AgileHR
Survey, September 2024
Employee assessment and development practices
Slava Sidiachkin (AgileHR) and Bulat Garipov surveyed 62 professionals to understand how companies are assessing and developing employees. We explored which assessment methods are most commonly used, how frequently skills are tracked,and what factors drive promotions and salary decisions. Additionally, we gained insights into competency development practices, as well as the challenges companies face in ensuring transparency and fairness in their evaluation processes.
Study Overview
1. Research Description
The purpose of this study was to gain a thorough understanding of how companies evaluate and develop their employees. The study was conducted from June to September 2024, using an online survey distributed among LinkedIn contacts and management-related groups.
2. Disclaimer
It is important to note that this study is not fully representative of the global management practices landscape due to the relatively small number of respondents. Although the data collected offers valuable insights into trends and tendencies, the findings should not be considered conclusive across all industries or regions.
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Main Findings
01
Skills are the primary factor in both promotions and salary decisions, with 22% of respondents.
Additionally, responsibility is crucial for promotions (20%), while company results (18%) and scope of responsibility(17%) are key in determining compensation, showing that both individual expertise and broader contributions drive success.
03
Fairness and transparency in overall assessment processes remain a challenge
While 32% of respondents believe their company’s assessment process is fair and transparent, a significant portion (37%) disagrees, and 31% are unsure. This indicates a potential need for better communication about assessment criteria and processes to foster trust in the system.
05
Soft skills assessments rely heavily on feedback from colleagues (31%) and managers (29%)
The most common combination of methods involves feedback from both peers and supervisors.
07
Fairness and transparency in skill-specific assessments are particularly unclear
When it comes to evaluating hard and soft skills, 41% of respondents are unsure about the fairness and transparency of the process. Only 30% feel that the system is fair, while 21% believe it is not, signaling possible gaps in how evaluations are executed and communicated.
02
Manager evaluations (20%) and 360-degree feedback (15%) are the top methods for performance assessments
These methods suggest that companies value both direct supervisor feedback and more holistic perspectives from peers and subordinates.
04
Hard skills are primarily assessed through completed projects and tasks (25%), with colleagues' feedback (24%) and managers' feedback (21%) also playing key roles
Companies often use a combination of these methods, with feedback from colleagues and managers accounting for 30%.
06
Many companies lack formal tools to track skills
With 40% of respondents indicating that their organizations do not have structured systems for tracking and developing employee skills over time, relying instead on ad-hoc or immediate needs.
Respondent Profile
Company Size
Participants come from a range of company sizes, with 37% working in large corporations with over 5,000 employees. Mid-sized companies (500-1,499 employees) account for 26%, and small businesses (0-49 employees) make up 8% of the sample.
Product Focus
A significant 81% of respondents work for companies that develop and sell their own products, with 79% of these products targeting external markets. Only 13% are involved in internal products, while 8% work on both.
Team Size
Respondents lead teams of varying sizes. A significant portion (17 respondents) work individually, while 15 respondents manage small teams of up to 10 people. Teams of 10-49 people are led by 22 respondents, and 6 respondents oversee teams of 50-99. Only 2 respondents lead larger teams of 100-499 people.
Geography
45% of our respondents are based in Russia, while 55% come from other countries.Georgia and Kazakhstan each contributed 8% and 5% of the responses, respectively, with Germany adding another 3%.
Country of Residence
Industry Specialization
Respondents are primarily from the finance sector (27%), followed by IT (13%), telecommunications (8%), and logistics (6%).
Industry Specialization
CURRENT ROLE
The survey features a variety of Agile-related roles. Agile Coaches (27%) and Scrum Masters (22%) are the most common, followed by Project Managers (11%) and Product Managers (5%).
CURRENT ROLE
Promotions and Salary Drivers
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Skills are the key factor in promotions, with 22% of respondents indicating that their current skills played the biggest role in advancing their careers.
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Combined factors of responsibility and skills also matter, with 20% of respondents highlighting their scope of responsibility as a major factor in their promotions.
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Salary is closely tied to skills as well, with 20% of respondents citing current skills as the most important determinant, followed by company results (18%) and scope of responsibility (17%).
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Those with larger responsibilities and strong skills were more likely to see both promotions and salary increases, as the combination of these factors is the most common across decisions.
