Feedback is something we try and embed into our day-to-day at 9fin, as opposed to an exercise that happens once or twice a year. We wanted to create an environment of continuous open communication between managers and peers, but as is the case with many startups, our approach to feedback had to evolve as we scaled.
When ten people were huddled around a table, it was easy to give feedback on the spot, as you worked through the same problems together.
But as the business grew, we needed to be more considered in our approach. We had to provide the structures and guidance that would enable colleagues to share feedback with each other in a straightforward, simple way.
Why Lattice?
Once we reached 50 employees, we implemented Lattice to:
- Help us document feedback
- Drive employee engagement through surveys
- House our career pathways
- Track one-on-ones between managers and their reports
Lattice acted as our personal development tool, providing the framework to ensure all our performance and personal development data was in one place.
Embracing a feedback-driven culture
Having the best tooling is one thing, but we also wanted to foster a culture that encouraged and valued feedback as we continued to grow. Here are some of the ways we embedded this culture at 9fin.
1. Leading From the Top
Good habits are filtered from the top down — if our founders and leadership team encourages and appreciates feedback, then their direct reports will feel empowered to provide it.
Similarly, if managers create an environment of open, honest discussion, then their reports will feel comfortable asking for feedback.
Our leadership team does a great job of actively requesting feedback on a regular basis — this is a strong reflection of the culture we’ve built, and the buy-in we’ve gained during this whole process.
2. Balancing Feedback With Recognition
It’s important to balance constructive feedback with recognition. The constructive feedback helps employees grow, whilst recognition ensures that credit is given where it’s due. Research from Gallup found that employees are 45% less likely to have turned over two years later.
We set up a praise channel in our communications platform that provides employees with a space to shout out each other’s achievements. This is something we’ve also integrated with Lattice, so there’s a clear documentation of feedback being shared publicly from Lattice.
3. Setting a Routine for Feedback
If feedback feels more consistent and regular, then chances are it won’t seem as scary or intimidating. Our managers have quarterly career progression conversations with their team members, and many use this as the perfect time to request feedback for their reports.
This quarterly discussion is a core part of the rhythm of our business, and means that our people are used to getting in-depth feedback on a regular basis.
On top of this we also run engagement surveys via Lattice every six months, so employees have a wider platform to send anonymised feedback about working at 9fin.
4. Empowering People With Trainings and Guides
People need to feel empowered to ask for feedback, but also empowered enough to give feedback to others. The people team at 9fin run trainings so the business understands how to ask for and give feedback in the best way.
We also run sessions on radical candour, helping leaders offer feedback in a way that is both direct and kind. This is compulsory training as part of our management programme, and we also ask all managers to create a “read me” document that briefly highlights their management style, working preferences, and how they like to receive feedback.
This helps us openly show employees that upward feedback is incredibly valuable. Our “read me” documents are saved in our employee handbook, which lives in a centralised workspace and is easily accessible and available to all employees.
5. Tracking Behaviours With Lattice
Feedback culture can be a difficult thing to track, especially given the different formats in which feedback is offered — whether it’s over a call, in documentation, or in-person during projects.
However, Lattice Analytics has allowed us to measure the intentional feedback-giving behaviours in the platform, across the business.
In the first three months of 2024, only 34% of employees had offered feedback to their colleagues. This jumped to 54% midway through the year, after the people team ran additional training.
The analytics tool enables us to be data-driven when reviewing our approaches. Plus, we can set benchmarks so we can measure our success over the year.
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Feedback has been embedded in the business since day one, through our values of ‘have an opinion’ and ‘overcommunicate’. This means that the ability to request and give feedback is something that we strongly consider when hiring and promoting people into management roles.
We’re always looking for excellent collaborators who adopt a growth mindset, and feedback is one of the ways we build this part of our culture.
Find out more about 9fin here.
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Ensure both are successful with Lattice.