Category: Performance Management

We are all responsible for creating and maintaining a positive work environment and interpersonal relationship between employees. The main responsibility of it, though, falls on the Human Resource department. The HR of any organization has many key responsibilities – starting from the recruitment process, education and training, to off-boarding/termination of employees. 

Recent studies have shown that almost 85% of the global labor force is actively disengaging from their work. Productivity and earnings have been affected to a great extent because of it.

Also Read: The Ultimate Guide To Effective Employee Surveys

There is a way to avoid such a situation. Wondering how? By implementing creative ways to engage your workforce in order to boost productivity. The tools stated below have the potential to increase engagement among employees and help your organization achieve set goals. Let’s go through them together. 

Communication Apps

An organization’s success depends on effective internal communication. A business that lacks communication suffers decreased motivation and loses sight of its purpose. As a consequence, productivity plummets to an all-time low. If you are wondering how you can enhance communication among your employees and enhance productivity and engagement levels, say thank you to productivity tools. This whole process becomes more streamlined and simplified by bringing in exactly what your workforce needs.

For example, apps like Slack and Confluence are great for improving communication. 

With Slack, you can easily organize your groups, subgroups, departments, or the entire company through various channels. Achieve two-way communication with ease while keeping necessary information organized, stored, and at an easily accessible location. 

Confluence is an app intended for bigger organizations in order to receive important information at lightning speed. It’s a versatile application that helps you organize a company’s policy, video tutorials, and transfer crucial messages.

Video Calling Applications

Video calling apps have become widely popular, especially post pandemic. Companies of every industry have used them for meetings, at one point or the other. Given their increased necessity in today’s world, no one wants bad connections, broken links, and unnecessary interruptions. 

To make sure everything goes in order, you can employ certain tools. This will ensure engaging meeting spaces that can be an effective way to boost team productivity.

Zoom and Google Hangouts are leading apps for video conferencing. They are free for use and their main purpose is to make video calls, send messages, and join a conversation within a group or just with one person. 

Mentimeter has also proven to be very effective when it comes to video calling. It is a software that employees can use to join video calls via their smartphones. They are able to send messages, vote, answer questions, or generally contribute to a presentation. 

If you are looking to host larger-scale meetings which involve presentations, there are a large number of webinar software options to choose from.

Also Read: 7 Video Conferencing Etiquettes To Follow 

Project Management

The aim of any project is to be a successful one, so it needs to be managed in the right way. Successful project management eliminates ambiguity among employees, respects deadlines, and each project is completed effectively and accurately.

Tools like Trello, Asana, and Hive can help you accomplish those projects with ease. For instance, during your workday, you may be thinking to yourself, ‘How am I going to rewrite my essay quickly and efficiently?’ You will have all the necessary tools for completing the project from start to finish with these apps. Trello has proven to be a great option for the ones who are just starting the project journeys, while Hive will give you the needed analytics reports for tracking the team’s productivity better. 

Management of Remote Teams

When we are talking about project management, it is easy to do it with the help of productivity tools. But, the projects are not the only things to be managed. After the pandemic hit, we now know better than that. Many companies have turned to remote work and the work of HR has completely changed. Remote teams had to be managed without adequate support systems and infrastructure. This means that the HR team needs to take care of the employees’ well-being; balance flexibility; reward teams and individuals for their accomplishments; maintain relationships with each employee, and aim to make a genuinely happier work from home environment. 

Also Read: Tips To Manage Stress Of Your Remote Team

Teamwork and collaboration

Efficiency increases when teams are provided with productivity tools that facilitate cross-functional collaboration.

This is very important, especially for companies that have departments that work in silos, have remote workers, and employees from multiple locations. This is where collaborative tools can benefit your organization through improved collaboration capabilities.

You have probably heard of Google Drive, as it’s one of the first choices for many companies. This storage-based service will allow you to upload all important documents for free on your secure cloud storage. 

Documents, slides, and Google sheets are available, which means you can upload files, pictures, videos, and audio. The documents can be shared and edited by the people who have access to them. This is especially useful for organizations that have a large or growing amount of files that need to be shared with other people, regardless of their location.

Similar to this service, that gives us the same options as Google Drive, is Microsoft’s OneDrive. The only difference is that this software allows you to view and edit files offline, which can be very beneficial at times.

Tools for time management

There are a lot of popular apps like customer data platforms, for tracking the behaviour of your customers. When it comes to employees, that platform is your HR worker. In addition, the time tracking will provide you with valuable insight into your employees’ work. You can know track each task and find out which areas are lacking productivity. 

Toggl is a great and simple-to-use time tracking tool. With just a click, you can track the time you spent on each task. You are available to see reports about each project and task you did over the past week. If you forget to start your time, a little bot will send you an alert each time.

RescueTime is another useful tracking tool. You can monitor the apps and websites employees are using during their work time. Besides that, you can even check at which hour the employees are the most or least productive, as well as their days and the weeks.

Virtual Recruiting

Pandemic has triggered a lot of changes in company policies. When it comes to hiring, the whole process of recruiting has become virtual. From planning, selecting, managing, to hiring, everything has become virtual.

Also Read: Remote Onboarding : Essentials To Know

The experience that a prospective employee had in their job interview has a great influence on their satisfaction level as well as on the whole company’s reputation. The ones who have had a positive experience will most likely accept the position, thereby becoming your company’s referral.

Summary

Running a business during a pandemic has surely brought about some changes in brand strategies, company policies, and staff support procedures. Since most things are now done in the digital environment, including our communication, there are necessary tools to keep workers engaged, while aiming for the highest performance.

Productivity tools mentioned above can facilitate one’s work and solve key problems. Although, you should avoid complicated and unnecessary tools that can just disrupt workflows and lower productivity levels.

