Gen25: personal growth in an ambitious organization

When the paths of Gen25 and Treams crossed, there was an instant match. The personal click, the vision on development and the love for technology formed the solid basis for the current, fine cooperation. We look back with Laurien Kraan, HR manager at Gen25, on the steps they took with Treams. What were their challenges, their wishes, what steps did they take and what did they learn along the way?

The challenge: finding the right tool

Because performance management was high on the agenda, an HR predecessor had chosen to support managers and employees in the topic by means of a tool. Unfortunately, in practice it did not quite live up to expectations. The system felt too limited, the design did not capture the imagination sufficiently, and Gen25 had the impression that the development of the software did not keep pace with their own advancing insight. In particular, the system provided templates, but the desire to work with ongoing feedback, including in English, was not adequately supported. In addition, Gen25 felt more like a platform that not only fit their current needs, but would also actively motivate employees to develop. 

The people first vision of Treams, combined with the practical functionalities of the platform, appealed. Moreover, Gen25 and Treams had a number of similarities: both have technology as their core business with an eye for the consultancy around it, both have a personal, no-nonsense approach with an eye for quality, and both recognize and encourage the importance of development and a people-focused culture. That creates a bond.

The preparation: a solid foundation with Treams

Gen25 decided to get the process right from the start. Laurien explains, "We participated in a two-day workshop by Treams in which we explored what exactly our vision was on employee development. This not only gave us clear insights, but also allowed us to clearly communicate our vision to our people. We created our own playbook in which we emphasized three core values: motivation, clear expectations and a focus on coaching and growth. Instead of traditional scoring systems with a 5-point scale, we chose to work with open-ended questions so that meaningful conversations about development could occur."

Getting started with the new way of working

"To gain experience with the platform and the new way of working in practice, we started with a pilot group. This allowed us to do some fine-tuning and dot the i's. The pilot group eventually gave a 'Go', after which we thoroughly introduced working with Treams and the new HR cycle. The kick off phase consisted of a number of training sessions for both employees and managers. Both employees and managers were encouraged to actively work with feedback.

For the employees, the main emphasis during the trainings was on being able to set SMART goals. Working with goals is super valuable because it gives focus and direction; you can better manage mutual expectations and check whether you are on track. But setting goals is not so easy in practice. Making your goals SMART is an essential skill to master.

We mainly took the managers through the background and method of coaching employees during their training sessions. For example, they learned how to give constructive feedback. After all, when employees are more in charge of their own development, it also means something to managers. Whereas they used to be in the lead during appraisal interviews, they now reflect more on the ideas employees themselves have about their development. The employee thus mirrors the collected input and intended goals to the manager, who adjusts where necessary.

The experiences: what worked well?

One of Gen25's wishes was to lower the threshold for working on personal development as much as possible. The main problem for employees was that they had to make time to work on their development. In the hectic pace of work, this sometimes fell by the wayside. A system had to be user-friendly and fit in with everyday practice. Working with Treams has helped us a lot with that. For example, the automatic reminders have turned out to be very pleasant. They keep you on your toes.

Laurien: "Of course, we ourselves as HR are also constantly developing and making strides. So we also continue to monitor and expand the way we work and use the Treams platform. This year, for example, in addition to focusing on development, we have also emphasized performance. We have added questions about performance to the templates our people use for development. In this way, development remains the focus, while we can better evaluate employee performance."

Learning and improving

Of course, there has also been advancing insight. Laurien explains: "We reduced the number of coaching calls we had annually from six to three per year. We noticed that very few employees got to the six coaching calls per year. So three is now the standard, but more is absolutely fine. 

In addition, communication on development and performance is now more often through the team leads whereas previously it was mainly from HR. We see that a direct line between the team lead and his or her team is more effective. It increases engagement within teams and that, of course, is what we all want."

The current situation

Treams is now used by most employees. That was the intention, so we are happy with that. We see employees using the platform enthusiastically. They say it is very useful and they show good performance. I don't know if the relationship can be made one-to-one between attention to their development and performance, but it is striking. But to be fair, there are also still employees who are busy full-time with client projects, so they give their personal development less priority. We would like to see that change, of course, but we have to remain realistic. A 100% score in employee use of Treams is probably a bit ambitious.  

So it remains a challenge to find the balance between motivating employees and giving them the freedom to take the initiative themselves. A valuable lesson learned so far is the important role managers play in activating their teams.

We also have occasional playful actions to encourage employees. For example, for National Compliments Day, we asked all managers to submit a compliment for each team member. As HR, we placed these, on behalf of the manager, in the Treams platform. In this way we relieved managers of the time pressure and knew immediately that no one was forgotten. It was an extra incentive for employees to log into their personal development environment and the compliments were seen as very positive. So a fun and motivating action."

Performance and salary

Another step Gen25 has taken is adding salary reviews to the platform. While these conversations were previously kept separate from performance reviews, it now seems logical to integrate everything into one system. Laurien continues: "While we really wanted to keep matters of salary and promotion separate before, in practice that doesn't quite seem to work. Employees expect a conversation about their salary at the end of the year. Since all performance conversations are in Treams, it feels logical for employees to schedule that conversation from within Treams. Therefore, we have now added Year End Talks."

The ideal future picture

"In two years, we hope to have personal development fully integrated into the daily work routine of all employees. The ultimate goal is for us to be an organization where everyone is actively engaged in growth, and where systems such as Treams are a natural part of the work. Ideally, our people will then devote a little time each week to their development and we can, from HR, monitor that activity in Treams. The moment when we, as HR, no longer have to push for anything is the moment when the champagne hits the table. When that will be, the future will tell. In any case, fortunately, the champagne will stay for a while."