- Alignamite Develops Employee-Centric Performance Tools
– November 28, 2012The Line - Creating Great Places To Work– November 13, 2012University of Minnesota, College of Education + Human Development
- 5 steps to employee engagement: Improving your goals for organizational success – November 8, 2012Public Relations Society of America
- Indispensable Planning Ready for Year-End Planning?– November 2012Minnesota Business Magazine
- Alignamite Completes Beta Period, Launches More Robust Full Version– November 2012Press Release
- Thrivent Money Revolution Signs On with Alignamite for Performance Management– October 8, 2012Press Release
- Alignamite Launches Certified Consultant Program– June 21, 2012Press Release
- Employee Strategies, Inc. Spins Off New Company Alignamite
– May 21, 2012Press Release - Aligning Employees, Company Goals- May 20, 2012Star Tribune Business
Alignamite is a tool used for improving performance in three different ways:
- A Career Development Tool- Goals are established both from the top down and from the bottom up, with employees being empowered to create their own goals.
- A Performance Dashboard – Provides a bird’s eye view at any time of the company’s effort toward achieving goals with ability to watch progression from beginning to end.
- A Review Tool for Employee Performance – A simple but comprehensive system for completing performance reviews with a 360-degree feedback.
Shortly after graduating from St. Olaf College, J. Forrest knew how he wanted his career to evolve. In fact, at age 23 he mapped out his career path on a napkin during a networking meeting at a Minneapolis restaurant. When he found that napkin 10 years later (yes, he kept it in a “Career Development” file), he realized his career up to that point had gone just as he had envisioned it. The napkin said the next step for him was to start his own organization development consultancy, thus, Employee Strategies was born in 2006. J. strives to incorporate three values into his practice, responsive, results and fun. Employee Strategies takes into account both the company and the employee perspective when working with their clients. It’s that perspective, coupled with the fun experience that Employee Strategies brings to the process. This compels J. to joke that that they are a “non-HR HR consulting firm.”
The success of Employees Strategies along with J.’s passion for developing performance management tools, led to the creation of Alignamite. He believes that transparency and accountability are crucial for reaching the goals set out, from both an employer and employee standpoint. J. made sure the tool would provide a 360-degree feedback for organizations that want it. It’s an often over-looked piece of the performance management puzzle, yet a very crucial one. This is what J. calls “cube cred”, or what people are like to work with.
When not busy building his business, J. serves on the Board of Directors at Project for Pride in Living and has spent more than five years on the Board of Directors at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church. He also is an active contributor to Leadership and Community, a collaborative community blog devoted to providing awareness on leadership and community insights in the Twin Cities.
Mike Johnson graduated with a computer science degree from Macalester College in St. Paul, and knew he wanted to start a technology company some day. He started FISDAP in 1996, a St. Paul-based software development company that designs tracking software for EMS student competency and experience.
Mike has sound advice to share: listen to your mother. It is because of his mother that he and J. Forrest initially got together to form Alignamite. For several years, Mike’s mom suggested he contact her neighbor, J. Forrest, and for several years, he put it off. Finally, he either got tired of listening to his mom or realized J. could be a great resource; either way, Mike picked up the phone and gave J. a call.
Because FISDAP was small and grew from a start-up environment, they never took the time to create a culture and define themselves. Mike wanted to change that and engaged with Employee Strategies, J.’s HR consulting firm. Mike and J. started talking about some kind of performance development tool that would fit the FISDAP culture; nothing too formal or top down.
It was over lunch on an outdoor patio at a Minneapolis restaurant when J. and Mike started having “what if” conversations about what the tool would look like. It would need to be conversational, communicating goals from the center out. It would take away the conventional wisdom that performance development tools are implemented from the top down and are top heavy. It would also need to be utilized in a manner where collective voices are better than one. They realized what they were looking for did not exist and they would need to create something new themselves. Thus, Alignamite was born with J. and Mike partnering to build the tool.
Mike understands the intricacies of building technology-based organizations, loves building business models and playing with spreadsheets.
