1. Feedback/Performance Review and Compensation Process
11/29/16

2. Why do we do this?
Evaluations are an opportunity for self-critical reflection on skill development and performance, and for conversations with relevant team members about strategies to provide the needed resources, feedback, and training to accelerate one’s development and performance.
Reviews are an opportunity, not a threat.
COS moves quickly, so frequent feedback and evaluation is an important part of measuring progress.

3. When? Every 3 months Full reviews in December and June
Check-ins in March and September
Full reviews - a full feedback and performance review that includes goal setting and uses the evaluation form.
Check-ins - a brief check-in on progress towards goals set during the prior full review and an opportunity for course adjustment if needed.

4. What do employees do? Full reviews:
Complete the Employee Review Evaluation Form
Self-assessment of accomplishments from past period
Self-rating of core and leadership competencies over past period
Propose goals for next period
Meet with team lead or manager to discuss
Check-ins:
Meet with team lead or manager to discuss progress since last full review

5. What do team leads and managers do?
For each person on their team...
Full reviews:
Complete the Employee Review Evaluation Form
Rating of core and leadership competencies over past period
Propose goals for next period
Meet with employee to discuss
Meet with other team leads and manager to discuss learning points
Check-ins:
Meet with employee to discuss progress since last full review

6. Competency scoring
This review process is not equivalent to a grade scale with grade inflation in which scores of 5 and 6 are common.
Expected performance is “meets expectations”.
That means that scores of 3 and 4 are the expected scores for most all ratings of most all team members.
The numeric scores are meant to help facilitate conversation about performance.
The “Leadership Competency” applies to everyone. All team members can demonstrate leadership within their role in some way.
Further, evaluations on the rating scale are applied to a team member’s role and responsibilities. A team member that consistently meets expectations for each sprint would earn a 4 rating regardless of whether it is a senior member of the team or someone brand-new. Simultaneously, more experienced members of the team may have developed the skills and capacity to have greater opportunity to exceed (or fail to meet) expectations. For example, more experienced team members should be better at calibrating how long tasks will take, and thus be more reliable at defining expectations that can be tracked reliably in each sprint. So, it is possible that more variability in ratings will be observed among more experienced team members compared to less experienced team members.

7. Learning from the reviews
Direct feedback both directions in the review process is important for learning, and should be seen as a way to improve rather than a threat.
Following the reviews, team leads and managers will meet to discuss feedback, learning points, and to evaluate resource balancing needs.
After all reviews are finished, the Leadership Team will discuss the aggregate feedback, issues that need to be addressed, and ways for the organization overall to improve.

8. Setting goals Examples of goals that can be created:
Job Description Goals: Goals may be based on the achievement of a pre-established set up job duties. These focus on “what” needs to be accomplished.
Mission Specific Goals: Goals may be based on mission driven objectives.
Behavioral Goals: Goals may be based on certain behaviors. These focus on “how” things need to be accomplished.
Stretch Goals: Goals that are challenging to reach and help us push our potential. All employees should aim to have at least one.
Professional Development Goals: Goals that support/enhance an area of professional growth. All employees should have at least one professional goal.

9. Wrap-up on Feedback/Performance Review
November 16 - December 2: Complete evaluation forms
December : Review meetings
January : Retrospective of reviews with Team Leads and Managers

10. Why a New Compensation Process?
COS is now 3.5 years old, and at a point of growth where we wanted to align our compensation process with organizational values
Market based - roles and responsibilities benchmarked accurately with marketplace
Objective - apply concrete rules and data to the extent possible
Fair - same rules and data apply across the organization
Transparent - should be clear how compensation is determined so that anyone can evaluate whether it is market-based, objective, and fair

11. Our Timeline Winter 2016 - Role descriptions
Spring HR researched various compensation models and prepared a report on various approaches, pros and cons
Summer Review and discuss, recommendation to go with a transparent formula approach
Fall Deep evaluation and modeling in preparation for an implementation, discussion with Leadership Team
Winter Final preparation and launch

12. COS Compensation Formula
[ Role x Experience ] x Loyalty = Salary

13. Role - based on the position
(Overall base + Location Base) x Market Adjustment = Role
Overall base: For 35% of the base, we use standard U.S. data from Payscale to identify the median national salary for a job title/description that most closely matches the COS role.
Location base: For 65% of the base, we use that same median salary and factor the employee location’s cost of living using Numbeo.
Market adjustment: This is a transparent multiplier to adjust the overall base to account for factors like role uniqueness, specialization, or local market demand.

14. Experience - based on the individual
Each employee’s experience level is recommended by managers through discussions with the employee and discussions with other managers to ensure consistent and fair calibration across the organization.
There are 4 tiers in each role.
Level 1: 1x
Level 2: 1.1x
Level 3: 1.2x
Level 4: 1.3x

15. Loyalty - based on the individual
For every year a teammate is with COS, they’ll receive a pay raise of 2%.
This is applied on top of all of the above.
In general, the overall base salaries will increment upward adjusting for inflation along with the entire market. As a consequence, loyalty enhancement will usually build compensation beyond typical inflation compensation adjustments.

16. How will I advance in career and compensation?
Experience levels: working with team lead and manager on setting and meeting goals to gain experience. This aligns with the feedback and performance review process. Adjustments made on quarterly basis.
Role: progressing through experience levels and into subsequent roles in a career progression. Adjustments made on quarterly basis.
Loyalty: 2% increase each anniversary. Adjustments made on rolling basis.

17. What comes next?
After this talk: follow-up with link to detailed process document to review, title and market adjustment information.
Early December 2016: process salary adjustments.
December 2016: incorporate discussion of experience ratings and planning for growth into performance reviews.
Late December 2016: prepare language to describe the compensation process on the cos.io website.