The goal of the People Management Framework in Datapao is to support employees, both ICs and Managers to be happy, engaged, content, efficient and successful in their roles. In short, People Management (PM) is managing the employees well-being. Professional Development is covered under the Tech Mentorship Framework. PM is critical for Datapao's success. We invest into people, managers are expected to invest into people so they can thrive in their roles. Employee retention is extremely important, as we invest into people upfront and continuously, it's critical to retain high-performing individuals. The Data Engineering labour market is one of the most saturated. It takes 20-50 candidates and often months to be able to hire a high performing individual.
Managers are expected to learn and grow as managers. People Management can be learned and managers should also grow in their roles. This is done via the Tech Mentorship Framework. PM is fundamentally about the people. As a manager, you should really understand the following about everyone you manage: - What drives them, what makes them get out of the bed every morning?
What motivates them. One of the most important question as a People Manager. What is that we need to provide to satisfy their motivation.
- What demotivates them?
What makes them don’t want to work. What makes them lose the meaning of their work?
- What do they find meaningful?
Relates to the first question about motivation. What aspect of their work gives them meaning. It’s not always work, some people find meaning elsewhere. Family, pets, science, religion. It’s important to understand as we want to provide as much meaning for everyone as possible, while making sure we don’t interfere with what they find valuable and meaningful. If my kids give me meaning, we have to try to make sure I don’t miss the football game of my kids.
- Their general family background. Small kids, just married, bachelor, health issues? Everyone has different challenges at home and it's not reasonable people can just leave these issues at the door. Managers should not become psychologists, but should understand the background and how that effects the professional. We, as a company should be flexible and understand that sometimes people have custom needs based on what is happening to them. Someone going through a breakup or expecting the first child should have these background effects calculated into their evaluation. If as a company we can help, we should support them. That does not mean that some people should not perform. Everyone is expected to perform on a high level, but we should be flexible and mindful about people, and their background, context.
The suggested frequency and length is every 2 weeks, 30 minutes. Managers can decide wether 1on1s are needed more frequently or longer, but it's not advised to have longer breaks than 2 weeks and less than 30 minutes per meeting. On the 1on1, the manager has to cover the following aspects of the employees well-being:
This is always the first question. It's intentionally open, and employees should be comfortable talking about anything. It's important not to leave it as an only "what I worked on" answer, employee should talk about feelings, well-being, emotions. It's important to understand if they are going through major events (partner issues, family problems, tragedies, illness, etc..). It's important to remember, that you are not a psychologist, and every person has a different level of transparency they are comfortable with. You are not there to solve their issues, you are there to understand and acknowledge.
How engaged are they? Are they excited in the recent projects. Did they learn? Work engagement is one of the most important aspect in job retention.
It's important for everyone to understand what is expected from them and how they can be successful. If you are not the mentor for that person, you might need to sync with the mentor to have the full picture.