UK Government Investments (UKGI) is owned by HM Treasury. Independently managed, UKGI is the government’s centre of excellence for corporate governance and corporate finance, working on some of its most interesting and complex commercial tasks.
We spoke to UKGI’s Kiera Murphy, HR Manager, to find out how financial services companies can drive performance management with StaffCircle.
Renewed processes
StaffCircle transformed UKGIs traditional, paper-based performance management processes.
Previously, they relied on siloed Word documents and emails to gather performance information and feedback from line managers and the wider team.
Having joined the company just over a year ago, Kiera jumped straight into implementing StaffCircle across the business. She engaged employees with the platform by encouraging them to use it to complete reviews.
Kiera explained: “It’s a lot easier, prior to StaffCircle we just used Word documents for everything, now everyone can have all their information in one place. In terms of gaining feedback, it’s certainly a lot better as it’s more confidential. Before, it was just an email, that isn’t always very professional. It’s easier to use and you can remain anonymous.”
Maintaining confidentiality
Like all financial services businesses, data security, confidentiality and adhering to regulatory compliance is a high priority for UKGI.
Before StaffCircle, they had no central platform for performance data, so the process to gather feedback was convoluted and unsecure.
Kiera believes that a performance management platform is a key investment for organisations in the financial services sector: “All companies need a platform of some description, if you’re going to manage people, you need a process and a platform to use. We’re not, but lots of financial services are regulated, so setting objectives, being able to review them and being fair and consistent is important.
We [UKGI] were so admin and paper-based heavy before. We needed a platform that was going to be all in one place.”
Feedback made easy
UKGI now use StaffCircle to perform employee reviews. They gather feedback from line managers and direct reports, across departments within the business, using the 360 review tool.
UKGI perform three yearly reviews: one at the start of the year, one in the middle and a final one at the end of the year. A simple, accessible and evidence-based platform that automatically gathers feedback makes a performance management process simple.
Kiera talked us through how the organisation’s review process has transformed since joining StaffCircle: “The nature of the work we do means we interact with people across different teams, so collating feedback and using the 360 review tool to do this was necessary. Using Word made it difficult to do this before.
It’s made reviews less work for the manager and direct reports, as they can do it themselves to a degree. I like that managers and direct reports can go on and set up a review, adding their own objectives. You can be self-sufficient and now it’s much quicker. It also means we have all the data in one report for a clearer overarching view.”
Embracing a new platform
As with any new software, success often hinges on how well implementation goes and how quickly employees are onboarded.
Self-proclaimed ‘Queen of StaffCircle’ Kiera shared her advice with anyone looking to gain buy-in from their team: “I talked to a lot of people from across the business – I needed to find out what people wanted out of the system. Previously there wasn’t anyone really driving it, but I spoke to the StaffCircle team and requested training and help and now people are a lot more engaged. We post articles and information on the intranet; we get feedback from everyone using it. We talk about it in huddles across the business.
The wider team are really engaged, and excited about the learning and development side of things. The more you talk about it, engage people, and get people excited the easier it is to get them on board with using it.”
Finally, we asked, how financial service organisations could benefit from using StaffCircle:
“It just does everything you need it to do. The platform is great and the team behind it. The team are always there to support and are really helpful, especially our Customer Success Manager, Sian, and Liam, on support, as soon as I hit the ‘I need help button’ he’s there.”
Moving forward, UKGI will continue to work with StaffCircle to support their processes and further explore the other modules available to drive their performance management.
If you’re interested in how StaffCircle can support your financial services organisation, get in touch with the team.