Tools like the ones mentioned above are user-friendly and straightforward. However, you can always experiment, and try to find the ones that suit you and your employees the best. 

Introduce them to your workers, allow them time to integrate, and be open to feedback. Only by doing so, can you nurture collaboration and achieve the desired productivity.

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Want to know how Engagedly can help your employees perform better? Request a demo today. 

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Guest blog contribution by Nina Petrov

Nina Petrov is a content marketing specialist, passionate about graphic design, content marketing, and the new generation of green and social businesses. She starts the day scrolling her digest on new digital trends while sipping a cup of coffee with milk and sugar. Her white little bunny tends to reply to your emails when she is on vacation.

The corporate world has completely changed in comparison to what it was two years ago. Organizations adapted themselves to new methods of working and employees became completely remote due to the pandemic. In the current scenario, while many organizations are shifting to a hybrid model of work, remote work is here to stay.

This makes it essential for organizations to shift to performance management software from the traditional paper- based processes. While traditional performance management processes were not easy to follow, with the arrival of the pandemic it has become completely impossible.

Performance management has evolved at a quick pace over the last few decades. Earlier, annual performance reviews were the indisputable norm. It was a dreadful affair for both the managers and the employees. But now it is not just a yearly process, it has become flexible, continuous and more comprehensive. This helps employees to stay engaged and on the right track.

Also Read: 7 Proven Ways To Be A Better Leader In The Workplace

Traditional performance processes work fine when organizations are small or have a very simple review process. But once organizations get bigger and job roles get more complex, there’s a need for software to enhance the process, or rather, to ease the process.

Benefits of performance management software for your organization?

Helps Understand Goals Better

A recent study by Gallup indicates that about 50% of employees do not know what is expected of them at their workplace.

Imagine a situation wherein a remote employee is expected to put in his or her 100% effort but is not sure where this is headed or what’s the end result of this. Do you think she or he will be able to put in that much effort? Performance management software enables the company to have clear-cut goals and makes them visible to every employee. Every employee gets to see how their effort can help the company achieve higher-level goals.

When they see how they can make an impact at the individual level, it makes them want to strive harder. Managers can easily keep a track of their team performances remotely and can provide feedback accordingly.

Also Read: How To Set Effective Employee Goals?

Simplifies The Performance Management Process

One of performance management software’s biggest advantages is that it can be extremely easy to use, depending on the choice of software. All the things required for a review cycle are in one place, most of the processes are automated, and once the review information has been added, such as start dates, review templates, etc., there’s not much else an HR manager has to do, except oversee the entire process.

Even better, HR managers don’t have to frequently remind employees to complete their reviews. Most software has built-in reminders that will prod employees to complete the review process. The software takes the burden off HR’s shoulders and instead allows them to focus on the outcome of performance reviews, rather than the whole process of it.

Performance Management Software Stores Historical Data

With a performance management software in place, you can access data anytime and it helps to make quick and efficient decisions. They provide old and new data in one place, for you to compare and understand patterns and identify any gaps or bottlenecks. It becomes easy to track the performance level.

Also Read: Employee Feedback:The Do’s And Don’ts

Integrates All Aspects Of Employee Development

Performance management software does not focus solely on the review process alone. Rather, they offer other features as well, such as the ability to share feedback, goals and objectives, an LMS, etc. All these features are often integrated so that when the review process is going on, users can view an employee’s complete profile, such as the feedback they have received, the goals they could complete, to what extent they could complete their goals, or even what new skills they have learned.

Performance management software paints a broad picture of an employee’s performance. It helps everyone make informed decisions during the review process.

Gives Better Insights And Analytics

Performance management software can provide a very illuminating look at an employee’s performance. This is not just related to ratings and feedback they have received over the past years. Rather, many performance management software also offer performance analytics that track employee performance in graphical chart format, calculate leadership potential, etc. This way, you can also track how well an employee is performing remotely compared to when she or he was present in office.

These employee insights can help others make informed review decisions when reviewing performance. And they can also help managers make compensation decisions or even promotion decisions.

Also Read: The Ultimate Guide To Effective Employee Surveys

Better Visibility and Control Of The Process

Conducting the review process through performance management software offers HR managers much greater control over the entire process. They can control when the cycle starts and when it ends, how many employees should participate in the cycle, etc. HR managers can also restrict review visibility, call back reviews etc, thereby also maintaining a fair and just review process.

As a manager, you have a ton of other responsibilities, other than just tracking your employees’ performance. So if you wish to be more efficient and handle things with ease, a performance management software is your best option.

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Performance management processes and approaches differ from organization to organization. These processes are intended to be fair and unbiased evaluation of employee performance. 

Effective performance management tends to motivate employees and improve organizational productivity, but why do employees dread them? For a few reasons like inaccuracy, being biased and contributing to the decrease of employee morale, employees tend not to like them.

According to the TriNet Perform Survey that was conducted by Wakefield Research, 22% of millennial employees have called in sick because they were anxious about receiving their review.

Many companies today are reinventing their performance management processes in a way that they contribute to an increase in employee productivity and improve employee morale. Do you want to reinvent performance management too? Here are a few tips for you.

Build A Transparent Work Culture

It is important for employees to understand the workflow in their organizations. In most organizations, only the information enough to get the job done is shared with employees. This approach not only damages the work culture but also decreases employee engagement and morale. The first step to change this is to encourage open communication throughout the organization. The next is to allow employees to make their own decisions, this improves employee accountability throughout the organization.

Also Read: Create A Positive Work Culture For Your Employees

Plan For The Future 

One of the most damaging mistakes that managers tend to make during performance reviews is basing the whole review on the employee’s past performance. Change this approach and focus more on the future. Take into account the organizational goals and understand the role of the employees in contributing to these goals. Analyze their pace and style of work based on past work but do not make the review entirely about it. Instead, talk to them about the plans you have for their future at your organization.