Promotion Factors
Salary Factors
Assessment Methods: What Matters Most
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Manager evaluations seem to be the most relied upon method, with 20% of respondents indicating that direct feedback from supervisors plays a key role in employee assessments.
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360-degree feedback is also commonly used, with 15% of respondents suggesting that organizations may value input from peers, subordinates, and supervisors to provide a more rounded perspective on performance.
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KPI systems focus on measurable outcomes, with 13% of respondents highlighting that companies may increasingly rely on objective metrics to evaluate employee success.
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The combination of manager evaluations with KPI systems (21 respondents) and manager evaluations with 360-degree feedback (21 respondents) could indicate that companies are trying to strike a balance between subjective evaluations and data-driven performance assessments. At the other end of the spectrum, articles, presentations, and certifications are the least common methods, each used by a very small portion of respondents.
Assessment Methods
Assessment frequency shows annual assessments are most common (32%), followed by bi-annual (29%) and on-request (21%), while quarterly (11%) and monthly (5%) are rare, suggesting many companies may not prioritize continuous reviews.
Employee assessment frequency
The assessment processes
Do you consider the assessment processes in your company to be fair and transparent?
Fairness and transparency remain a challenge for many organizations. While 32% of respondents believe their company’s assessment process is fair and transparent, a significant portion (37%) disagrees, and 31% are unsure. This suggests that a clearer communication of assessment criteria and processes might be necessary to improve employee trust in the system
Skill Growth: From Evaluation to Learning
Hard Skills Assessment
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Completed projects and tasks are the primary method for assessing hard skills, used by 25% of respondents, followed closely by colleagues' feedback (24%) and managers' feedback (21%), showing a balanced approach between tangible results and peer/supervisor input.
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Combined methods often include colleagues' feedback and managers' feedback (30%) or completed projects and colleagues' feedback, highlighting the value of combining direct performance outcomes with interpersonal insights.
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Competency interviews and KPI systems are also frequently paired with managers' feedback (30%), suggesting that organizations look for a comprehensive mix of qualitative and quantitative data when evaluating technical skills.
Soft Skills Assessment
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Colleagues' feedback is the most popular way to assess soft skills, used by 31% of respondents, with managers' feedback close behind at 29%, reflecting the importance of interpersonal evaluations.
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The most common combined approach is feedback from colleagues and managers, used by 44 respondents (29%), indicating that organizations rely on both peer and supervisory perspectives for a rounded view of soft skills.
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Other combinations, such as completed projects with colleagues' feedback and completed projects with managers' feedback (15% each), suggest that companies also consider task outcomes when assessing interpersonal abilities.
Tracking tools
No formal tracking tool is reported by 40% of respondents, indicating that many companies may not have structured systems in place to consistently track and support employee development over time.
Tracking tools
Hard and soft skills assessment frequensy
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It seems that skill tracking in companies is largely driven by immediate needs rather than rigid schedules.
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The majority of respondents (38%) report that their companies track and reassess skills on request or as needed, while a more structured annual review is followed by 26%. Only a small fraction (4%) of companies reassess skills monthly or quarterly, indicating that regular, frequent evaluations are uncommon.
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Interestingly, 14% of companies don’t track or reassess skills at all, suggesting that a notable portion of organizations are not prioritizing ongoing skill development.
Competency Development
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It appears that external learning opportunities play a crucial role in how companies support employee growth.
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Payment for courses is the most common form of support, with 24% of companies offering this benefit. Meanwhile, 18% encourage growth through challenging tasks, and internal mentoring programs and communities are leveraged by 16% of respondents each.
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A smaller portion of companies (6%) connect salary directly to skill development, while 3% do not encourage skill-building at all, signaling a gap in development initiatives.
Do you consider the assessment process of evaluating soft and hard skills in your company to be fair and transparent?
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Fairness and transparency in skill assessment are unclear in many organizations.
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While 29% of respondents feel that their company's assessment processes are fair and transparent, 40% are unsure, reflecting a lack of clarity around how skills are evaluated. Additionally, 21% believe that the assessments are not fair, pointing to potential issues in how evaluations are conducted or communicated.
Our Supporters
We extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who shared information about our study and helped us gather such an impressive sample! 💙
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