Performance Management in the New Normal – Challenges & Opportunities
As 2022 draws to a close, another annual performance review season draws near too. Managers across the globe must be very busy by now preparing year-end appraisals for their employees. If the best practices of effective performance management have been put in place – having real-time, ongoing two-way performance conversations with employees throughout the year and tracking their progress – the year-end performance reviews should not be dreadful for both managers and employees.
Having said that, based on our interviews with managers in various industries, a number of new challenges have emerged around performance management since the pandemic. They include:
• The rapid changing business environment has shifted the organizational strategies and business focus, thus the goals set in the beginning of the year are no longer relevant
• In the hybrid working environment, managers often find it difficult to neither observe and assess employees’ performance nor sustain an inclusive culture
• Employee well-being has become a top priority in many organizations as they realized that employee stress levels have been elevated by the pandemic, thus undermining employee productivity and engagement.
• Managers often find it difficult to make use of tech tools to effectively engage and connect with their team members for better communication and collaboration in the virtual workspace.
We believe the above challenges will become the new normal after all. In the post-pandemic era, every manager must be able to embrace a growth mindset, upgrade essential skills and use appropriate psychological tools when driving employee performance and engagement.
What other challenges and opportunities do you notice in driving employee engagement and performance in the new normal? Love to hear your views and observations.