Clafis

At CLAFIS Ingenieus, they are only truly happy when their 400-plus employees are able to achieve their ambitions and goals in the best possible way. And so they developed their very own interview cycle. But that was not all. This new cycle still had to be cast in a digital tool. Preferably a tool that they could design entirely as they saw fit.

How can we ensure that every Clafist, or CLAFIS colleague, is truly happy in his work and can discover and utilize his talents to the fullest extent? With this question as a starting point, the nationwide engineering firm developed a new interview cycle. 'New because there was a need from the organization for more structure in the conversations,' explains Maartje Bouma, P&O manager at CLAFIS Ingenieus. 'People wanted more and continuous insight into their own development. In the old situation, the manager initiated a performance review once a year, usually in December. The question, however, is whether your manager is the most appropriate person to discuss your performance or would it be better to ask for feedback from colleagues or even customers with whom you work directly? This also gives managers more insight into how the environment perceives a person in their substantive work and socially.'

Employee dreams and ambitions

This different view of performance appraisals fits seamlessly with CLAFIS Ingenious as an organization and employer. The engineering firm describes its ambition as follows: 'CLAFIS Ingenieus is the most attractive engineering firm. That is our dream. An ambition that we have jointly established and share together. We add value through the connections we make. Together with our client and together with our colleagues we strive for success'. Maartje: 'Committed, expert, driven and groundbreaking are our four core values. The personal contact is where we distinguish ourselves and that already starts at moment 1: an acquaintance or job interview. We zoom in on the ambitions, qualities and dreams of our employees.'

Feedback is central

The new appraisal cycle no longer has appraisal and performance reviews. Instead, the focus is on development and asking for and giving feedback is central. Twice a year there is a cycle of feedback evaluation rounds and growth conversations. Each employee asks two or three colleagues or customers for feedback. Based on that, they do a self-assessment, then look at their future and the goals and steps they want to take. As a final step before the growth conversation, a manager gives feedback to his or her colleague. These three steps form the basis for the manager's growth conversation.

Shared vision

After shaping the new interview cycle on paper, the next step came: looking for a partner who could make a good translation of the CLAFIS vision and the corresponding interview cycle. 'We made contact with three parties including Treams. Treams immediately jumped out in a positive sense. They match our vision 1 on 1. Like us, they always look ahead, are constantly working on innovations, and the way in which they supervise and enter the interview cycle fits in seamlessly with how we do it. And that is also reflected in their technical products. Because technology is nice, but for us it is not a goal in itself. Technology must support the content of the interview cycle.'

"The Treams team guiding us consists of someone who deals with the technology and someone with real content knowledge and experience in HR. A golden combination! This allows us to perfectly translate our HR wishes into a technical solution. This allowed us to make a flying start in setting up the tool."

Own control of the tool

Speaking of technology and products, the wishes of CLAFIS were clear: the tool should support the employees administratively and it should be anything but one big paperwork within the organization. They also wanted the tool to be completely in-house. Not a standard solution, but a "design your own" system that could be completely customized with their own words, their own timeline and their own chosen moments. Exactly what Treams' tool meets, according to Maartje. 'A lot of customization is possible. Moreover, it is very user-friendly, simple and works nicely. You log in quickly and easily and the application contains no complicated options. Everything speaks for itself.'

Feedback trainings

Together with Treams, CLAFIS put together a special training for giving feedback. 'First of all, we trained our managers in giving and receiving feedback, how to conduct a growth conversation and how they can use the Treams system for that,' explains Maartje. 'After all, giving feedback is not about giving your opinion, but about giving feedback in a constructive and positive way. In fact, it comes down to the right way to communicate.' The workshop focused on how to engage in conversation with different types of colleagues. And when receiving feedback, it is important not to go into emotion mode right away, but to listen carefully.' To practice giving feedback as much as possible, the feedback carousel was used as part of the training. Here we sat in a row facing each other. Within 30 seconds you have to tell what you do or do not appreciate in the other person. This makes you say something to the other person mainly by feeling. This active and playful format was a great first experience in giving and receiving feedback. In addition to the training sessions for the managers, CLAFIS organized a workshop for a number of buddies within the organization. This included the questions "How do you as a colleague deal with feedback from colleagues and your manager and in what way do you give feedback?" and "How do you prepare for a growth conversation?

First results

The first entire interview cycle is almost complete. And that already gives a good picture and first impression. 'The first results on asking for feedback are positive. In the beginning, colleagues found it exciting to ask for feedback from others, especially in the sense of 'can I ask that colleague for his time'? But we are already seeing that the new cycle is paying off. People are receiving both positive feedback and constructive feedback.' However, there are also points for improvement according to Maartje. 'A number of colleagues are asked a lot. That means they need coaching to manage the many requests. In addition, we tried to make the questionnaire as concise as possible. Now it consists of six questions, but perhaps we will shorten it further.'

A golden combo

Maartje is particularly pleased with the collaboration with Treams. 'The Treams team guiding us consists of someone dealing with the technology and someone with real substantive knowledge and experience in HR. A golden combination! This allows us to perfectly translate our HR wishes into a technical solution. This allowed us to make a flying start in setting up the tool.' Maartje sees Treams not as a supplier but as a partner. 'We always strive for a partnership, also with our customers. A long-term cooperation in which you keep each other sharp and strengthen each other. That is a good basis to build on.'