Support Your Employees

It is important for managers to understand the technological and budget requirements of their employees and provide them with necessary resources that contribute to their productivity. Though taking initiative as an employee is an important aspect of performance, you cannot expect employees to do everything by themselves. So, discuss this aspect with your employees and set a budget for their role and provide them with necessary resources.

Make Check-ins A Priority

The approach for performance reviews can be different for different organizations, but one of the most common issues that employees face with reviews in all organizations is that they do not get enough feedback. Frequent employee feedback helps employees gain a clear understanding of what is expected of them and gives them a proper direction. Managers also can utilize frequent employee check-ins and keep track of their employee progress from time to time.

Also Read: How To Conduct Quick Check-Ins Efficiently 

Appreciate Your Employees

This is one of the most underrated aspects of employee appreciation. When employees are good at their job, they need to know it from their managers. This motivates them to get better and contribute to organizational success. Recognizing and rewarding employee performance goes a long way. This not only motivates the employee being recognized but also the other employees to do their best to be recognized by their managers.

Set Goals For The Quarter

Like said before, it is important to check frequently and validate employee performance. In the same way, it is also important to change goals every quarter so that employees do not get stuck in a rut working for the same goals for one whole year. Quarterly performance goals give both the employees and managers a scope to experiment and implement new approaches to work.

Encourage Employees To Participate In The Review

This is one of the mistakes that managers do not even realize making. Some managers tend to make the whole review about what they feel about the employee’s performance and never make it easier for employees to participate in the discussion and give inputs. Always ask employees after review if they feel that the review was fair enough. This gives you a scope for starting a two-way discussion with employees.

Also Read: The Impact Of Employee Engagement On Productivity

Listen To Your Employees

Always remember to be open to feedback from employees. Performance review meeting isn’t just for managers to evaluate employee performance but also for employees to discuss what they expect from their managers. Being open to feedback from direct reports is one of the best approaches to improve yourself as a manager.

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There are a lot of dangers associated with micromanaging. Among other things, it causes demotivation and creates a stressful work environment (for both managers and employees).

Micromanaging often leads to higher employee turnover, which results in learned knowledge getting lost to competitors. Moreover, micromanagers may experience burnout with health issues resulting from stress. 

Either way, micromanaging is problematic.

Also Read: The Top 8 Leadership Skills You Need In 2021

That’s why it’s important to learn how to manage without micromanaging. This article will provide you with 6 best practices to help you delegate and demonstrate trust and encouragement among your employees so you can improve morale and build creative, cohesive teams who aren’t afraid to take the initiative.

What are Individual Contributors? 

The term “individual contributor” is a new phrase that is used to describe the role of senior professionals who work without people management responsibilities.

Individual contributors are employees who aren’t on the management track in an organization. Unlike management-track employees, they manage their one-person team on tasks and projects. 

They have developed useful skills in the workplace and are competent at:

• Listening effectively;
• Developing rapport with others; and
• Making relationships work. 

In fact, individual contributors can be a valuable asset that define the success of an organization.

Also Read: Stay Interviews: A Tool To Retain Your Best Employees

One of the major complaints ICs have about their jobs has to do with how much autonomy they think they have in their current role. 

The perceived level of independence comes down to how closely their immediate manager or supervisor dictates the production details and nuances of the work employees must complete.

Having said that, managers, HR, and company leaders are sometimes uncomfortable when it comes to giving people so much responsibility without keeping a tight rein on them. 

They feel the need to look over the shoulders of individual contributors, and these overzealous tendencies can lead to a lot of problems down the line. 

Dangers of Micromanaging Individual Contributors

A recent study conducted by AccounTemps shows that over 59% of participants admitted that they have at one time or another worked under a micromanager. 

68% of those respondents believed that this management approach had a negative impact on overall team morale, and a high number of the participants reported that it seriously inhibited their work productivity, including that of the company at large.

Micromanagement can result in the loss of an organization’s important talent. It erodes trust, and over time, it can turn a workplace environment toxic. 

By consistently looking over the shoulders of your employees, particularly ICs, you make it a lot less likely that they’ll be able to become effective or excel on their own. 

Here’s a quick summary of the negative impact of micromanaging ICs:

• Destroys Trust: Constant micromanagement destroys trust and undermines the initiative and autonomy of employees over time
• Creates Bottlenecks: Micromanaging creates bottlenecks in decision-making and response time when employees won’t do anything without a superior’s explicit approval.
• Fosters Dependency: Micromanagement also leads to dependent employees who will start to depend on you instead of having the confidence to complete tasks on their own.

Now that you know why micromanagement of ICs is bad, let’s take a look at some of the best practices to help individual contributors without micromanaging.

Best Practices for Helping ICs Without Micromanaging

Listed below are 6 tips and strategies to help you stay involved and keep your employees accountable while avoiding micromanagement.

1. Allow Them to Create Their Own Goals and OKRs

There are many ways you can define measurable goals and track the outcomes of individual contributors. 

You can use objectives and key results (OKRs) as a goal-setting framework. This will allow you to manage expectations instead of tasks.

For the most part, managers spend a lot of time trying to communicate to their teams what needs to be done. However, there are times when what needs to be done is different from what is expected. 

For leaders to be effective, they need to do their best to ensure that individual contributors know exactly what is expected so that there is no longer a need to micromanage. 

When everyone is in sync with the expectations, it becomes about outcomes, instead of activity, and it all starts with letting them create their own goals and OKRs. 

2. Offer Assistance with an Open-Door Policy

It’s possible to offer assistance to individual contributors without looking over their shoulders. You can do this by having an open-door policy. It involves maintaining casual, open lines of communication to help you build rapport with everyone in your internal team. 

