The pandemic has changed the way we live and the way we work. Working from home is the new norm, and virtual meetings have taken over the physical space. While the world adjusts to this new way of working and living, the global economy has also been disrupted.

Organisations have experienced reduced hours, adjusted goals, furloughs, or worse yet, layoffs. Businesses the world over have adapted to new processes. Performance management of remote working teams is one of the biggest concerns. Businesses today must re-evaluate their performance management system to better respond to the current circumstances.

By following the same old performance management approach you can lead to negative experiences for your business, increased employee burnout, incomplete information to base your decisions on, and managers holding back critical feedback. To avoid this situation, your business needs to implement the right performance management system and work towards achieving maximum results without making things worse for your employees.

An effective performance management system can help you adjust to the current scenario and build a sense of stability, importance, and fairness amongst your employees. Keep reading to learn about some simple trends to implement performance management successfully during and after the pandemic.

Six Effective Performance Management Trends Post Covid-19

1. Update Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Meaningful and effective performance management requires meaningful and effective KPIs. If your KPIs are still aligned with the pre-pandemic work scenario, it is highly likely that your performance management approach will fail. The first step towards aligning KPIs is to separate skills from job roles. KPIs should be based on the job role as well as the skills required for the job. Employees are also taking on new roles based on their skills, and managers need to acknowledge this. The shift in work scenarios has also enabled employees to spend more time developing new skills through e-learning. Hence, managers need to consider these aspects and update KPIs accordingly.

For example, employees in a marketing department can now be assessed for the number of people they reach online daily instead of assessing them just on the revenue generated. It can help achieve long-term goals rather than pushing for short-term goals.

2. Set smart goals

Long-term goals need to be focused on more during this new work scenario, and they need to be measurable for a remote working environment. Poorly defined goals can be key to team members’ uncertainty and poor performance. Organisations need to set goals that are specific, measurable, actionable, time-bound, and relevant to the current scenario. Employees can work better with commitment and a sense of ownership, provided that the goals are set according to the current context of their organisation.

3. Continuous feedback from employees

The pandemic has caused working environments to change faster than ever before. Government regulations can change almost every day, and therefore we can expect the same change in business processes. Now is the time to ask your employees for feedback. Annual performance reviews have become a thing of the past. Managers need to know what is working and what is not immediately. Continuous evolution can only help businesses last through this difficult time, and this can be managed with continuous feedback from employees.

4. Commit to transparency

Since almost everyone is working from home, communication among team members has also emerged as an important issue. Along with filling gaps in communication, businesses also need to take steps towards making their work culture more transparent than ever. When communicating with employees, make sure they know the results and effects of their performance. For example, let them know of the leads generated because of the efforts they put in or the client you lost because of poor performance. This transparency induces a sense of accountability and belonging and can enhance your performance management culture.

5. Trust your employees

A humanistic approach to performance management becomes more important with remote working teams. You don’t want to be continually monitoring your employees; you need to trust your employees that they will complete their assigned tasks in time. If you continually request updates about the status of work tasks, employees will feel they are underperforming and therefore spend more time replying to inquiries rather than productively working on a task. If an employee becomes unresponsive or is not meeting a deadline, it would be wrong to discredit them from all the work they have done so far and judge their efficiency and performance. Trusting them and reaching out to them to understand the reasons behind any delays or issues can help you know the actual reason behind it.

6. Managers need to spend more time acting as coaches

Performance management during this pandemic cannot be just limited to gathering and comparing data on spreadsheets. Instead, businesses need a more cohesive approach to performance management which also includes motivating their employees. Managers need to make sure that their team feels valued, it gives the employees a sense of stability and motivation for moving forward. You may not know the personal circumstances of every employee when they are working remotely. Therefore, when managers take time to recognise and rewarding employees for their achievements and build a culture of inclusion, employees feel more inspired to work their best.

Businesses need to continuously derive new ways to improve their performance management strategy during this pandemic. It becomes easier to implement a robust performance management system that helps management spend more time on other important business decisions. A performance management system will also help you efficiently plan learning and development programs for your employees.

Contact Sentrient for a demo today and make performance management the biggest strength of your business during Covid-19.