Continuous feedback, coupled with frequent, high quality two-way conversations which help people perform to the best of their ability, develop to their full potential and achieve their career aspirations, is the foundation of employee engagement.
Flow empowers employees to take control of that feedback mechanism - how it flows, when it flows, from whom and for what purpose. It’s designed to be agile, adaptive and simple to initiate.
Find a template for different feedback contexts that can be linked to your specific work-related activities, or areas of focus and development
Once invitations are sent out to a small group of 4-5 feedback contributors, their feedback aggregates and build in real-time into a short one-page report which an individual can read. capture their self reflections, and share with the line manager as part of a check-in coaching conversation
People asked to give feedback play an enormously important part in helping others recognise their strengths, development opportunities, and ultimately to grow in their current role and for future ones.
All this process is self-managed with no administrative burden on HR - And as feedback starts to flow freely throughout the organisation, between peers, between managers and individuals, between teams, business functions, and between an organisation and its employees, HR can focus their attention on harvesting business insights and intelligence about your people.
The team at Bowland Solutions are a pleasure to do business with. They understand their client and demystify a sometimes jargon-filled area with clear practical advice and pragmatic solutions. On each occasion I have worked with them they have gained instant credibility with the senior partners and have demonstrated a personal commitment and pride to see the project through to successful completion.
I have found working with Bowland brilliant! They're responsive and credible, from the technical support team, through to Brendan and John in particular.
It's been very easy to work with them; they have supported me and I have felt listened to, and above all I have felt they know what they are doing – real experts in their field but with no arrogance.
Their experience of really understanding what a difference 360 degree feedback can make within an organisation, through to preparing partners as to what will happen to them when they are in the process of receiving 360 feedback, I found to be incredibly empowering.
I have found working with Bowland to be very easy. From our first meeting, I knew I wanted to work with them, as I felt the principal difference between Bowland and other consultants we have worked with, is that they genuinely listened to what we wanted and what our problems were, and didn't try to force their solution upon us; they created something that was very much with us in mind.
Brendan and John demonstrated a real understanding of law firms and gave us good and pragmatic advice. Bowland's IT system was user-friendly and reliable and their support team was very responsive and helpful. Partners found the debrief sessions run by the Bowland team to be worthwhile and useful.
Bowland has been a tremendous partner to McCann Erickson. They helped us develop a bespoke 360 program for our key executives across North America. John and his team conducted the live debriefs with all participants who were thrilled with the productive and actionable feedback they received in the process. I highly recommend Bowland for any simple or complex 360 feedback program.
Brendan and John both demonstrated their knowledge of professional services firms and in-particular law firms. They really took the time to understand how the firm works and what we were trying to achieve and we have thoroughly enjoyed working with Bowland Solutions.
We have been working with Bowland for a number of years and their support in helping us with our 360 degree feedback programmes has been fantastic.
They have great expertise in questionnaire design, provide a very efficient service and support with the on-line software, and skillfully conduct the face-to-face debriefs to help individuals get the most from their 360 report.
Almost as importantly, our senior leadership team engage really well with Bowland and respond to them, which is often key to the success of these initiatives.
We recently returned to Bowland for a landmark programme involving over 200 of our most senior people worldwide.
The firm obtained 3 very valuable outcomes from it: robust management data that told us where to focus our investment in learning and development, so we put every £ where it will do most good; an uplift in personal skills – not just from the recipient group but from over 400 people who practised giving constructive feedback; and finally the target group found the one-to-one debrief meetings to be milestones in their professional development.
We found working with Bowland on both our Performance Appraisal and 360 Degree Feedback projects very constructive. Their approach did not feel formulaic in any way. It felt tailored to what we needed and we didn't feel pushed in a particular direction.
It was very much a conversation that led to the right outcome, so our experience has been very positive with their support making a significant difference and improving the process that we went through.
We recently completed 360 feedback for our Management Board. This was the first time we’ve done 360 feedback, and naturally there was some concern before we started. We shouldn’t have worried. It was excellent.
The process was quick and easy. The insight from John and Brendan – both to us individually and as a group - was consistently excellent. In particular, we were pleasantly gobsmacked by the group analysis – insightful, timely, and presented with real skill and tact.
It will really help us to perform and grow as a leadership team.
We asked Bowland to deliver their 'Meaningful Conversations' training to our senior managers and leadership team. Their approach is always professional, and so working with them has been a delight and very easy.
They took time to understand our specific needs and responded flexibly to the pressures we faced with the time participants could make available to attend the training.
The feedback from participants has been very positive; they were engaged, felt it was well delivered and useful, and enjoyed the facilitator's style.
I would certainly recommend Bowland.
Last year we engaged Bowland Solutions to work with us on transferring our out of date appraisal system to an online system, which ensured all staff had targets that were in line with our organisational priorities and key performance indicators. Our appraisal and PDP online forms are bespoke to our needs, and staff have engaged with the new practise of quarterly reviews of targets.
The staff at Bowland have been responsive to our needs from the start: from setting up the system to providing training on giving effective feedback and delivering feedback in appraisals as we prepare for these in the new year.
I would have no hesitation in recommending Bowland Solutions.
The 360 Leadership Programme has been an excellent exercise that has benefited our Senior Leadership team and their direct reports: our senior managers completed the 360 degree review feedback sessions after debrief training from Bowland, and this enabled direct reports to more effectively shape their individual End of Year appraisals, development objectives and Quarterly incentives around the 360 degree headings.
Working with John and the team at Bowland has been a pleasure and we would highly recommend their services.
The online system is simple, clear with a clean look. Its implementation took place in very smooth conditions over four months. Its user friendliness has been the most attractive element for the staff, some comments include : "the work and feel of the product matches very closely the needs expressed by the WTO senior management", "an excellent design, straightforward and self-explanatory". It has been easy to customize the layout and the process according to WTO preferences.
The system supports a multiple language feature which is fundamental in a public international organization like ours. Supporting staff enquiries about the system in an autonomous way has been made possible with only half an hour training with the HR team.