If you want to foster an environment of employee enjoyment and high-quality work, you shouldn’t only be communicating with your team about how they need to be doing their work in a different or better way. You should also build an atmosphere of openness and transparent communication by chatting to them about their work, and also investing in their personal well-being. 

For instance, you might take your team out to lunch or go to a local bar for happy hour, when not on the clock. This will help you build the social side of your relationship. 

Also Read: Create A Positive Work Culture For Your Employees

When your individual contributors know that they can rely on you to listen, they not only feel highly valued, but they are more likely to bring any problems that arise (professional or personal) to your attention to get your advice or assistance. 

Make sure you are there to address any challenges they might be facing. Be prompt to respond to all the questions your employee handbook doesn’t cover. 

Ultimately, this will help them to be more productive. It is something that probably wouldn’t happen if you were constantly picking apart their work (as micromanagers tend to do). 

At times, there will be common issues that need the attention of most, but not all employees. Instead of attempting to gather everyone up together for a conference, you can create unique webinars that employees can watch if they need to. 

Using webinar software to create these resources can also save time and money in the long-run because you won’t have to make all your employees stop what they’re doing to attend a conference or company-wide meeting.

3. Let Them Develop Their Own Systems and Strategies 

Once you’ve made sure that everyone understands their role in your organization, it becomes easier to allow them to develop their own strategies, tactics, and processes to achieve their objectives. 

All you have to do is make sure there are clear, well-defined goals where nothing falls through the cracks. 

Individual contributors will know their responsibilities, and developing their own systems and strategies makes them more accountable. 

The best part is that you’ll have to do less work to manage them since you’ll now be a facilitator as opposed to a taskmaster. 

Just remember to build in some flexibility into each role. 

Although striking a balance can be difficult, it’s important to take the time to work on this so your independent contributors can have room to be creative. By offering such opportunities, you make it more likely that your ICs will be innovative and still get things done.

Also Read: Why Managers Need To Focus On Employee Happiness

4. Use Gamification and (Non-Monetary) Rewards

As humans, we all love recognition. One of the best ways you can help individual contributors stay on track without crossing the line into micromanagement is by using gamification and non-monetary rewards to recognize their contributions and help them meet their goals and OKRs. 

The great part about non-monetary rewards is that they are perceived to be more authentic and decrease variable costs incurred by the business.

You can begin to build a culture of recognition as a way to support ICs by reevaluating how you reward employees. 

For instance, for those who are happy to remain ICs, you can replace promotions to management with new opportunities, such as:

• Opportunities for gaining recognition
• Opportunities for taking on new responsibility
• Opportunities for sharing their expertise

… and so on.

So, instead of giving ICs managerial responsibility for other team members, you might give them ownership responsibility for key projects. 

As they succeed (and their project succeeds), it gives them visibility across the entire organization, and they have plenty of small wins along the way that are worth celebrating.

Additionally, you can encourage employees to take part in webinars or use online course platforms that can help them learn new tasks or overcome common problems. Not only does this save costs by getting employees engaged without monetary rewards, it can incentivize employees to stay up-to-date with changes in the workplace. 

5. Provide Avenues for Social Engagement and Praise

Yet another way to help individual contributors without micromanaging is to provide them with avenues for praise and social engagement. 

This means building your skills for managing your culture rather than managing people. 

The importance of social engagement in the workplace cannot be overstated. Social media is key to mobilizing and engaging employees at work. It provides great avenues for praise, particularly in larger organizations. 

You must be able to create opportunities where you and the rest of your team can engage socially while still being able to communicate with clarity.

Also Read: The Impact Of Continuous Feedback On Employee Performance

6. Use Surveys to Find out What ICs Need

Last, but not least, use surveys to understand what your individual contributors need and how to help them. 

A lot of micromanagers only do so because of the trust issues they harbor. In their eyes, no one else can do the job as effectively as they would do it. 

But, by asking questions to gain a better understanding (instead of constantly criticizing), you’ll be able to find out exactly what ICs need in order to be more productive. 

Furthermore, using employee surveys will allow you to offer constructive and actionable feedback on a consistent basis, giving you the opportunity to provide your employees with specific ideas pertaining to how they can perform their jobs better. 

In other words, using surveys will allow you to discover what you can do to provide encouragement and opportunities for improvement. It will help you get outstanding results from your ICs – all without having to micromanage any of them.

Conclusion

There is a very thin line between being an involved manager and becoming a micromanager who drives all the individual contributors mad.

Use the tips outlined above to help you give your ICs the support they need without micromanaging them.

Which of the tips outlined above appeals to you the most? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Author:

Ron Stefanski is an online entrepreneur and marketing professor who has a passion for helping people create and market their own online business. You can learn more from him by visiting OneHourProfessor.com

You can also connect with him on YouTube or Linkedin.

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The Impact of Continuous Feedback: Do you wait till the annual reviews to share your feedback with your employees? You might want to reconsider. We are here to talk to you about the value of continuous feedback. But before we take a deep dive into how it can help improve employee performance, let us look at a small example first.

Charles, a recent graduate from college, joined the analytics team of ABC corporation remotely on May 2020. His manager, Robert, trained him over the first few weeks and assigned him to a project. After the completion of the project, Robert came across some errors, but did not highlight it as he wanted to take it up with Charles during the yearly performance reviews. Back to present in March 2021, when Robert highlighted the issues to Charles, he was surprised, and at the same time defiant. Was this avoidable? We would say absolutely yes. A timely feedback would have helped Charles to understand his mistakes in time and take corrective actions immediately. 

