Regular check-ins: A new management approach :
The check-ins are held in a briefing-debriefing of 15 to 30 minutes and take place once a month.
Zest’s digital solution allows the manager to customize their check-ins’s frame and pattern. The employee can answer beforehand, indicate the subjects he wishes to discuss or ask the manager for feedback. Finally, the two parties meet to discuss the employee’s short-term objectives, his/hers contributions, his/hers feelings skills’ evolution.
The manager thus obtains a very quick, factual and regular assessment.
My team and I easily embraced the Zest solution, with a particularly strong acceptance rate by 20-40 year olds.
A close follow-up of employees’ specific needs to complement the yearly performance review
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Monthly goals are not 100% correlated to annual goals. Rather, they are defined according to the strategic needs of the business. They allow operational follow-up that will be used during the yearly performance review. They are maintained in their original format and supplemented by the monitoring carried out throughout the year at regular check-ins.
For the managers, this follow-up allows them to contextualize the discussions during the annual review and to keep a map of the realities in the field.
The monitoring carried out via the regular check-ins makes it possible to draw up an annual balance sheet in a more factual and reliable manner. It reduces the tensions linked to the lack of exchange throughout the year and thus avoids a feeling of injustice or frustration from the employees.
Onboard new employees
The monthly check-ins with Zest allow us to efficiently welcome a new collaborator during the year. In particular, we can set monthly and quarterly objectives based on operational needs.
A very good acceptance rate of the new practice by the teams
These monthly meetings were very well received by the teams. The Zest solution brings that little extra that makes the difference because it is an online tool, very intuitive and customizable. It allows each employee to express themselves and summarize their results.
Listening to what matters to employees
For some employees, formally expressing their feelings in writing triggers a discussion that they would not have dared to engage orally.
A direct impact on individual and collective performance
The Zest check-in framework is fully configurable and Enedis makes it evolve from one month to the next. As a result, the employee feels listened to and considered. He knows that there will be a constant exchange and that his difficulties can be discussed and resolved by his manager.
I have seen an overall improvement in the performance of my team but also in their skills. This individual follow-up impacts the motivation and contributes to the collective performance of the team. I also use it to detect weak signals on my team’s commitment in order to prevent potential departures and reduce turnover rate.
Reduce turnover rates within the teams
During the monthly check-ins, the managers within the Languedoc Roussillon regional department of Enedis ask their employees to indicate the activity or skill which they would like to develop and the team they would like to join. This enables them to take the temperature of their teams’ motivation and commitment.
Today, the majority of my team answers that they wish to continue the activity they are working on. For me, as a manager, it’s a question of taking the temperature on the commitment of the employees. People who wish to evolve and develop their skills in another activity have the opportunity to come and talk to me directly.
This ensures real-time career follow-up in and over time it prevents demotivation and departures. The check-ins allow for an upstream discussion and the identification of weak signals or a need for change.
