“Everyone’s happy – managers have one place to document, evaluate and coach their direct reports, and employees receive consistent feedback on their performance.” – Karyn Schell, President at DP Solutions, during the Onboarding and Configuration call in April 2021.
DP Solutions consistently prioritizes people, and this was proven with their decision to adopt a continuous performance development strategy with Truvelop. Throughout initial conversations, the Truvelop team makes sure to understand the problem we’re trying to solve. When DP Solutions decided to partner with Truvelop, they were looking to:
- Increase employee engagement and feedback
- Create more meaningful touchpoints through coaching opportunities and development opportunities
- Capture real time employee observations, performance appraisals, and take actions to motivate, grow and retain their workforce
HOW DOES THE APP WORK FOR DP SOLUTIONS?
Managers at DP Solutions give real time feedback regularly and complete employee assessments on a monthly basis. Having a monthly cadence allows managers to let employees know where they stand 12x a year, celebrate achievements from the previous month, and identify focus areas for the upcoming performance period. Monthly evaluations allow managers to check in on development progress, share recognition, and coach & guide their employees towards their performance goals. With an easy-to-use mobile and desktop solution, managers and employees are able to look back on measurable performance data points, paired with contextual data and documented real time feedback, to track and trend progress.
TALENT LANDSCAPE
With Truvelop, DP Solutions established a baseline of their talent landscape and identified their talent gaps. Back in May 2021, DP Solutions’ talent landscape consisted of 22% top performers and 12% low performers. By tracking and trending performance over time, managers quickly identified and overcame the barriers preventing their employees from reaching their full potential and success.
In just 9 months, as performance data accumulated, DP Solutions managers used Truvelop’s Manager Insights to find out how to best guide their own management strategy and responses tailored to each employee. Today, their talent landscape consists of 35% top performers and only 2% low performers.
Managers at DP Solutions continue to increase engagement and build trust with employees through more meaningful touchpoints—whether it’s completing an evaluation or sending real time feedback in the app.
“Truvelop has been a win for us for sure.” Karyn Schell, President at DP Solutions
LET’S TALK ABOUT REAL TIME FEEDBACK
In under 1 year, DP Solutions has already completed 943 Sparks. Managers and employees are giving real time feedback for a wide array of categories: praise, observation, coaching, corrective actions, 1:1 meetings, goal(s), and training. Employees always know where they stand, what they are doing well, and key opportunities for improvement.
COMPANY-WIDE RECOGNITION AND PRAISE
Prior to Truvelop, DP Solutions used email to give shout-outs to recognize achievements and success. While employees were being recognized, it was not easy for managers or employees to keep track of or refer to. Using Spark allows all real time feedback to be readily and easily available. When it comes time for managers to have a Year End Review/Reflection conversation with the employee, they’re able to Generate Report and pull all that great data right into a pdf, making Truvelop a manager’s best friend.
When Karyn was asked to share best practices about Truvelop, she highlighted:
“Truvelop has provided our employees the opportunity to recognize their fellow employees with Recognition Wall Sparks. The ability to publicly comment and share when good things are happening is a positive vibe for us all.”
On a weekly basis, DP Solutions takes the names of those that received recognition on the Recognition Wall, tosses them into a hat and picks one out to receive a $10 gift card. DP Solutions is the perfect example of how a company not only benefits by adopting a continuous approach to performance management and development, but also by taking full advantage of the tool for everyone involved. Truvelop makes a manager’s job easier by letting employees know where they stand throughout the year. It also allows leadership to have a deeper understanding into their talent landscape. More importantly, it builds a stronger culture of transparency across the organization: everyone feels valued and recognized.
MANAGER UTILIZATION
One of the biggest questions when we onboard a new customer is: “How do we get manager buy-in? How do we get managers to login and use it?” DP Solutions communicated the why, encouraged managers to build the tool into their day-to-day routine, and continues to engage with the Truvelop team on how to further develop their process. This has amounted in 100% manager utilization.
Melissa Bryant, Director of Client Experience, shared some of her best practices. Before Truvelop, her biggest challenge was figuring out “where does all this information go and how can I pull it up quickly?” She spent a lot of time pulling emails and text messages together for documentation. Now, she uses the app regularly and has built it into her routine by dedicating time on Tuesdays and Thursdays for Truvelop.
She explained 3 main benefits she sees with the adoption of Truvelop:
- Big time saver. She saves time by no longer having to search and find documentation for Individual Development Plans and Improvement Plans. Everything regarding performance, attitude, maintenance, and real time feedback goes into one place.
- Better people pulse. By completing monthly evaluations, she’s able to sit, focus, and reflect on the performance of each direct report on a regular basis.
- The power of recognition through Spark. Email is insufficient when it comes to giving feedback. Having Truvelop as a company-wide tool to recognize employees has made a great impact for DP Solutions.
THE BENEFITS OF A PARTNERSHIP
During onboarding meetings, manager and employee trainings, and ongoing Customer Success meetings, we are constantly working on “What Next”. Reflecting on how Truvelop has made an impact for DP Solutions, Karyn shared:
“The Truvelop team is engaging, willing and able. We know that we have a partner that we can discuss ideas with, assist us in execution, and considers feedback important. The ability to have interactive training and know that our requests will be met with a willingness of “sure, no problem” is extremely valuable to us. Our Truvelop Client Success Manager also holds us accountable with regularly scheduled meetings, result reporting and engagement.”
With the data and information we have, what’s our next goal as the DP Solutions/Truvelop partnership?
Our next goal is to get even more feedback. We’ve started 2022 by looking at current onboarding processes and seeing how Truvelop Survey can be used with new hires (at the 30- and 90-day marks), and by setting up Engagement Surveys for employees who have been part of the company for over a year. The goal is to get an even better people pulse, and it’s all doable with Truvelop!
Last year, DP Solutions celebrated 50 years. The Truvelop team had the pleasure of being invited to the DP Solutions 50th anniversary celebration in 2021. (Left to Right: Brian Traff – Proposal & Process Manager at DP Solutions, Meryl Goeke – Customer Success & Relationship Manager at Truvelop, Karyn Schell – President at DP Solutions)
To hear more from Karyn, you can watch Lunch and Learn: The Importance of Transparent Communication
MODERN SOLUTION FOR AN AGILE WORKFORCE
At Truvelop, we value our customers’ needs and strive to make their job easier. With a high manager utilization level, DP Solutions continues to drive development and performance improvement along with retention of top performers and emerging leaders. We look forward to seeing what else is in store for DP Solutions and how Truvelop can further help the organization.
Contact us today to learn more about our modern approach to performance management and development that improves the manager and employee relationship. Don’t just take our word for it, see what our other Customers have to say.
SPECIAL THANKS
This success wouldn’t be possible without the support of our partners at DP Solutions and the Truvelop team! Special thanks to Karyn Schell, Jill Rose, Melissa Bryant, Lisa First-Willis, and Juliana Withers for their feedback, engagement, and insight for this piece.