Also Read: 6 Real-life Examples Of Giving Effective Employee Feedback

To avoid any such similar incidents, here are some ways in which feedback can help your employees to improve performance.

Feedback Guides Employees

The worst thing about traditional annual performance reviews is that they wait till the last minute to let employees know that they have veered off course, have wasted their efforts, or are not doing well. Time is precious in the context of performance and, of course, money as well.

Real-time feedback can help employees course-correct as and when necessary, can help them fix mistakes that were holding them back and, sometimes, it can even help them revamp their goals or increase their targets.

Instantaneous And Simple

One of feedback’s biggest plus points is that it is instantaneous and does not require much fanfare. As opposed to an annual performance review, which conjures up a much more formal and stiff image. Besides, it’s not easy to share as much feedback during an annual review. Both the manager and employee are conscious of the time spent in the meeting, with the manager being aware that she does not have the luxury of addressing the employee’s performance completely, even if she really wants to.

Feedback, on the other hand,can be as easy as a quick five-minute chat in the cafeteria, or a congratulatory email about a job well done.

Also Read: Employee Wellbeing And Absenteeism At Work

Improves The Performance Review Process

When feedback is shared or received throughout the year, it helps managers visualize an accurate image of an employee’s performance. Managers can make a note of significant achievements or issues that are negatively affecting an employee’s performance. They can even record their own reaction to the employee’s performance. And over a period, it can paint an impressive picture of performance. 

Continuous Feedback Helps In Career Growth

Source: rawpixel.com

A culture of continuous feedback helps employees to receive inputs from their managers leaders throughout the year instead of waiting till the last minute for performance reviews. It helps employees to plan their career growth well. The process of continuous feedback helps leaders to understand their employees better and helps them plan their career trajectories.

Also Read: Embracing Hybrid Work Culture In 2021

Feedback Enhances Engagement

Feedback helps employees stay motivated and engaged continuously. It helps leaders to monitor the performance of their employees continuously and improve it. Also, continuous feedback helps in developing a two-way communication channel between employees and their managers. It helps employees feel that the organization wants to understand their opinions and issues and solve them. 

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The transition throughout the pandemic has not been easy for anyone. Both the employees and the organizations are still struggling to adjust to the new normal. While for some it was easy, but for some it was a major cause of disengagement and distractions. So the question is, are you checking on your employees often and what is the best way to do so.

Employee surveys can be used as an effective way to manage your employees and gauge their engagement.They are designed in such a way that they drive employees to engage more and have a positive impact on them. Once you know how your employees feel, it will be easier to figure out how to better engage them and obtain employee engagement ideas.

Here are eight steps to embrace when you conduct employee surveys.

1. Identify The Objective Of The Survey

Determining the objective of a survey is the most important aspect of conducting a survey. Clarify the purpose of the survey by asking yourself why is the survey important to your organization and what you aim to achieve through the survey. A clear objective gives your survey a direction and motivates your employees to take it more enthusiastically.

For instance, you can carry out a survey to gain insights into your employees’ perception of their work or to increase employee engagement. The point is that you need to have an absolutely clear objective before you give your employees a survey. A survey without an objective is pointless and has high chances of failure as you will get responses which you will not be able to do much with.

2. Communicate To Your Team

Once you’ve figured out the objective of the survey, the next thing you need to do make sure that your employees realize this survey is important. And that their participation is necessary. A lot of surveys tend to fail because the people taking them do not take them seriously. In order for your survey to work, you need accurate and honest feedback. You can also use a third-party provider to administer the survey, to assure your employees of anonymity and fairness. Using a third-party provider increases the response rate and provides you with an unbiased end report.

Also Read: Traits Of High Performing Teams[Infographic]

3. Determine The Survey Method

It is important that you select the appropriate survey method. As there are different types of surveys, there are also different methodologies to conduct the surveys. The survey methodology depends on a few factors like the participants of the survey, ease of distributing the questionnaire, ease of receiving the responses, etc. Online questionnaires are widely used now tools such as engagedly you can design and implement a survey rapidly. You can choose one of the two methodologies to conduct an employee survey.

4. Ask The Right Questions

Depending on the survey objective and the target audience, make a list of important topics to be included in the questionnaire. Make sure that any question doesn’t have a negative impact on the relationship of your work staff. Mostly, try to formulate positive questions and avoid typical social norm questions which encourage criticism of their coworkers. You may want to have some questions that can bring out employee engagement ideas you may not have thought about. You might need to make multiple questionnaires and validate them before you can release the final version.

Also Read: Goal Setting Software Guide For CIOs

5. Encourage Participation 

Now that the questionnaire is ready, all you have to do is get your employees to take the survey. To get responses across the board, you might have to promote the survey aggressively. Encourage your employees to participate in the survey. Help them understand how they can benefit from it. Once they are clear about the outcome and benefits of the survey, they will be more eager to be a part of it.

6. Make The Outcome Of The Survey Public

After the survey is conducted, make sure that you communicate the results of the survey to your employees. Don’t suppress them results. In fact, your employees deserve to know what the survey says and what the general consensus is. You can probably have a short presentation about the results of the survey and then discuss the results with your employees.

Also Read: 7 Proven Ways To Be A Better Leader In The Workplace

7. Create An Action Plan

After presenting the results, make sure that you act on the results as you discussed with your employees during the presentation. Create a plan of action and a set of goals to be achieved. Also, involve your employees in the plan and assign them responsibilities so that they solve the issues themselves and feel empowered.

8. Conduct Surveys Often

Carry out employee surveys at regular intervals of time. Any survey is of no use if it is conducted once in a year or once in two years. You will only know how your employees feel if you make it a habit of asking them.

Have you carried out surveys in your organization? Share your experiences with us in the comments section below!

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Bias exists in everyday life. It’s a very common human failing, and no one is immune to it.

