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2022-10-20

Why does the municipality of The Hague use Spiegelapp?

Successes and pitfalls: developing a strong feedback culture with effective, constructive relationships using Spiegelapp

·The head of project management at the Department of Social Affairs and Employment of the municipality of The Hague fully supports the use of Spiegelapp for her team. She has utilised Spiegelapp to fulfil the department's performance management review cycle, and has noted great success in streamlining this process.

· Employees are obliged to use Spiegelapp regularly, but in particular they use the app in preparation for their quarterly performance review to talk about their professional and personal development regarding their skills, goals, etc.

· By asking for feedback from different people, for example their direct manager or just a colleague, you receive different ratings. In this way, you understand better that, for example, your manager sets different requirements for delegation than a colleague of similar rank. The glass through which someone looks says a lot about the type of feedback they provide. The effect of this feedback is that employees started to delegate more and better, reducing wasted time and money. Moreover, Spiegelapp has provided the manager with more insight into her employees, improving her performance as well.

· Logging in was sometimes a problem in the beginning, but you have to get used to that. The web application of Spiegelapp can be used on your personal computer or mobile phone, and is well secured with 2FA (two factor authorisation). This means that your personal data is safe and secure and no one but you can access it, even your manager(s). This way, you can continue to ask for feedback and develop your skills in a fun and safe way.

· By using Spiegelapp, you are forced to reflect on your skillset and goals, which has the effect that you will focus more on the development of such skills and feedback. Spiegelapp helps stimulate both employees and managers and therefore keeps them 'on-track' more easily and consistently.

· You will be able to discover your skills and talents through positive appreciation and critical assessments by your feedback providers, whether from colleagues or managers. Knowing what you are good at and what you could improve at in concrete, understandable language motivates you and everyone around you to improve!

· You are able to generate a self-reflection report about yourself at any time. This way, you gain ownership of your skills and your development goals. For example, you can bring this self-reflection report to a meeting with colleagues or your manager.

· Using Spiegelapp and asking for feedback in preparation for a performance management review is a must. If you learn to work in an environment where feedback is both encouraged and valued by all, you become less vulnerable yourself and build a habit to ask for feedback. Developing a strong feedback culture is the logical outcome for the team/organisation. Feedback is a process!

· Using Spiegelapp in combination with an existing performance management cycle is desirable, meaning that a relationship must be established between the head of training and the head of human resources. Growing skills and supporting talent goes hand-in-hand with supporting existing performance mangement cycles. Advice and support can also be fully-provided by the HR professionals at Spiegelapp.

· Starting with a pilot project or testing ground with a couple of employees is a good start to gain experience in using Spiegelapp in conjunction with the performance management cycle. A new interview cycle with a strong feedback and feedforward focus has been active at the municipality of The Hague since 2018. Start small and build from there!

 

What results come from Spiegelapp?

Working with the Spiegelapp has given us insight into the development of our employees in areas that we could not have imagined ourselves. The great thing about it is that our employees are in control of their own development. That means they can request feedback or future feedback from their supervisors, colleagues, or even customers at their own moments, with the convenience of a mobile phone app.
 
A good conversation with the feedback collected in advance by employees actually results in dialogue and makes performance and behavior concrete for discussion on the basis of real-world examples. As a manager, it is now easier to act as a coach, which used to be difficult because you also put painful points for improvement on the table. This is now also automatically addressed from the feedback from colleagues or customers.
 
Spiegelapp says it all: you mirror yourself by asking for input from others. This is one of the best ways to develop. No long, boring training sessions, just a quick question: how do you think I gave that presentation? Can I improve something? The feedback is actually always constructive and this provides useful insight! The built-in chat function and the text boxes for explanations are also very nice to give or ask for extra explanation if necessary.

Working with this online tool is very accessible and very user-friendly. It also fits perfectly in this time of the 'new ways of working'. Not only myself, but also our department and organisation will benefit from this, this way of managing development makes it easier for us to achieve the intended results and therefore also the organisational goals.

By using Spiegelapp, I notice that a completely different 'culture' is emerging in our department. Colleagues are more open and transparent and very helpful towards each other. No gossip and backbiting, but rather constructive reflection on your work.

For me, the management dashboard provides good insight into what my employees can do and where they still need to develop. The graphs are clear and well-arranged, and you can immediately see which competencies score well and which score less well. The feedback reports and management reports are clear and provide a lot of information.

 

Do you also want to:

· Grow employee engagement?

· Improve collaboration within and across teams?

· Minimise and prevent dysfunction?

· Reduce the risk of employee absenteeism and voluntary turnover?

· More effective, motivating, and fun dialogue among coworkers?

 

You can do that with Spiegelapp!

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