The evaluation and support of employees by means of annual interview campaigns are an essential tool for HR teams and managers. Seemingly simple, this management is rapidly becoming intricate in the face of multiple challenges and the diversity of actors involved. Every company must regularly assess its employees: this process is a Precious opportunity to promote constructive exchanges, improve dialogue and bring out concrete actions to develop skills.
So How to succeed in your annual campaigns ? Don't panic! Here are our tips and tricks for running an effective, serene, and strategic campaign.
To succeed in them, the challenge is to go from an isolated ritual to a collective controlled process : one clear calendar (6—8 weeks), defined roles (RACI), of harmonized supports, of Reminders without friction, dashboards weeklies and a post-interview follow-up that turns decisions into results. In this guide, we share with you a simple method, of ready-to-use templates And the KPI to follow in order to conduct an effective, serene and strategic campaign.
What are the main improvements to be made to interview campaigns?
Our exchanges with HR decision-makers highlight 3 areas for improvement:
- Preliminary framing which can be called the “logistics” of the process itself
- The homogenization of valuation method for better objectivity
- Strengthening the downstream phase of the campaign: The action plan
Our use case: Placing skills at the heart of interviews.
The different tools to conduct your interview campaigns
Campaign calendar (6—8 weeks)
An effective campaign fits in a tight window, punctuated every week, with preparation
Roles & responsibilities (RACI)
Clearly assign who RRealize, who ASuitcase, which is CConsulted, who is IInformed.
Dashboards and KPIs (to be monitored every week)
Best practice testimonies
Prepare and communicate the process from the start
Before launching your annual interview campaign, careful preparation and clear communication are essential to involve each participant (managers as well as employees). It is not a simple administrative formality but indeed a unifying time of exchange. When Promod, the CNP group or Manutan used the platform for the first time, communication was essential, these companies were able to rely on training and a conversational agent to guide them.
Read it Complete success story Promod and Neobrain
Focus on pedagogy
To say that this moment is a real lever for development requires legitimizing your point. : What was the volume of training provided last year? What was the average level of achievement of goals over the past 12 months? Are there corporate goals to reduce at each level this year?
What are the benefits of annual maintenance to remind your internal customers?
- For managers : It is an opportunity to connect more deeply with their teams, to take their feedback, to identify areas for improvement, and to actively contribute to the development of their career.
- For employees : This exchange is a chance to share their training needs, to discuss their internal mobility ambitions or simply to take stock of their workload with their manager.
Co-constructing and training: from evaluation grids to process control
With our customers, we have found that the customization of analysis grids makes a real difference in the effectiveness of annual evaluation interviews. Rather than using generic frameworks, it is beneficial to co-construct reports with managers, taking into account the specificities of each team. This approach makes it possible to better reflect the realities of different professions While guaranteeing a certain overall coherence.
Customize the grids for a more relevant assessment
A good balance is to integrate common themes to everyone (inventory of workload, objectives, skills) while adapting certain questions to the specific expertise of each team. What works well is to collaborate with managers to ensure that the questions are relevant and in line with real needs in the field.
Train managers for constructive exchanges
We have noticed that managers who are well trained in this exercise lead more engaging meetings. It goes through preparation for active listening, constructive feedback and the development of concrete action plans. Best practices include looking back on the past year, identifying successes and challenges, and setting clear goals for the future, while taking into account the development aspirations of employees.
Follow up and implement action plans
Give access to the validated report
Once the interview is over, quickly share the report with the collaborator. This document ensures that everyone is in line with the findings, and it provides an opportunity to add or clarify certain points. Although signing is not mandatory, it is still a good practice to strengthen the commitment of both parties.
Define concrete ways to achieve goals
It is not enough to define goals; you also need to plan the means to achieve them. Our customers see better results when they integrate adapted materials such as certification training, shadowing, mentoring, or more flexible approaches such as mobile learning and micro-learning. These tactics make it possible to make action plans more concrete and achievable.
Log and automate in the HR tool
Keeping the reports allows you to have a valuable history for future exchanges and to bring transparency in sensitive contexts, such as the justification for decisions related to the variable portion of remuneration. This trace helps managers to support their decisions and to ensure consistency in the assessment of performance.
Each new objective set during the interview must be automatically integrated into the “performance” part of the employee within the HR tool. Likewise, the competency assessments carried out directly feed into the employee's profile and career plans. This historization guarantees rigorous monitoring and makes it possible to adapt actions according to the progress made.
The functionalities of a tool for managing interview campaigns
To ensure the success of your interview campaigns, having a tool adapted to your current processes is essential.
We recommend using a mobile version to cover all populations who do not necessarily have a computer.
Here are the features that stand out among our customers:
a. Customization and flexibility:
- Autonomous creation of interview forms, without technical skills
- Automatically personalized support and reports
- Personalized automatic notifications and reminders
- Multilingual platform to meet international needs
b. Tracking and traceability:
- Real-time monitoring of maintenance campaigns
- Unlimited archiving of decisions, in accordance with the RGPD
- Customizable alerts and notifications for each stage
c. Operational effectiveness:
- Library of ready-to-use forms
- Online assistant for a quick start
- Automatic reminders for 100% completion of interviews
- Electronic signature integration
D. Collaboration and commitment:
- 360° feedback for participatory evaluation
- Give access to the platform to all populations through a mobile app
- Engaging development plan with progress monitoring
- Variety of training materials to support development
How do you measure the success of an annual interview campaign?
Success is measured by the rate of achievement (objective > 90%), the completion time (less than 6 weeks), the quality of exchanges via satisfaction surveys (NPS > 40), and the use of the data collected for the training plan and the GPEC. A good indicator is also the follow-up rate of goals set at 6 months.