Bias essentially tend to be preconceived notions which often reflect inaccurate information. In some cases, bias serves to further enforce a stereotype and in others, it creates false perceptions.

Though bias exists in everyday life at the workplace, it hurts employees the most when it crops up in performance reviews. Rater bias can damage to an employee’s career. At best, it allows some of them to coast through without anybody picking up on their lack of performance. At the worst, it prevents others (such as minorities) from moving up the ladder; it prevents hardworking employees from getting their due and it certainly ruins an employee’s chance of growing within an organization.

Also Read: Stay Interviews:A Tool To Retain Your Best Employees

The task of dismantling rater bias is up to us, the individual. It is important, especially during performance reviews, to approach the review with an impartial state of mind.

Performance, compensation, etc are all factors that should be devoid of bias and instead should focus solely on an employee’s performance, skills and abilities.

Here are 4 ways to prevent rater bias from damaging performance reviews.

Establish A Benchmark

Another way to objectively review performance is to establish criteria for what is good or bad performance. This, of course, will vary from department to department and can vary from manager to manager as well. However, it is important to see that these criteria for performance don’t unfairly penalize some and reward others.

Also Read: A New Manager’s Guide To Employee Performance Reviews

Even when applying criteria for reviewing performance, managers should take note of how objective they are being. Are they extending the same treatment to everyone? Or they giving no one special treatment? However, they choose to evaluate performance; it is necessary that everyone get treated the same way (save for extenuating circumstances). Same treatment across the board treatment ensures a lesser chance of bias unless, of course, the manager is one of those who chronically over rates people or underrates them. In which case, they need to rethink their approach to performance evaluation completely.

Also Read: How To Create A Feedback Culture In Your Workplace?

Document Everything

Maintain documentation throughout the year, be it about your own performance, or be it with regard to someone else’s.

This way, when performance review season rolls around, you are prepared to approach the review with information based on facts, as opposed to your own judgment. Everybody deserves fair and impartial reviews. And while it is impossible to be 100% fair and impartial (it’s a statistical impossibility) we should strive to do as much as we can.

Inequality in the workplace hurts everyone, but it might hurt some subsets of employees more than the others.

Train your Leaders And Managers

Sometimes rater bias isn’t evident to us until we are faced with evidence of it. Undergoing bias training can help us confront some deeply rooted instances of bias and then dismantle those preconceptions. It can also help us evaluate our own performance better since evidence has shown that men tend to overestimate their performance, while women tend to underestimate their performance.

This might be especially helpful for organizations who are discovering that their work culture needs a bit of a rethink or an overhaul.

Also Read: Here’s Why Employe Rewards And Recognition Fails

Reshape and Realign Your Processes With Time

Sometimes, the problem is not in the person, rather it is in the process. In such cases, it is worth revisiting your performance review process and seeing what needs to change to get rid of bias. For example, subjective questions in a performance review process only increase the occurrence of rater bias, because there is no measure of accountability. Or there are stack rankings, a damaging practice that pits employees against each other and further increases bias.

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The use of technologies by companies has become more common and important than ever. One of the most important softwares used by many modern companies focuses on setting goals. The Chief Information Officers must make sure that the technologies used by their company are implemented and managed across the entire organization. There are many factors to consider when choosing the right goal setting software and how it will be implemented. 

Utilize OKRs

OKRs are “Objectives and Key Results”. OKRs help managers utilize goal setting software to align and connect individual goals with larger company goals. Good OKRs align employee goals with their team goals, and each team goals with organizational goals. Setting OKRs in the goal setting software will help employees see how they contribute to larger goals and impact other employees / departments. This will improve employee engagement. Using OKRs in the goal setting software will also bring transparency for expectations and deadlines of different teams. 

Also Read: How To Maximize The Potential of OKRs  

Engagedly offers a customized consulting service program for OKR launch and coaching. Working with a coach is a proven best practice to help drive business outcomes and implement your OKR strategy. There are three phases:

• Phase 1: OKR Training and Launch
  Educate the leadership on how to use OKRs and align them with business strategy.
• Phase 2: Coaching
  Redefine leadership OKRs after the initial training workshops and 1:1 coaching.
• Phase 3: Ongoing Feedback
  Continuously set effective and challenging OKRs and refine them continuously with ongoing feedback from OKR coach.

Visualize The End Users Needs

When considering what you want in your goal setting software, consider the needs of your employees and other end users of the software. CIOs should study the processes used by your employees in the goal setting software and see if repetitive tasks can be automated. Goal setting software is great for fostering cross-functional leadership. Leaders of each business unit need to work together to recognize dependencies of different teams and how that will affect tracking in the goal setting software.

Also Read: 360 Degree Feedback: A Guide to Get It Right

Forbes shares that good CIOs know how to pull your future goals into the present moment. First talk to each department head and determine the future outcome they want. Work all the way backwards until you define what you can do today to progress towards that future. Make a schedule of important tasks and consult the employee on how much time they estimate will be needed for each. It is a good idea to make stretch goals that will take the employee out of their comfort zone. If you are achieving every goal in your goal setting software, you are not setting goals high enough. Communicate with your employees that it is normal to not achieve every goal. By working towards goals that seem unachievable, we can use goal setting softwares to measure the real capacity of the organization. 

Check Legacy Technology

Legacy technology is when a company continues to use an old or outdated system. Because a CIO might have put a lot of money or effort into a software in the past, they might overlook the higher cost of keeping the software. This is true with goal setting softwares. If you are struggling to set goals and make changes in your current software, you should consider changing to a newer option. Don’t blindly stick to a goal setting software that worked in the past but no longer is best fit.

