Apart from the annual staff evaluations which are standard at Orient Software Development (OSD), we also conduct a peer assessment review, which is named The Quarterly Awards. This review is different from the formal reviews done by the managers and supervisors, as it involves the direct experiences of certain staff members with their fellow employees. As they all work with each other on a daily basis, fellow employees are able to see certain traits and behaviours which the management may overlook, making their opinions and insights vital to the overall staff review. OSD conducts this peer assessment in every quarter in order to gain insight from our different employee’s experiences, in order to ascertain their opinions on their fellow staff members, and to provide helpful feedback on their fellow team members.
Awards for great performance
Apart from the annual staff evaluations which are standard at Orient Software Development (OSD), we also conduct a peer assessment review, which is named The Quarterly Awards. This review is different from the formal reviews done by the managers and supervisors, as it involves the direct experiences of certain staff members with their fellow employees. As they all work with each other on a daily basis, fellow employees are able to see certain traits and behaviours which the management may overlook, making their opinions and insights vital to the overall staff review. OSD conducts this peer assessment in every quarter in order to gain insight from our different employee’s experiences, in order to ascertain their opinions on their fellow staff members, and to provide helpful feedback on their fellow team members.
Employee voices
Since the beginning of 2016, we have held the Quarterly Awards at OSD. At these awards, one development team and 10 staff members are elected for the Award based on the votes of the 315 OSD staff members.
Votes are cast based on certain carefully selected criteria. These include Company Discipline, Technical Knowledge, Work Productivity, Good Teamwork and Helping others, as well as English communication skills. The results are collated through a Quarterly Award Survey which is sent to all of our employees. These employees read through the criteria and vote for a maximum of 3 members of staff which they believe have best showcased the skills that have been mentioned, and to give reasons as to why they think that these people deserve their nomination . Through this method of surveying all staff members, we have found that upon the collation of the data, often 90% of the answers given in the surveys provide us with valuable information on our staff and team members going forward.
Our staff take the Quarterly Awards very seriously, and often give very strong testimonies as to why they have chosen a particular staff member. The reasons vary from simple compliments for a staff member having done a good job on a certain project, or a dedicated member of the support staff, to a more detailed and specific individual achievement by a particular staff member. Below are three examples of feedback our staff members have received:
“Hardworking, responsible, with good English skills and good communication skills – Strong at negotiation, professional, a well-organized team leader, who presents confidence, integrity, and the ability to learn new technology quickly. Excellent at building trust between team members, she is a great asset to the team, both from the client’s perspective as well as from OSD’s.”
“He has a solid work ethic, is very productive and has good communication skills. The perfect teammate – he definitely has the full potential to become a team leader in future. He has the ability to provide the team with a solid vision, and to offer us with productive feedback. He has “Eagle Eyes” – he’s really good at spotting errors and providing us with the critical information which we may have overlooked. It would be great for the staff to invest further in him. I think OSD should acknowledge their staff’s contribution, commitment to their team as well as their dignity.”
“He is a strong communicator who shares his experiences and ideas openly and authentically with others. He trusts us, supports us, and shows a genuine concern for the other team members. He makes his decisions based on his knowledge about both the Client and the business, and thus being very data-driven, his decisions are influenced accordingly. He is also very knowledgeable about all the engineering processes and good practices which the team undertakes, and his knowledge helps us to push further to produce the best results. He is a committed and loyal staff member, and is able to contribute to Orient further in the future by receiving the proper attention and direction that he needs from the Management Team.”
OSD Family shows joint effort for success
Every single employee at OSD is eligible to receive one of the 10 Quarterly Awards. This means that the awarded staff members are anybody from the team leaders and tech leads to the recent graduates, junior staff members, and even the support and cleaning staff. By awarding people on every level, we are showing how much we value every one of the people who work here, and that no achievement is too small or too insignificant to be noticed and rewarded.
In addition to the individual staff awards, we also choose one of the twelve development teams and award them for their outstanding teamwork and their performance during the last three months. Every team aspires to be the one to receive this Quarterly Team Award, and this award encourages the staff to not only work harder, but to improve how they all work together as a cohesive unit.
Strengthening OSD values
At OSD, one of our core aims is to encourage individual growth, accountability and interaction amongst the community of staff members at the company. By conducting this Quarterly Survey, we are able to listen to different opinions from our staff members. This encourages an open communication between the staff and the management teams. There is a feeling of democracy within the company, and staff members, as well as managers, are able to share and better understand one another.
Ultimately the staff members who are nominated for the awards each Quarter embody the typical example of what one would hope and engaged staff member to be. They are somebody who demonstrates mutual trust in their team and throughout OSD as a whole. They demonstrate credible leaders, and show satisfaction with their job and their chosen career. They are focused individuals who are keen to take up new challenges and present their teams with a problem solving attitude. At the end of the day, the awarded individuals are the ones who boost their teams to have a better performance overall.
