DG3 Goes from Paper Reviews to Streamlined Process

Meet Beth

Beth Petersen is the Director of HR at Dominion Due Diligence Group. She joined Dominion Due Diligence Group in December 2019 and enjoys focusing on attracting, engaging and developing their team. 

“Success for me boils down to two things: getting the right people in the door, and then retaining top talent. I spend a lot of time partnering with managers on training, developing, and engaging their direct reports.” 

Beth succinctly summed up her philosophy for company success, “It’s all about the people.” 

About Dominion Due Diligence Group

Dominion Due Diligence Group (D3G) is a full-service environmental, engineering, and energy due diligence firm. Due diligence is a critical process for real estate development and lending, and D3G helps borrowers, lenders, contractors, and design professionals navigate the complicated due diligence process. 

Dominion Due Diligence Group is headquartered in Richmond, VA, and has about 145 employees spread between Richmond, Denver, and across the country. Since remote work became a necessity due to COVID-19, D3G has begun hiring more remote talent, and now boasts employees in 15 different states. 

“During the pandemic, we decided to strategically hire people in different parts of the country,” Beth mentioned. “We’ve never been a largely virtual workforce before, but the pandemic made us realize that in an effort to continue business continuity, we needed to hire strategically across the country to service our clients.

D3G is in growth mode, having hired 40 employees during the pandemic. 

“Our whole focus is, ‘how do we grow responsibly?’” Beth said. For her, hiring the right people, and then training them to grow in the company, is paramount. 

The Challenge

Beth wanted to improve D3G’s performance management process. She wanted to move from a static, paper-based, impersonal event to an ongoing and helpful process that enabled development.

“What do most companies do? They review you once a year. ‘Here’s your review, here’s your rating, here’s your increase. See you next year.’ That isn’t development. We wanted these conversations to happen on a regular basis.”

D3G focuses heavily on development with an extensive employee training process. The company fosters upward mobility within the organization for all levels.  

This process, however, requires very focused and proactive performance management. 

“If employees aren’t being developed, and they don’t like the environment, then they’re going to leave for other opportunities.” 

Lastly, D3G wanted to automate their review process. “We were doing our entire review process through paper forms and we realized there were inefficiencies with this process that wouldn’t be sustainable as we grow.”

The desire for a new performance review system that enabled employee development and reduced administrative work presented an opportunity for D3G to partner with PerformYard.

Why PerformYard

“We wanted to find a process that was automated, that was customizable, and that we could use all year long,” Beth stated. 

The streamlined process helped with efficiencies around writing reviews, collecting various approvals and providing an easy bird’s eye of the status of the review process. 

PerformYard’s ease of use and customization aligned with D3G’s needs, but it was PerformYard’s ability to help with employee development that aligned with Beth’s philosophy.

“Our goal is constant career development. We needed a vehicle to assist that development. PerformYard felt like a great fit.”

The Process

D3G has a yearlong review process that begins with setting goals that employees work to achieve throughout the year. 

“People were setting goals, but they weren’t measurable. They would say, ‘improve sales.’ But we didn’t say how long it would take, by what percentage.” 

By introducing their new review process through PerformYard, D3G employees are now guided to set quantifiable goals that managers can track and employees can use to help with professional development. 

“What’s cool about PerformYard is we can put goals into different categories to help with professional development. Now, everyone has a professional goal, an operational goal, and a personal goal.” 

Employees’ progress is tracked through quarterly check-ins, where direct reports and managers speak freely about performance, strengths, weaknesses, and goal achievement. 

“Our quarterly check-ins are all about making sure we’re talking,” Beth stated. “That ensures nothing in the yearly review will ever be a surprise.” 

At the year-end review, the process includes a self-evaluation and a manager evaluation. 

“We’re focusing on competencies. What are the accomplishments? What are the opportunities? Were the goals achieved?” 

By focusing on achievements and measurable goals, D3G gets a stronger understanding of how their employees are performing and what opportunities may arise to pursue further development. 

“Tracking where that goal is, and watching employees move to achieve it, that’s meaningful.”

The Results

Adopting PerformYard has made D3G’s review process much more efficient, saving Beth, managers, and all employees a great deal of time.

Aside from streamlining the review process, PerformYard has enabled D3G to deepen its commitment to employee development, while more effectively tracking performance throughout the company. 

“Being able to holistically see ratings for an entire team, that was really helpful to see in one place. We rely on that data.” 

“The support we’ve received from PerformYard has also been great.” Beth said. “I really appreciate the partnership.”