One of the most common and impactful problems of outdated goal setting softwares is limited integration. If teams rely heavily on another application or platform, then a different and newer software may integrate better. Mike Loukides, VP of emerging tech content at O’Reilly Media says CIOs must ask “What do I want to do now that I can’t do, or only with great difficulty?” when examining a goal setting software. If your legacy technology is not flexible enough to satisfy the needs of you and your employees, it is time to upgrade. 

Also Read: 5 Performance Management Biases to Avoid

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In today’s remote workplace, the need for a performance management software has become unquestionable. It has made managing remote teams easy and effortless. Even small to midsize businesses who were using traditional processes before COVID have shifted or are considering the shift to using a performance management software.

But how to select the best one? 

This is a good question to ask yourself before you embark on the hunt for performance management software.

Performance management is not just about reviews. In fact, performance reviews make up a very small portion of the entire process. Good performance management includes continuous feedback, consistent goals and objectives, gamification, frequent communication and learning and development. The software you are looking for should have these modules and additionally, should support integration with each other. 

Also Read: Performance Management Trends In 2021

Here are our tips for choosing the right one for your organization!

SaaS based or Installed Application

Choosing a cloud-based application or software that must be installed manually does make a difference when it comes to performance management software. Cloud-based software applications do not need any set-up. All they need is a device and a connection to the internet for users to access them. On the other hand, software applications which need to be installed require a set-up process that can be short or lengthy depending on the size of the application. We recommend using a cloud-based software application. 

User Friendliness

We cannot stress how important it is that you pick a performance management software that is easy to use. The main problem with traditional performance management processes is that they can get tedious and cumbersome. When you begin using a software and find it even more tedious than your previous process, you’ve already lost the battle. Do not just request demos and download brochures and decide. Do your homework and request a free trial. And if you have the option of doing so, take the application for a test run with a pilot group.

If your software of choice causes more confusion, you know you need to look for something different.

Alos Read: 5 Things To Looks For In An OKR Software

Does it meet expectations?

When choosing performance management software, it is absolutely vital to have a software that aligns with your own expectations about performance management. It helps if you have a list of what you would like to change in your performance management process or what you want to introduce to it.

If your list of requirements includes, a flexible and customizable performance module, integration with other secondary modules, a goals module, then you should look for software that fits those needs to a T. Because it is absolutely possible for software applications to be great in every which way and yet be completely unsuitable for your own organization and performance management culture.

Supports Flexibility and Customization

For a software to be useful, you need to be able to customize it to serve the needs of the end users. Performance management software that lends themselves to flexibility and customization is what you should look for. Because software makes it easier for organizations to enact change when it comes to the review process. If they can be tweaked to suit your needs, that’s how you know the software is going to be a good fit.

Easy Integration With Existing System

Before choosing a performance management software, make sure it integrates seamlessly and is compatible with any existing system in place. It should sync easily, provide data security, and is compatible with other employee management software. Otherwise, it will require too much IT support and effort before being put to use.

Also Read: How To Support Mental Health Of Your Remote Team

Performance Management Software Should Be Cost Effective

The software is only effective when besides being the right match for your organization; you also receive excellent customer support from the vendor. Good software providers are willing to meet organizations halfway and ease the transition process. Though it might be explicitly stated, take the liberty to check with service providers if they are willing to help you with on-boarding, support, technical issues etc and to what extent do they provide customer support?

Optimized Pricing

We cannot stress this enough but do not blow your budget on software you cannot afford or vice versa. The beauty of the performance management software market is that there is something suitable for everyone in it. Enterprise class software may not be the best fit for you, if you are a small-sized business. Similarly, a simple one may not suit the needs of an organization that has some very specific needs and requirements.

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Employee goals are more than just placeholders with numbers for the employee.

Goals are something that we can work towards, something that motivates us. And tangentially, it also benefits the organization.

In essence, workplace goals grant employees job satisfaction, provide them with a purpose and for an organization, they also grant results and success.

Therefore, it stands to reason that workplace goals are integral to an organization. As a manager, here’s a checklist for you to follow to set goals for your employees.

Employees Goals Should Focus On Personal Improvement

One of the main motives behind creating goals for your employees as a manager should be personal improvement. Employee goals which help them improve and gain new skills become a good goal by default. Personal improvement is a part and parcel of an employee’s development. Employees cannot remain static.

Also Read: 7 Video Conferencing Etiquettes To Follow

Collaborative And Attainable

One of the keys to setting good employee goals is that they should be slightly unreachable. However, managers should not go to the extreme and set completely unreachable goals. If your goals are causing your employees to pull countless all-nighters or are stressing them out, they are completely missing the point. You don’t want your goals to burn out employees. You should aim for motivation.

Employee goals should ensure that employees do not work as individual contributors but rather work with others to ensure the completion of goals. Goals that can be easily met by employees are not challenging them enough or even engaging them. On the other hand, a goal that forces an employee to step out of their comfort zone is a goal that is challenging. And even better if the goal in question forces employees to engage with other employees.

Measurable And Impactful

If we only counted goals in terms of numerical progress, then by that logic, it would be very easy to declare a goal as a failure or success. When it comes to setting employee goals, one thing you should keep in mind is measurability. It’s good if you can measure a goal in terms of numbers and even better if you can measure the impact of the goal. The impact of a goal is always a better indicator of success than the numerical status.

For example, an employee is given a goal where he needs to convince 50 other employees in the office to use a new software. In terms of numbers, if 50 employees have downloaded that software and used it even once, then the goal is a successful one. However, if those 50 employees stopped using the software after a period of time, then has the employee really succeeded at the goal?

Do The Goals Contribute To The Organization Goals?

