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First, we want to thank you for your more than 5 years of service with TSP. We appreciate the vote of confidence you have shown in sticking with TSP. In our short history we have grown tremendously and we’re so happy you have seen improvements as we have evolved as a company. Obviously, we don’t have everything figured out and can always improve so we appreciate your thoughtful feedback and recommendations.
It’s not an excuse, but a fact that we benchmark and market our compensation structures annually so we can be more aware and knowledgeable when negotiating bill rates with our clients. Even with this information, there are still some roles for certain clients that are on the lower end or sometimes below the market salary band. For these roles we basically maintain two salary bands, 1) for market data and information, and 2) for allowable bill and margin rates by the client. Sometimes the two don’t align. Additionally, we’ve put into place a system to notify our management team of an employee who has not had a pay increase in the previous year. As a direct result, we had an increased number of employee change forms being submitted and approved last year with just under $1M in merit increases awarded.
We’re absolutely aware that having a high number of direct reports is challenging for any manager – the reorganization was the first step to help rectify that. You are also correct in that we stopped performing annual reviews years ago – the main goal in a successful performance management system is feedback. We have put an increased emphasis on our managers building real-time relationships with their employees; however, based on your feedback, it seems apparent that there is room for improvement. To help with accountability, a new performance management module has just been released to our management team upon the recent launch of our new HR system in January. This system informs managers when they have an employee with a service anniversary and allows a review and feedback to be tracked between the employee and the manager. While we won’t go backwards and implement annual reviews again, this new system is more employee-focused and structured.
Every day of every year, we encourage open communication, continual feedback, formal and informal coaching, and adherence to one of our corporate values of “real conversations are welcomed.” If you haven’t done so, we’d encourage you to have a conversation with your manager to help set expectations moving forward regarding a more consistent dialogue regarding your performance and/or salary.
Lastly, you’re correct – having a significant number of a company’s employees working outside of the corporate office (spread across 42 states and Canada) does present a challenge to make each and every one of those people feel “included”. There simply is no easy answer, but it’s an issue nonetheless and one we do not take lightly. We perform quarterly all hands calls, from the corporate level we communicate everything to our employees via email/CSC (company intranet), and we regularly solicit social media content from all employees. We value our employees' candid feedback – that includes ideas on employee inclusion.
We absolutely appreciate your candid feedback and insight. The feedback we receive – like yours – is heard and taken seriously. Thanks again for being one of our #TSProckstars.
