Manager-employee conversations with discussion templates simplify the process for everyone by providing structure. Goals are also tied into the Betterworks Conversations module, with Driving Force measuring people on both performance and relationships.
Conversation Assist, a Betterworks AI tool, has also been a hit with managers, who can use it to improve the quality and clarity of their communications by drawing on employee goals, feedback, recognition, and other data to coach employees, express their expectations, and provide actionable takeaways for employees.
A sense of belonging is reinforced by the company’s use of Betterworks’ recognition features.
Performance designed for employees
Andrea and the team developed their performance program based on design thinking to generate stakeholder buy-in and high adoption. The focus of performance conversations has changed annually in the first two years, with employees evaluated on competencies that reflect values they care about, such as growth and development, customer focus, collaboration, and change agility. Employee feedback shows the approach is working.
To make sure their employee experience remains strong, Andrea’s team uses the Betterworks Engage survey tool to listen to and act on feedback and ideas.
Future stages of the mission
Over time, Driving Force plans to roll out additional conversations, one-to-one meetings, employee development plans, and succession planning. For now, they are thrilled with the positivity employees feel about recognition, teamwork, and collaboration.
“Betterworks has gone over very, very well,” Andrea says.” Leaders love it. Employees also love it.”
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