Back in September 2020, CST Group was looking to solve for their performance management strategy, a process that was quickly becoming a problem. Like many organizations that decide to partner with Truvelop, CST Group tried to manage performance and development through an in-office system using Excel spreadsheets. This performance review process was too time consuming, managers didn’t know how to assess team members, and most importantly – it was clunky, inefficient and added little to no value for the team member.
Here are the goals CST Group set out to achieve with the adoption of a continuous performance management and development strategy:
- Move to a more formal process with respect to performance management and feedback
- Set new standards and expectations for the management team
- Prioritize employee development and engagement; increase engagement and meaningful touchpoints
HOW DOES THE APP WORK FOR CST GROUP?
CST Group, like other accounting firms, are incredibly busy with heads-down work during tax season. What’s great about Truvelop is the flexibility within the tool itself. With Truvelop, the organization was able to figure out how to best utilize the tool for evaluations and real-time feedback.
“Before Truvelop, we were using excel spreadsheets and word documents to collect information for our annual reviews. We implemented Truvelop to give us a better, more uniform platform to gather this information and standardize the deliverables to our employees. Soon after we launched, we realized that our managers didn’t know which performance metrics should be evaluated for each Truvelop question. Truvelop assisted us in mapping our existing Career Maps to each question and created a guide in the knowledge center for our managers to follow. This change will provide better understanding of what is being evaluated in each Truvelop question and provide for consistency among reviewers. After this change we did a relaunch with training for managers and staff. Truvelop has been great with helping us meet our needs.” – Emily Maffey, Chief Operating Officer at CST Group
After a year with the product, CST Group took time to re-assess how to best utilize the tool to meet their current needs. This involved leveraging the Truvelop CS team. We held strategic planning meetings with members of the personnel committee, drafting and reviewing various training decks, and the biggest accomplishment: creating an internal page for their leaders. The internal page is utilized by managers to ensure job competencies match up correctly to evaluation questions.
At first, the adoption of Truvelop mainly focused on collecting data in one place. As time went on, CST Group adopted a practice that prioritizes problem solving and being adaptive. Our partnership with CST Group highlighted the opportunity to build manager and team member habits to create a meaningful practice.
THE BENEFITS OF A PARTNERSHIP
During ongoing Customer Success meetings, refresher trainings, and quarterly reviews, we consistently revolve our conversations around two questions: 1) What’s working well? 2) What’s worth improving?
With any tool, it’s important to recognize the benefits it’s bringing to a company and its end users, along with considering growth opportunities for the tool to make an even bigger impact. Through our partnership with the CST Group, we’ve received suggestions and input on various app enhancements. Whether it be needing a company-wide space to post recognition and praise due to everyone working remotely during COVID-19, or a suggestion on creating additional functionality to Spark to ensure transparency within the manager-team member relationship, we value all suggestions.
CST GROUP’S ROAD TO SUCCESS
With CST Group’s Continuous Performance Development journey, managers and employees use the app to measure and track performance over time with quarterly evaluations, post frequently on the Recognition Wall to share companywide praise, and document real-time feedback with Spark. Through this approach, there is now a better employee experience that focuses on development and improves two-way communication.
MANAGER UTILIZATION
Since launch, CST Group has completed 227 Evaluations and 120 Sparks. In total, that’s 347 meaningful touchpoints between managers and team members. In 2022 alone, 91% of the real-time feedback captured has been for Praise. Of those, 50% have been posted to the Recognition Wall for the entire company to celebrate the achievement.
In our last Customer Success Story, we focused on the importance of turning managers into leaders. Let’s hear directly from a manager. Here’s what a CST Group Manager says about Truvelop:
“I like that it serves as a central database to document employee performance throughout the year. When a manager has a thought to document something that a staff member did that relates to their performance, it is quick and easy to click the link in the web browser, and document the feedback in an organized database.” – Daniel Keaton, Principal at CST Group
Truvelop focuses on creating tools that empower the Manager. With each product enhancement, every addition to the Knowledge Center, and each training, we provide managers with an easy-to-use platform that takes the guess work out of their next steps. Each Manager using Truvelop knows exactly who to recognize, motivate, and coach, and more importantly, how to do so. Companies like CST Group partnered with Truvelop to create a culture founded on continuous, transparent feedback.
MODERN SOLUTION FOR AN AGILE WORKFORCE
Here at Truvelop, we value our customers' needs and strive to make their job easier. With managers and employees using the app to track performance progress, CST Group continues to drive development and performance improvement along with retention of top performers and emerging leaders. We look forward to seeing what else is in store for CST Group and how Truvelop can further help the organization.
Contact us today to learn more about our modern approach to performance management and development that improves the manager and employee relationship, productivity, performance, and retention! Don’t just take our word for it, see what our other Customers have to say.
SPECIAL THANKS
This success wouldn’t be possible without the support of our partners at CST Group and the Truvelop team. Special thanks to Emily Maffey, Michelle Boustany, Daniel Keaton, Lisa First-Willis, and Juliana Withers for their feedback, engagement, and insight for this piece.
