Feedback to Feedforward™: Innovating Performance Management at TCS

Highlights

Set up as a collaborative cloud-based platform, the Feedback to Feedforward™ model provides the TCS workforce a holistic view of their performance in real time.
It covers all the parameters that are integral to an employee’s overall performance and career progression in the organization: compliance, development, engagement, and feedback.
Since this platform is based on the principles of agility and continuous feedback, it gives employees an opportunity to carry out course correction, if needed, in real time.

Appraisal season returns

Picture this: the financial year is coming to a close and you’re struggling with a looming pile of work, all of it marked—no surprises here—URGENT. Then that familiar reminder from the HR team pings in your inbox, prodding you to finish mapping your achievements against your goals to complete the appraisal process. You decide to bite the bullet and open a new document to note down highlights from the quarters gone by and… promptly forget every single thing that you have done that year. It won’t be a stretch to say that in this state of deadline-fueled panic, some of us almost forget what we do for a living.

Well, at TCS, we’ve got your back. In the spirit of Living Agile™ (and to make sure you don’t miss recording any memorable wins from the year gone by), we moved to a continuous feedback-based performance management process as early as 2017. Today, close to 60% of our over half-a-million-strong workforce has embraced this model as a way of life.

Figure 1 - Transforming organizational culture through TCS Performance Management

At the center of a diagram is a circle labeled ‘TCS Performance Management’. There are lines bearing text radiating outward from this circle, with the whole diagram resembling a motherboard circuit. In clockwise order, starting from top right, the lines are labeled with the following text, which represents the features of TCS’ performance management framework: -Simplified workflows -Continuous feedback enabled -Personalized user experience while being aligned to organizational needs -Multilingual capability -Chatbot functionality enabled to deal with day-to-day queries -Real-time analytics generated using AI-based technology -Flexible project-based reviews -Capacity to handle more than 1.7 million connections -Facilitates effective tracking for all stakeholders -Adaptable in case of crisis -Anytime access through web- and mobile-based applications -Based on agile methodology -Caters to a global workforce

Taking feedback forward

In 2021, this appraisal model was formalized by the TCS Performance Management team and given the name Feedback to Feedforward. Set up as a collaborative cloud-based platform, the model provides our workforce a holistic view of their performance in real time, covering all the parameters that are integral to an employee’s overall performance and career progression in the organization. These parameters are categorized into four interdependent areas: compliance, development, engagement, and feedback. Together, they form a complete circle that provides a holistic overview of individual performance in alignment with organizational priorities.

This means employees get a snapshot view of their achievements as well as areas for improvement. Since this platform is based on the principles of agility and continuous feedback, it gives employees an opportunity to carry out course correction, if needed, in real time, without a dependency on managers to initiate the same. To supervisors, the platform provides analytics and insights ranging from the descriptive and diagnostic to sentimental and predictive. It gives them early indicators of performance and helps them make actionable plans to improve upon the same.

Figure 1 - The future-focused TCS Performance Management system leverages predictive analytics

An infographic of the Feedback to Feedforward appraisal model, which provides the TCS workforce a holistic view of its performance. The model includes the following steps: Performance review: This comprises agile, automated, and anytime goal-setting, continuous feedback, and integrated performance parameters. Monitoring and reporting: This includes trend analysis on year-to-year performance data, digitized dashboards providing a view of real-time progress, digitized and integrated employee profiles, and real-time reports enabling a view of data at a granular level. Predictive analysis: This is enabled through a personalized performance management platform that features predictive analytics through a Python-based algorithm, sentiment analytics through the interpretation and classification of emotions using text analysis on performance reviews, and AI-enabled plug-and-play predictive analytics that showcase career progression. Decision-making and strategizing: This covers the formulation of a performance strategy, reinforcement of high-performance work culture, realignment of performance appraisals, addressing of the development needs of employees, and their career progression.

Appraising the appraisal system

If the Feedback to Feedforward platform had to talk about its performance over the financial year gone by, what would it say? Well, to begin with, it would talk about the intelligent and automated goal-setting process it triggered, which led to over 200,000 performance goals being auto-suggested and half a million appraisals auto-initiated. These goals were in step with our focus on continuous digital skilling, reskilling, and upskilling. Also auto-captured were attributes such as compliance to organizational policies, awards, appreciation, and engagement. This process was mass-personalized for our workforce spanning 55 countries and 150 nationalities.

Breaking down the performance of this platform by numbers, here are some key highlights. With over seven million goals set so far, 18 million feedback conversations have been captured. Over 80,000 unique queries have been resolved through an AI-enabled chatbot, and more than 67,000 hours of manual effort have been saved. What’s next on the cards? Rolling out our performance management expertise to customers worldwide.

TCS is here to make a difference through technology.

We deliver excellence and create value for customers and communities.

Extraordinary expertise leads to remarkable results.

Want to be a global change-maker? Join our team.

Find the latest news about TCS in our Newsroom

Recent Press releases

Recent News

Recent recognitions

Upcoming events

TCS works hand in hand with world-leading investors.

TCS is here to make a difference through technology.

We deliver excellence and create value for customers and communities.

Extraordinary expertise leads to remarkable results.

Want to be a global change-maker? Join our team.

Find the latest news about TCS in our Newsroom

Recent Press releases

Recent News

Recent recognitions

Upcoming events

TCS works hand in hand with world-leading investors.

Performance management takes a big leap forward

Highlights

Appraisal season returns

Taking feedback forward

Appraising the appraisal system

Transformation starts here

Find out more

TCS is here to make a difference through technology.

We deliver excellence and create value for customers and communities.

Extraordinary expertise leads to remarkable results.

Want to be a global change-maker? Join our team.

Find the latest news about TCS in our Newsroom

Recent Press releases

Recent News

Recent recognitions

Upcoming events

TCS works hand in hand with world-leading investors.

Highlights

Appraisal season returns

Taking feedback forward

Appraising the appraisal system

Related reading

Transformation starts here

Find out more