ORGANIZATIONAL NETWORK ANALYSIS

Learn about Organizational Network Analysis (ONA), the science that powers Confirm, creating fairer performance reviews in the new world of work.

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Performance reviews are broken.

"The data is clear: performance reviews aren't working for companies, managers, or employees."

20%

of companies rate their performance process as highly or very effective at providing high quality feedback.

Source: The Talent Strategy Group
64%

of employees see performance reviews as a partial or complete waste of time.

Source: People Matters
14%

of employees strongly agree their performance reviews inspire them to improve.

Source: Gallup

Why is this happening? Because the way people work has changed. With tools like Zoom and Slack, employees work in networks. They work cross functionally, ideate from the bottom up, and often are remote. In this networked world of work, managers have poor visibility into their direct reports' impact, leaving people leaders ill-equipped to accurately judge performance.

Traditional hierarchical org chart showing how work gets evaluated top-down

How work gets evaluated

Organizational network analysis map showing how work actually gets done through cross-functional collaboration

How work gets done

The disconnect, between how work happens and how it's evaluated, leads to poor talent decisions, and results in frustration, inefficiency, and attrition. Companies, often blindsided, lose high-performers jeopardizing their ability to hit business goals.

It doesn't have to be this way.

What is organizational network analysis?

Solving today's challenges around measuring performance requires modernizing the century-old practice of performance reviews. The world of work has evolved. How we measure performance should too.

Confirm ONA dashboard — organizational network analysis visualization mapping employee collaboration patterns

An effective method of measuring performance in today's networked world is Organizational network analysis (ONA). ONA measures and visualizes workplace interactions, analyzing their frequency and strength. When applied to performance management, ONA gives leaders visibility into the true impact of their employees.

How ONA works for performance management

ONA allows anyone at a company (i.e. a network) to evaluate anyone else. That evaluation can be positive or critical. What matters is that it mirrors the way we work today.

At the start of a performance review, employees are asked a few research-tested ONA questions. Examples include:

Who at your organization do you go to for help and advice?
Who do you believe is making an outstanding impact?
Who do you believe needs additional support or attention?

The first question measures influence, identifying a company's thought leaders and subject matter experts. The second question measures the "what" of performance, providing an opportunity to gather constructive feedback.

When this data is analyzed, it gives leaders visibility into who their high-performers are and those who need additional support. With these insights, they can confidently make promotions, PIPs, and retention decisions based on clear data.

ONA-powered performance reviews drive business impact

HR leaders want to drive business outcomes through impactful people decisions. ONA helps them achieve this in a data-driven way.

With attrition concerns during "The Great Resignation," Thoropass' executive team needed a way to identify mission critical employees and retain them. With ONA data, not only did they identify their top performers, they retained 100% of them.

See how Thoropass retained 100% of its top performers over a 12-month period

Explore ONA success stories ›

When HR leaders have access to ONA data, they're able to make promotion and PIP decisions that drive business impact. A number of leaders have used the insights from ONA to make strategic people decisions that have had a material impact on their businesses.

Confirm ONA data visualization showing real-time employee collaboration network and influence mapping

ONA gives leaders the data to:

✓'" /> Uncover employees who are mission critical to the business
✓'" /> Leverage ONA data to maximize retention
✓'" /> Reduce bias in the performance review process
✓'" /> Make talent decisions that are backed by data, not opinion

A world where employees are recognized and rewarded for their hard work and positive impact, not their ability to play office politics, is within reach. With ONA-powered performance reviews, the true impact employees make at work takes center stage, giving leaders an accurate view of performance with less time and effort.

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Get the ONA Playbook

Learn how to implement Organizational Network Analysis in your organization to surface hidden top performers, eliminate bias from performance reviews, and make data-driven talent decisions.

  • What ONA is and why it matters for performance management
  • How to collect and analyze collaboration network data
  • Turning ONA insights into performance calibration decisions
  • Using network analysis to identify hidden leaders and flight risks
  • Privacy considerations and employee communication strategy
  • 30-day implementation framework for your organization
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Playbook
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See Confirm in action

See why forward-thinking enterprises use Confirm to make fairer, faster talent decisions and build high-performing teams.

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