With COVID-19 striking the field of work in several ways, companies are faced with new obstacles, such as closed workplaces, decelerating corporate processes, and the need for employees to work remotely. This changed the business world requires organizations to be flexible and responsive. Organizations across the globe are restructuring their corporate processes to allow the workforce to operate from home.
Despite the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the personal and professional lives of people, and from a business perspective, talent managers are contemplating whether to alter their performance assessment process this year. Assessing the workforce against the goals that do not acknowledge the effect of COVID-19 on performance, employee morale, and resource allocation seems confusing and, frankly, unjust. Hence, it is becoming extremely important to set and track specific goals consistent with the organizational priorities for each team and then review them on a real-time basis. Here are some ways to help talent managers efficiently manage the performance review process:
Communicate Consistently With Your Employees
In a period of uncertainty, leaders must be empathetic while communicating with their team. Conversations during the pandemic should be initiated by discussing the concerns about the well-being and safety of employees as a priority – not about morale or even efficiency.
For instance, you may pose questions such as: How well are you able to manage remote work? Do you need any support from the team? Do you need more flexibility in terms of working hours? Etc.
will be more challenging this year, considering shifts incorporate dynamics and personal factors that have possibly influenced employees' efforts to satisfy their performance standards. With that in mind, HR leaders are exploring ways to balance expectations and behavior while evaluating employee performance.
According to Gartner, twenty-two percent of companies are urging leaders to concentrate more on behavior than on outcomes when evaluating performance this year. In order to help managers plan, most companies training them to have healthy discussions, validate the contributions made by employees based on the KPIs.
Create A Flexible Goal Set-up Process
For most businesses, goal setting may be an annual event. With strategic plans evolving almost regularly with regard to COVID-19, we need to keep up with the goal-setting processes frequently now. Organizations must motivate and enable employees to adjust to the changing goals in order to keep pace with unpredictable business shifts. Focus on short-term prioritization of workflows rather than long-term objectives that are prone to changes.
Develop A Short-term Priority List
News distractions, responsibility for caring for those at home, and adaptation to remote or newly altered working hours are expected to change the way employees approach their duties and assignments. During a pandemic, it is crucial to have employees prioritize short-term goals in order to build workflow amidst the chaos. Instead of talking about previous objectives or goals for the next month or quarter, discuss work expectations for the next day or the next week and help employees interpret work in more manageable ways.
Offer Emotional Support
The leader's undivided attention is essential to each and every member of the team. So, make sure you conduct one-on-one on a continual basis. This will not only help management to be updated, but it will also encourage team members to chat openly about their challenges and concerns.
In the view of a rapid change to remote work as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, leaders or managers must understand and acknowledge the stress of employees, willing to listen to their concerns, and be more empathetic about the challenges than they would usually be.
Bottom Line
As the COVID-19 chaos has forced organizations to introduce a remote work culture, each of them is in distinct stages of managing its implications. Although challenges differ depending on sector and company, the secret to navigating through this transition successfully is to recognize and incorporate the best employment practices and smart approaches to remote work.
We believe that modifying your performance management approach to comply with this transition and implementing performance management tools that allow you to do so would be important for companies to continue to thrive.
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