Employee performance reviews: the three little words that no one likes to hear.
"Almost universally, it's been a process filled with dread," says J. Forrest, founder and president of Minneapolis-based technology company
Alignamite. "Who looks forward to performance reviews, even if they're largely positive?"
Forrest wanted a better strategy, so he built one. Alignamite's new software tool is designed to create alignment between an enterprise's goals and an employee's success. With a dashboard that tracks employee performance and a system that brings in colleague opinions as well as management views, Alignamite looks like it could change how performance is measured.
Founded in 2011, Alignamite got started when Forrest decided to quit building performance tools for other companies and start his own enterprise instead. He envisioned a system that would be more employee-centric, where staff members could get a grasp of their performance on a continual basis and an ongoing sense of how well they were meeting company goals, rather than relying on annual performance reviews.
After completing a beta testing period, Alignamite recently launched a robust, full version and is already seeing strong growth, particularly with clients of about 50 to 200 employees.
"There's great scalability in the tool, so that makes it exciting for organizations," says Forrest. "Most important, though, is that it significantly improves communication within an enterprise, and that benefits everyone."
Source: J. Forrest, Alignamite
Writer: Elizabeth Millard