The Check-In is the most important tool and milestone for the development of our Rocketeers. It goes beyond an evaluation of performance since it was designed to attend to three main goals:
Evaluating performance
Aligning expectations about career growth
Developing the career path of our Rocketeers
Our Check-In is hosted on Qulture.Rocks and our Rocketeers can log in through Okta (SSO).
The Process
The Check-In is an annual process that has different goals and steps depending on the time of the year.
The process happens throughout the year and has different approaches. At the end of the first semester, we have a shorter and more straightforward review. We call it: Check-In Lite. The goal is to exchange feedback, follow up the Individual Development Plan (IDP) created during the previous Check-In and to define initiatives and objectives for the next six months.
The Check-In Lite uses the “Start, Stop and Continue” model. In this model, you will need to identify actions, behaviors, and strategies that should start, stop, or continue doing.
At the end of the year, we have the complete Check-In. On that review it has a 360-degree feedback and will be evaluating alignment to the DOTS, technical skills, hard skills, soft skills, contribution to the OKRs and overall performance.
The Check-In has 5 steps:
Indications Stage;
Validation Stage;
Answer Period;
Reports;
Feedback Session / Development Plan.
To walk you through each of them, here is the recorded training* and the introduction material. At Qulture.Rocks' Knowledge Base you'll also find a collection of tutorials to help you during the process.
*Check-In Training Video details:
Overview and context: 00:00 - 02:30
The process itself: 02:31 - 06:12
Indications: 06:13 - 07:51
Validations: 07:52 - 08:44
Answer period: 08:45 - 09:40
Reports: 09:41 - 10:20
Feedback Session and Development Plan: 10:22 - 11:21
Indications Stage
On the Check-In Lite:
By default, everybody will be self-evaluated and evaluated by the immediate leaders. It is possible (and optional) to nominate up to three people to provide additional input, including direct reports and peers who can offer valuable insights for individual development.
On the Complete Check-In:
The default evaluations everyone will fill out are a self-review, a review of the manager and any direct reports you have, but you also have the option to indicate peers to evaluate you. Leaders can also indicate if they want someone to evaluate one of their team members.
If you want to participate in a peer's evaluation and give them a review just talk to them and ask them to indicate you or ask your leader to indicate you to evaluate them. Here are the three basic rules you need to follow regarding indications:
The system will limit the number of peer indications to 4, for everyone;
If you received more than 4 indications, during the indications or validation stages feel free to refuse indications from the Rocketeers you have less contact with and, therefore, less to contribute with. We indicate reviewing up to 4 peers to do a deep and healthy review;
Indications will not be created by system admins after the indicated period to maintain the freedom of evaluators to choose who to evaluate.
Validation Stage
At this stage leaders will validate their teams' indications, they may remove or add people if they believe someone's input could be more valuable to your development based on their understanding of your work routine.
As previously mentioned, you can and should review all indications you received during this stage, selecting the people you have the most contact with and can contribute the most to.
At the end of the validation stage, all indications left will be automatically validated by the system.
Answer Period
On the Check-In Lite:
In this stage, you'll answer your self-evaluation, any direct reports you have, and any indications you received. You’ll answer from your perspective what this Rocketeer should Star, Stop and Continue doing.
On the complete Check-In:
In this stage, you'll answer your self-evaluation, review your manager, any direct reports you have, and any indications you received. You’ll answer:
Your profile: In this one, we want to look into your interests and aspirations. Do you know that dream of yours? What random skill do you have? What position do you aspire to? This is the place to talk about it. To find it, just click on "Open profile" below your name on the home page of Qulture.Rocks.
Check-in Survey: This is the survey you'll answer inside the Review module where you will find questions related to alignment to the DOTS, contributions to company / department OKRs, soft, hard and technical skills and overall performance.
Reports
After the reviews are submitted, leaders will generate and release a report containing the results. This report, along with your profile, will serve as crucial inputs for your feedback session with your leader and the creation / follow up of your Development Plan. We aim to release the reports close to the feedback session to minimize the potential for misunderstandings.
Feedback Session
On the Check-In Lite:
It is a moment between you and your direct leader to exchange feedback, follow up your Individual Development Plan (IDP) and define goals and initiatives for the next semester.
On the complete Check-In:
It is a moment between you and your direct leader to wrap up the past year's result, to analyze the contributions you have made to the company and department OKR, to exchange feedback, talk about career expectations and build together the Development Plan.
Development Plan
It's time for you and your leader to come together and define actions to your development. During this process, you'll review the report, discuss the variations in perspectives from the responses received, explore potential reasons for those differences, delve into your profile, and converse about your aspirations. All of these aspects will contribute to identifying your developmental areas and establishing agreements to focus on for the upcoming year.
Engineering Performance and Career Check-In
On the complete Check-In, the Engineering Team has a detailed technical skill evaluation in addition to the existing criteria, which includes alignment with our DOTS, overall performance, and contributions to our results. This evaluation ensures that our process is relevant and effective, supporting your career aspirations while aligning with the company's milestones.
Some Useful Links
Here are some interesting articles that will also assist you during this process:"