Conduct calibration meetings with leadership
Standardizing the process is probably a given. I added calibration meetings with leaders in the company. All of my clients do this now, and I see lightbulbs go off every single time.
The employee completes the self-evaluation. Then the leader completes their portion of the review. (Make sure you’re using a 5-point scale—they are the best based on the research.) THEN, the leaders all meet together with each employee’s ratings up on the screen (I use Excel, but whatever works). Then a facilitator (your HR Manager, a consultant, etc.) facilitates the meeting, running through each question, highlighting the highest-ranked and lowest-ranked employees, and starts the conversation.
In the end, the “easy raters” come toward the middle, the “tough raters” come toward the middle, and the true highs and lows really shine through. Without these conversations, every leader is left to their own strengths and weaknesses in the process.
Kerri Roberts, founder and CEO, Salt & Light Advisors
Utilize AI across departments
AI has been a game changer for us with routine tasks. We utilize AI in several areas, the largest of which is marketing. I write an email weekly to my subscribers. My Marketing Coordinator takes that email and throws it into AI to convert it to a blog post and generate five social media captions.
It doesn’t take away from her value—it allows her to focus on other items. We sometimes use AI to convert that blog post into a podcast script. We place our podcast transcripts into AI to generate show notes and create an episode title for us.
On the financial side, we copy our dashboard data from QuickBooks and put it into AI to generate financial takeaways each month. It has brought a ton of value to our business without putting a single person out of work. A true gift.
Kerri Roberts, founder and CEO, Salt & Light Advisors