How DCMN automated feedback processes to boost investment in employee development
“At DCMN, we see the People team as a partner team rather than an admin team. We want to focus on our employees and not on processes. With Leapsome, we have automated the manual work around feedback and career development, so that we can spend our time with our people: understanding their needs, guiding them through their very own DCMN lifecycle, and helping them find purpose in what they do.”
Growth marketing partner DCMN works with top brands such as GetYourGuide, Deezer, and Wayfair and has employees in seven offices around the world. Ensuring that each employee receives feedback that enables them to do outstanding work for their clients is paramount for DCMN.
Theresa Jasarai, Senior People Relations Manager at DCMN, recognized the organization’s need to introduce a new and improved feedback framework that works for all of their international locations. Previous communication and feedback structures were not sufficient for helping their people understand their specific role and how they can grow in the long term. Similarly, the team leads did not have the tools and time needed to facilitate their team’s growth.
The operational part of giving and receiving feedback was causing an unmanageable amount of manual work. Using tools such as Typeform and Excel sheets proved to be unscalable and inflexible, with limited options to customize as they are not designed for this specific use case.
In terms of strategy, DCMN needed to align on what they wanted to achieve with feedback, which intervals work for the business, and what metrics should be measured. Notably, the role that the People team should play in the process was yet to be decided.
“We want the People team to be partners to the business, having time to guide and coach the team leads and all other employees. We want to empower great feedback by establishing a culture where feedback is lived by every single person. I think it is a big misperception that feedback is an HR process. It is a cultural topic that goes far beyond that and we need everybody on board.”
At that point, Theresa was also very conscious that only new hires were being given feedback during their probation period. She knew how critical it is for all employees to continuously receive high-quality feedback to learn and develop personally and professionally.
“If you don’t create the right structures or a structure at all, it’s too easy for employees NOT to give one another feedback. It’s not because they don’t want to but we work in a very fast-paced business, and working with clients is a super demanding job. We needed to implement a framework so that we can enable feedback more regularly and facilitate our employees' growth.”
First, Theresa worked with DCMN’s management team to define the feedback framework that they would adopt. Next, she defined requirements for the tool that they would search for to build the company’s ideal feedback process.
Getting rid of the old-fashioned manager-employee construct and being able to gather holistic peer feedback via 360-degree reviews were critical criteria. Theresa worked on defining the frequency of these cycles, the questions that would be asked, and the metrics to be measured as a result. Most importantly, feedback should be connected to DCMN’s guiding principles.
“DCMN constantly evolves and things change in our business; that’s just how it works. We need to be able to adapt to that, and our internal processes need to adapt too. Therefore, we know that even once we introduce new frameworks and tools, it will always be a work in progress. We needed to find a flexible tool that would be able to adapt to us.”
Knowing that these feedback processes can require a significant time investment and manual work without the proper tools, Theresa embarked on a search for a purpose-built platform that would automate much of the process.
Having tested Leapsome following a recommendation from her network (and also having tested other platforms), Theresa noted that Leapsome was the easiest to use and had the most complete set of features, which served all of DCMN’s needs. Furthermore, Theresa noted the importance of the speed and quality of support provided by Leapsome’s Customer Success team. As a result, Leapsome was rolled out across all of DCMN’s offices to standardize their feedback processes for all employees.
DCMN uses Leapsome’s performance review software to run biannual 360-degree reviews for all employees so that they get formal feedback. Additionally, the company uses Leapsome’s probation reviews features to automatically trigger reviews when new hires start and complete their probation period.
"The most meaningful part of my role starts when I am able to understand both the operational and personal challenges of our employees and can act as a facilitator that connects open ends, as well as someone who coaches and guides all employees. Having everything else automated within Leapsome makes it possible to make employee matters my priority."
Aside from the biannual reviews, Theresa also noted how Leapsome facilitates more frequent feedback across the organization.
“I really like that Leapsome makes ongoing feedback so easy with the instant feedback features. It gives our people the opportunity to gather more structured and detailed feedback after pitches, client meetings, or other important milestones without waiting for their official review every six months.”
On top of constructive feedback, DCMN employees regularly praise each other using Leapsome’s Instant Praise feature to reinforce a culture of appreciation.
Having run reviews and feedback with Leapsome, DCMN continuously learns from their processes’ previous iterations, revising and extending the skills framework that underpins feedback. Recognizing that the quality of feedback can always be improved, iterating on the skill frameworks and the questions asked during reviews, they are working towards ensuring that feedback supports the growth of every individual at DCMN — no matter where they are based.
Aside from the feedback processes, DCMN is using Leapsome’s many other features. DCMN regularly solicits feedback from all employees by sending out regular employee engagement surveys, and teams across the company use Leapsome’s Goals and OKRs functionality to track the development and progress of goals and ensure alignment.
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