Everyone has been working remotely for some time now, and it has become the new norm globally. While some managers and leaders got adjusted to the new ways of managing their remote workforce, some are still facing challenges.
The most challenging part for managers is when it comes to tracking progress and reviewing their remote employees. And if it is the annual or half-yearly performance review season, the managers need to give effective and unbiased reviews.
Here are a few tips which could help review your remote employees better.
Knowing your remote employees and building trust with them is crucial. It is often underrated, but it cannot be ignored. While we understand it may not be humanly possible for managers with larger teams to know everyone personally, but where there is a will, there is a way.
One way to know your employees is by having frequent one on ones with them. Having a regular two-way regular conversation with your employees builds a sense of trust and respect. They are more comfortable talking about their work.
Not only this, these conversations help managers to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the team members. It helps them to perform as a cohesive team, and set team and individual goals aligned to organizational goals.
When employees are working remotely or working from home, it is important to track their progress. It helps them stay focused, engaged and prevents them from falling back. The simplest way to do this is to set SMART goals for your employees. We at Engagedly use OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) to set our SMART goals. This approach is one of the most effective and popular approaches to goal setting. It allows everyone to set stretchable, short-term, agile goals.
Want to know more about OKRs? Download the white paper.
No matter which goal-setting approach you follow, it is important to know how to measure your progress on those goals. Most of the performance management software available in the market comes with a goal-setting module. When goals are set using a software, it increases transparency and trackability.
Though it seems easier to review a team that is traditionally working at an office than a remote team, both come with their own set of challenges. As a manager, it is your responsibility to monitor and review the performance of your remote team without any biases. But often, managerial decisions are clouded by recency bias, inaccurate performance data, etc. You can easily overcome the above issues by using a performance management software.
A performance management software does not magically solve all your remote performance review issues. It is important to utilize features like performance cycles, timely reviews, competencies, feedback, and OKRs to make it work for your team. We recommend that managers track their employees’ goals regularly and come up with solutions to improve them. Have frequent one-on-one meetings and regular feedback so that employees are engaged and are on the right track.
Giving regular feedback and having frequent discussions with your team members makes reviewing their performance easy even though they are working remotely.
Is your organization planning to invest in a performance management software? Then request for a live demo.
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