Since its creation in 2015, Uzinakod has grown significantly, especially in 2022, when we welcomed over 50 new team members. As we expanded, we implemented various processes to support our growth, bringing structure along the way. Our focus has been on two key principles: improvement and enhancement.
This approach led us to refine our staffing process, update our onboarding procedures, revise our policies and guidelines, introduce additional benefits (such as the Together at the Office program mentioned in a previous article), and establish an annual review process.
These efforts are also part of our employee retention strategy, aimed at ensuring stability and continuity in our company’s operations.
Employee Retention in a Competitive Environment
Uzinakod has always taken pride in its strong retention rate, but we know better than to become too comfortable, especially in the highly competitive IT sector.
The benefits of long-term collaboration between employees and their company are well established. Beyond the stability it provides, it also enhances the company’s external image and offers significant cost savings (after all, recruitment is expensive 😉). However, the advantages go even further.
The benefits of long-term collaboration:
- Increased team cohesion.
- Gradual improvement in skills and productivity.
- Development of a trusting relationship with customers and the company.
At Uzinakod, one key to our retention strategy has been our commitment to providing regular feedback to employees. Here’s how we’ve implemented this approach.
What is feedback anyway?
For those unfamiliar with the term, “feedback” originates from the combination of “feed,” meaning to supply or nourish, and “back,” indicating a return or response. Initially used in engineering, the term has evolved to describe a powerful communication tool, a learning method, and a performance enhancer. When done effectively, feedback can serve as a catalyst for transformation and accelerate change.
If you’re not a fan of receiving feedback, raise your hand! We can’t see you (fortunately), but we hope this article will change your perspective 😉. Beyond its impact on performance and learning, feedback also boosts self-confidence.
Feedback is a key driver of engagement. It helps employees feel valued, cared for, and fosters a sense of belonging and greater job satisfaction, which in turn increases their loyalty to the company.
Spoiler alert: It turns out that our brains love receiving feedback… and we can see why!
There are several reasons for this:
- Positive feedback activates the brain’s reward systems and releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, satisfaction, and a sense of accomplishment.
- Constructive feedback, though it may sometimes challenge the ego, signals the brain that there are opportunities for improvement and growth.
Both mistakes (to err is human 😉) and successes, when highlighted through feedback, allow the brain to adjust its approach and enhance future performance.
How can feedback be integrated into daily practices?
This is where managers play a pivotal role in fostering healthy, sustainable employee retention. At Uzinakod, it was essential to invest in their training, enabling them to offer exceptional support to their teams and contribute to retention within their own sphere of influence.
To support this, we created a guide for immediate managers, outlining the expectations of their role, the processes they’re involved in, and practical tips for navigating key aspects of their daily responsibilities, such as regular one-on-one meetings. This guide serves as a foundational tool they can reference throughout their managerial journey.
Our HR team also plays a significant role in training managers, identifying their coaching needs, and organizing targeted training sessions and workshops. The most recent training session focused on one-on-one meetings and effective feedback. We discussed objectives, shared best practices, and engaged in role-playing exercises. But just as we told them, there’s no magic formula 😊.
Giving Good Feedback Can Be Learned (and Practiced)!
Giving feedback doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Like athletes, managers need to train and practice to improve their skills (and yes, this article was written during the Olympics, so our example might be a bit influenced by them 😉).
Whether it’s conducting one-on-one meetings or providing feedback, it’s a skill that develops over time, supported by the manager’s growing confidence and the evolving relationship with their team members. Achieving this requires patience, the right tools and support, and ongoing adjustments. However, we firmly believe that the benefits of a strong feedback culture are well worth the effort.
A robust feedback culture is important to us because:
- It creates a direct link with employees, fostering trust and motivation.
- It encourages introspection to identify both problems and opportunities.
- It helps resolve issues before they escalate.
- It ensures alignment of objectives between managers and team members throughout the year.
In addition to our bi-monthly one-on-one meetings with managers, which are valuable moments to discuss challenges, successes, workload, and more, feedback at Uzinakod is shared in various other ways, including:
- In our monthly newsletter, where we celebrate employees’ achievements.
- Through management-led internal webinars, which share feedback from our customers and partners.
- During annual reviews, where we gather even more feedback from peers.
We like to draw an analogy with the work methodology our colleagues use for IT projects: for Uzinakod, feedback in performance management is as essential as Agile methodology is to project management.
Conclusion
Like many fields, Human Resources is continually evolving, especially since it revolves around people. We adapt to market changes, experiment with new approaches, and refine our strategies as needed.
We’ve all experienced workplaces where feedback was limited to an annual review and where meaningful exchanges with managers were rare. Those days are behind us. At Uzinakod, we are committed to a new era of performance management and continuous feedback. Feedback is a cornerstone of improvement and will be central to both individual and organizational development. This is the path Uzinakod has chosen.
Interested in our corporate culture? Visit our Careers section to explore the various opportunities we offer.
