VX Company

At VX Company it’s not just about technologies; the application expert puts the employee at the center. With mainly IT specialists employed, the organization believes that when employees continuously develop, the customer ultimately experiences better service. In a safe environment, they get the chance to improve personal skills and discover talent. This way, the employee can grow and VX Company can remain what they want to be: the best IT company to work with and work for.

HR manager Diane Etman has been working for more than ten years at the people-oriented organization. This gives her a good idea of the developments in recent years. She outlines the time before and after the current development culture to chart the changes. What are the success factors? What are the pitfalls? And what does the cycle look like now?

“We used to have an assessment cycle and we worked according to a plan. The cycle consisted of three conversations. You determined your course in advance and set your smart goals for an entire year. You evaluated these goals in the middle of the year. And, you were assessed at the end of the year. This was seen as an awful time-consuming task for management, because it requires a lot of preparation. There is a huge peak in your work three times. In addition, many of our people are with customers and are therefore out of sight. Collecting information took so much time. Employees often associated the conversations more with ‘looking back and need to improve’ than looking ahead and developing,” says Diane.

Years ago, the assessment cycle was replaced by a cycle in which development is central. With TruQu a next step was made in professionalizing the cycle. “Development and feedback go very closely together of course. If you want to develop, you have to reflect. You can not only look at yourself, it is also important what others think. You need help with your development, you often cannot do that on your own. We were introduced to TruQu and discovered that it can really be more fun.”

“Because,” the HR manager continues, “TruQu has a fun factor there. It directs the employee instead of the manager. The manager is pleased that the employee can now collect information himself. It is the employee who determines his own goals. This change is big and very nice for us.

The approach was somewhat rough at the start. Here Diane immediately names a common pitfall. “What we have done wrong is that we have made insufficient effort to be able and willing to give feedback. We had expected too much that it would happen by itself. The tool actually offers you all the support. But it became something isolated. It did help in promoting for asking and giving feedback. However, the second step is that you ensure that it returns in every HR process.”

Another pitfall is insufficient support. The entire management must support the new culture and want to use TruQu. Only when everyone gives the right example, the use will increase. “What we encountered was that employees turned out to be more active in using the tool than the managers themselves. I think that if you start with TruQu you must still have the commitment of management. They should pay a lot of attention to this, especially at the beginning. It must immediately become ‘normal’.”

GrowQu, the implementation partner of TruQu and specialist in stimulating a development culture, was called in. “We then looked at how it is possible that every time feedback stays with moments and the use is not steady. We have had a number of training sessions and sessions on feedback, and sparring with each other helps in particular. You notice that when people have had a feedback session, they also like to give feedback. The scary thing is going away,” says Diane.

The improvement that the organization now wants to make is that it is integrated into the entire HR policy. That it makes sense that you include people in your development. According to Diane, IT professionals in particular experience the tool as pleasant. “IT people are people who enjoy working with techniques. And they find it difficult to give feedback on a non-technical level. TruQu works very well with this target group. You can take your own moment for it and you have more time to formulate something. That way you can still give or ask for feedback.”

“What I really like is that with the introduction of TruQu, we involve customers much more in the development of employees. In HR, the trend is that you think more ‘outside in’, says Diane. “You have to involve your customer more in the development of the HR policy. With TruQu, the customer is involved in the development process of your employees. They can think along and give feedback. In this way, TruQu distinguishes itself from other feedback systems. This fits well into the new world. The organization does not stop at the walls of your office. You are constantly working on your development. This is cool of TruQu, in my opinion.”

In the future, Diane would like every employee to use TruQu. “In our philosophy of how we want to embed TruQu in the organization, every new applicant is already introduced to TruQu. From the onboarding, employees must already know how we handle feedback and how TruQu has a place in this. Then it will be used more. I would like to see that TruQu will soon be used by everyone and that it has a really good connection with our development cycle. The strength lies in being able to integrate into the entire HR policy.”