WHAT IT'S LIKE WORKING HERE
Working here is like being part of a sports team. Not a club team, but a professional sports team that’s trying to win the championship. Our People Operations Machine is designed to foster an environment where motivated people can thrive and achieve amazing results. The goal is to operationalize Our Culture and Our Values in order to achieve Our Mission and fulfill Our Purpose.
PEOPLE OPERATIONS
powering a deliberately developmental organization
FOCUS
PRINCETON
MORTGAGE
LEARNING
RHYTHM
GROWTH
focus:
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
The KPI report measures the “machine” to enhance our capacity to learn and is shared with everyone daily. We all have access to the same information and thus can make our own decisions based on the facts. We don’t hoard information – we share it as widely as possible.
OBJECTIVES & KEY RESULTS
We use OKRs as a transparent companywide goal setting framework to drive clarity and improve the ‘machine.’ Everyone ‘checks in’ each Friday and scores themselves on the progress they are making toward achieving their Objectives and Key Results.
SNIPPETS
Each of us writes a weekly Snippet – things we did last week; what we’re going to do this week; and our #1 Priority - to share with our colleagues. Senior leaders compile their Snippets to share with the entire company. Why? Because leadership is accountable to the team and we share information to help everyone make better decisions.
rhythm:
WEEKLY 1:1
This meeting is a key component of being a deliberately developmental organization to help the team grow. During the weekly 1:1 meeting the manager to listens and clarifies – to understand what direction each person wants to head in, and what is blocking them.
ALL-HANDS MEETING
The monthly All-Hands meeting is an opportunity for the CEO to explain important decisions and encourage dissent among the entire team. The quarterly All-Hands meeting holds the leadership team accountable: we score the company and department OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and share how leadership did last quarter and what they and their teams commit to accomplish during the next quarter.
TEAM MEETINGS
Each team has a weekly meeting to get in sync, score their team’s progress on Objectives and Key Results, and identify problems and assign a responsible party.
learning:
LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT MODULES
As a deliberately developmental organization we learn utilizing the “watch, do, teach” model. We have weekly company learning and development modules on a variety of subjects to learn, grow, and scale our culture.
case-studies
In Our Culture, it’s okay to make fixable mistakes as long as we learn from them. We’re willing to let people scratch or dent the car, but don’t put them in positions where they can total it. When we make mistakes or when we don’t achieve the outcomes we want, we reflect on what happened and ask ourselves “how did we contribute to the problem?” and “what could we have done differently?” We share this as a case study with everyone. This promotes institutional learning so that we don’t make the same mistakes.
drill-downs
A drill-down is a process that allows each of us to reflect quarterly on:
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Our performance on our Objectives and Key Results
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The major learning points that will help us to achieve better results
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Our growth and personal improvement
We find that people come to love drill-downs as an opportunity slow-down and think about how they are growing and the changes they want to make to get better.
ISSUE LOG
This is our primary tool for recording mistakes and identifying problems so that we can learn and make better decisions. We use a process of 1) Identify, 2) Discuss, and 3) Solve, in order to improve. We use it to bring all problems to the surface, so we can put them in the hands of problems-solvers to make systematic improvements.
GROWTH:
career conversations
We want to help you get where you want to go and move in the direction of your dreams. This annual three-part conversation with your manager aligns your career goals and ensures your manager knows what you want.
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Life Story: “Let’s discuss your life story and what motivates you”
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Dreams: “Let’s explore what you want out of your career”
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Plans: “Let’s create a learning and development plan for the next 12-months to move you in the direction of your dreams”
skip level meetings
The rationale for Skip Level Meetings is that most people are very reluctant to criticize their manager. Plus, managers, consciously or unconsciously seek to repress criticism rather than to encourage it. Annual Skip Level Meetings provide an opportunity for the team to give candid feedback on how their manager is doing and where they can improve. The output of the meeting is a form of “feedback by consensus” to help the manager develop. Managers are accountable to the team and each person has a voice.
upward feedback survey
We gather feedback from the team on their managers through an anonymous quarterly Manager Upward Feedback Survey. Managers use the feedback experience to develop their skills and grow. The survey itself is short. It's roughly a dozen statements based on one of the ten behaviors of successful managers at Princeton.
performance reviews
The fundamental purpose of the performance review is to improve performance. We strive to administer thoughtful and careful reviews to identify and establish goals and objectives that eliminate performance barriers and heighten the ability to achieve results.