How we think about performance

For every employee, performance is broken down into 3 dimensions:

  1. Table Stakes: This represents the fundamentals that everyone is expect to consistently demonstrate and are non-negotiable. These behaviors ensure that we maintain a reliable and effective foundation for our day-to-day. ‣
  2. Finch Core Values: This goes beyond the basics and reflects how well you integrate our core values into your daily work. This alignment ensures that our actions create a positive, mission-driven culture. ⚖️ Core Values
  3. Employee Output: Each employee is expected to drive tangible output in their day-to-day work. This ensures we have a team that can make forward progress to achieve our mission.

By excelling in all three areas, everyone should be able to consistently rely on each other to do their best work, and together as a team we’ll be able to make more step-function improvements toward the mission.

How we evaluate performance

New hires

Everyone who joins the company aims to successfully ramp up by their Day 90. Their manager will agree on an explicit plan for what success looks like and provide different checkpoints for written feedback. See The First 90 Days.

Existing employees

We do not have official performance review cycles. Instead we rely on managers to evaluate the performance on a general basis and hold folks accountable when needed. It’s on manager discretion to decide whether to collect ad-hoc feedback to collect written feedback for performance.

In general, we do run company-wide peer feedback a couple times a year. While it’s not for official performance, it can give a helpful checkpoint for everyone to see how they’ve been doing and identify areas to grow.

How is underperformance managed

We recognize that it’s natural for everyone to have fluctuating performance. Even if someone is killing it they can also have off days and that’s okay.

When a manager notices signs that someone is struggling with impact or with fitting with our team culture, managers will start with initial coaching to help provide course correction. If serious patterns continue despite coaching, the manager will hold honest conversations about the broader trajectory concern to try to bridge gaps together.