The Ultimate Coda Handbook for People & HR Teams

Explore

The Ultimate Coda Handbook for People & HR Teams

V1 Archives

(V1) 5. Performance Management
(V1) 5. Performance Management

Emmeline Kim

HR can be the strategic partner, and help see around the corners — not just the last resort

After nearly a decade in the People space, and having numerous conversations, debriefs, vents(?!) with other HRBPs and People Leaders, here are some conceptions that nearly every HR Business Partner has faced:

Managers think they only need to come to HR if there might be a legal issue - or they need to manage someone out, like now.

HRBPs and leaders often feel like there just isn’t enough time, and they are reacting vs. being proactive to “people issues.”

Talent management processes (eg. calibrations, performance management, etc) often feel like a process for the sake of process, and the artifacts are often forgotten about after it’s done.

People management “best practices” (e.g. thoughtful 1-1s) will fall to the wayside and be taken for granted, when “more important business priorities” get in the way.

“This company is really different in that they truly view the People team as a strategic partner. We really see the value of HR at this company” - nearly every People team interview process

While the intention is genuine (after all, who ever questions the adage of “people are our most valuable asset!”), the reality is often an HRBP operating in a reactive state, chasing down managers to complete processes or “best people management” practices, and being boxed in as “the HR person.”

Digging in, here’s what I’ve learned to be the true roots of the pain points — and why Coda has been a game changer on actually addressing them.

You need one source of truth on people insights that helps you take action

People insights are often spread across so many different places — there are calibration/talent review tools, conversation notes captured in docs, actions captured in sheets — and more often than we’d like to admit, a lot of people insights are in people’s heads. Then there’s a matter of what do we actually do with those insights. I’ve found too many times tools, docs, and sheets being far too static of a platform to capture the very dynamic realities of managing people. So, I brought in Coda. Here’s a toolkit that you and your leaders can use to have a one living source of truth on all your people insights that you will actually refer back to, and take actions on.

⁠

Open Talent Review & People Development Kit for Leaders & HRBPs

⁠

Talent review & people development kit Identify and track your company’s high/low performers, talent gaps, and succession planning—all in one place. coda.io⁠

⁠

⁠

There is no ‘one best calibration process’ for every company. You need to find one that works for you, and have the flexibility in tailoring it

Our CEO and co-founder at Coda, Shishir, has drafted multiple models — along with guidance on when a certain approach will likely make most sense for your company or team. What I love as an HRBP though? I’ve never gone through a calibration process where I could just have everything - calibration ratings, notes from the session, manager feedback, etc - in one place.

⁠

Open Shishir's Guide to Performance Calibration Meetings

⁠

Shishir's Guide to Performance Calibration Meetings Six ways to run your performance calibration meeting coda.io⁠

⁠

⁠

We can not, should not, underestimate how important it is to enable our managers. Not focusing on the fundamentals turns into those “time sucks”* that every manager and HRBP dreads.

Great 1-1s, career conversations, how to run team meetings aren’t just “best practices” — they are the most fundamental things every manager needs to do intentionally to ensure their people are engaged, growing, and executing.

*Common “time sucks” can be - but are not limited to - urgent performance management cases, employee relations issues, the negative impact of a sudden departure of a critical employee, etc.

Some great templates for all these fundamentals below!

1-1s

We’ve all likely seen 1-1 docs simply capture notes on how a week went — and then when someone isn’t delivering or catches us by surprise by deciding to leave the company, we try to trace back to the root cause of why this is happening, and it usually isn’t rocket science — it’s simply complacency on the fundamentals we all know.

We weren’t giving them meaningful, timely, actionable feedback.

We never established what they were looking for — and we could best support as a manager.

We didn’t know what their broader career aspirations may have been.

We didn’t actually know how they were feeling about their work!

Sound familiar? What I love about Coda is you can have these kinds of robust conversations - again, all in one place! - in ways that go beyond just the usual bullet points, and notes.

For example, Jennifer Emrick is a Design Lead at Square, who created a 1-1 toolkit that captures everything from 1-1 notes, partnership agreements, development plans, to embedding Square’s cultural values and resources!

⁠

Open Jenny's 1-1 Toolkit used at Square

⁠

Square’s 1-on-1 Toolkit: The secret to managing your team’s careers I'm Jenny, a Design Lead for Square's ECOM team. I developed this 1-on-1 doc to help my designers prioritize their career development and design beyond their day-to-day. coda.io⁠

⁠

⁠

⁠

Here’s another template that Coda’s Head of People, Raechel Timme, created that also provides guidance on what genuinely creates a great 1-1 vs. just another conversation.

⁠

Open Raechel's 1-1 Template used at Coda

⁠

One-on-one meeting framework Five ways to get the most out of one-on-ones. coda.io⁠

⁠

⁠

⁠

Career Conversations

Yes, a career conversation is different from a 1-1 — and you should protect time intentionally to have one. A 1-1 ensures your direct report is engaged and executing on a day to day. A career conversation not only continues to strengthen your relationship, but will inform your strategic lens on what sort of projects to assign your direct report now and in the future, how you may want to think about your future composition of the team, and how to most effectively maximize your team’s impact, and engage everyone along the way.

Here’s a template on how to have a Dynamic Career Conversation from Harry Dannenbaum, Coda’s Head of Recruiting.

⁠

Dynamic Career Conversations: Turbo Charge Your Teams' Careers Massively increase the impact of your team with the Dynamic Career Convo (DCC) framework coda.io⁠

⁠

⁠

Running Team Meetings

Things don’t just happen because your team decided to meet together in one room at the same time. Each meeting is incredibly important to ensuring we’re getting things done, and the team is in lockstep. We need to be intentional on how to do this - which means creating the conditions of trust, collaboration and inclusivity. So when that meeting ends, everyone knows exactly what the takeaways were, felt the space to speak up, and walks away knowing what to focus on - and are energized to do so!

Coda’s Employee Experience Lead, Leah Reitz, partnered with

Elevate Leadership⁠

to create a template on how to run inclusive meetings. Check it out!

⁠

Running inclusive & effective meetings Take 10 minutes to make your meetings effective forums for sharing, listening, and being heard coda.io⁠

⁠

⁠

⁠

Curious to see how else your People team can succeed with Coda? Check out:

⁠

(V1) 1. People Team Hub⁠

⁠

(V1) 2. Onboarding & Offboarding⁠

⁠

(V1) 3. People Operations⁠

⁠

(V1) 4. Employee Experience⁠

⁠

(V1) 5. Performance Management⁠

📍

⁠

(V1) 6. Inclusion / DEI??⁠

Docs to include (to delete)

Talent Review

Problem

Solution

Calibration

Problem

Solution

Jenny’s 1:1

Problem

Solution

Raechel’s 1:1

Problem

Solution

Career Convos

Problem

Solution

Running inclusive meetings

Problem

Solution

Notes:

What overlaps are there with other sections (meetings)?

good narrative but could have a stronger thread throughout

screenshots to show HOW

Is it only the HRBP lens?

Gallery

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.

(V1) 5. Performance Management(V1) 5. Performance Management

HR can be the strategic partner, and help see around the corners — not just the last resort

You need one source of truth on people insights that helps you take action

There is no ‘one best calibration process’ for every company. You need to find one that works for you, and have the flexibility in tailoring it

We can not, should not, underestimate how important it is to enable our managers. Not focusing on the fundamentals turns into those “time sucks”* that every manager and HRBP dreads.

1-1s

Career Conversations

Running Team Meetings

Docs to include (to delete)

Notes:

(V1) 5. Performance Management
(V1) 5. Performance Management