All goals cannot be tied to team goals and the organization, that is true. However, when setting a goal for an employee, it is important to remember that as much as possible, a goal should contribute towards the overall team and organization goals. If employee goals are not directly contributing to the team’s or the organization’s success, it should at least account for their personal development. If the goal is not even helping the employee improve professionally, then the goal shouldn’t exist in the first place.

Also Read: What To Look For In A 360 Feedback Software?

Employee Goals Should Be Flexible

Ideally, you should be able to modify employee goals in the long run. Because, in the process of achieving a goal, the employee and manager might suddenly find that the objective of the goal needs to change. Or that they might need to add other objectives to the goal.

Employee’s Should Be Included In Setting Their Goals

Harvard Business Review, in their report found that 14% of people who set their goals are 10 times more successful than their counterparts.

Last but not the least, this is one of the most important factors to consider when creating a goal. Does your goal match with what the employee has in mind? If it does, great, you can go ahead and set that goal. If it does not, you’ve got to find a way to meet in the middle with the employee. A goal that is set for an employee without an employee’s input is one that is doomed. If employees are not invested in a goal or even motivated by it, then they will not be able to pursue it.

Consider Its Overall Impact

This is one other thing you need to take into consideration. How does the goal you set for your employee affect you? Does it tie into any personal goals you have? And if it does, how do you measure the goal? How much is the employee contributing towards the goal? These are a few of the questions you should ask when creating goals for employees.

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According to a study by Adobe in 2017, 47% of millennials started looking for a new job after their performance reviews!

Performance reviews might seem like just another task for managers but they are a huge deal for the employees. Whether you love them or hate them, performance reviews are here to stay!

Different organizations follow different practices for their performance reviews. What really matters is the frequency of performance reviews at your organization. If you’re reviewing the performance of your employees annually, then filling out review forms and evaluating performance could seem like a lot of work and there is more scope for making mistakes and ruining performance reviews for your employees.

Here is a list of common mistakes that you could avoid during performance reviews.

Lack Of Planning

It is never acceptable to conduct a performance review meeting with your employees without sending them a prior notification about it. Performance reviews require both the managers and employees to be prepared. Remember that the agenda of the entire process is not just for you to assess their performance but also to analyze on how to improve it.

Also Read: What To Look For In A 360 Feedback Software?

Holding Off The Process

Annual performance reviews are abandoned by many organizations and are ignored by a few others. While annual performance reviews aren’t exactly seen as an accurate way to evaluate performance, you cannot delay or cancel these reviews without replacing it with a different structure for employee feedback. If you feel that annual performance reviews are too much, then replace them with frequent mini-reviews. Cancelling performance reviews, while your employees’ promotions, salaries and OKRs depend on them isn’t very ideal.

Missing Out On Acknowledgements

Lot of managers underestimate the amount of damage this practice can cause to their employees. The purpose of employee performance reviews isn’t just to tell employees how they failed, but also to acknowledge and recognize their accomplishments. As a manager, employees expect you to recognize and reward them for their good work. Utilize this opportunity to identify their areas of strengths and make use of these strengths to improve your organizational productivity.

Also Read: How To Support Mental Health Of Your Remote Team

Judgement Clouded By Recency Bias

This is one of the most common issues of annual performance reviews. Managers tend to review with a recency bias. It is important to be accurate with the evaluation, particularly when performance reviews affect employee compensation. As a manager, it is important for you to do your homework about your employees’ past work and have a clear idea before reviewing their performance, eliminating the scope for any recency bias.

Using Personal Judgement Instead of Data

Never base your employee performance evaluation on your own personal judgement. Always check for data and numbers from the past. Set goals and objectives for your employees and see how they accomplished them. Setting OKRs for employees helps you assess the performance of your employees based on concrete data.

Also Read: Do These 8 Things To Improve Employee Engagement 

Only Focussing On Performance Appraisals

Most managers forget that performance reviews aren’t just about the appraisals and compensation but also about managing employee performance and discussing about their future plans. So, don’t just focus on the appraisals, but also discuss and decide on how you plan to help your employees improve their performance in the future.

Comparing With Others

One of the most common mistakes that managers do during performance reviews is that they compare different employees to the same job levels and decide their compensation or promotion based on the analysis. Unfortunately, this practice demoralizes employees. And as a result, they will avoid discussing their future performance or career plans with their managers. This can also breed unwanted competition at the workplace.

Also Read: 5 Things To Look For In An OKR Software

Only The Manager Speaks

Performance review is supposed to be a healthy discussion between the managers and employees. Managers usually tend to just ask employees to fill in the performance evaluation forms, get it signed and not bother about giving or receiving feedback. This practice is demoralizing and yields no positive result. If you want your employees to improve themselves and contribute to organizational productivity, encourage your employees to speak up and give feedback.

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Many organizations around the world today are in the process of completing their year-round performance reviews. Whether you are doing it yearly or half-yearly, so far it has been an indispensable process. But globally many companies have now ditched the annual / half-yearly reviews in favour of feedback-based continuous performance management. 

Also Read: Why These 8 Top Companies Redefined Their Performance Management Systems

Often, these reviews are not fruitful, and it is just a waste of some productive hours for the managers and their employees. Both the manager and employees go in unprepared, and the results are not as expected. A little preparation and these meetings could turn into productive discussion sessions related to strategic planning, goal setting, etc.  

The Importance Of Performance Reviews

We all know the significance performance reviews hold in today’s day and age. Efficient processes not only help understand employee performance but can also measure productivity. Managers share constructive feedback, review goals, identify development opportunities, and help employees to identify their strengths and weaknesses. It also serves as the tool for discussion of salary appraisals, incentives, and promotions. Here are some of the benefits.

Helps Align Goals And Objectives

Performance reviews offer a scope to discuss and align employee goals with the team and the organization’s goals. It gives them a sense of direction and helps them understand how they fit into the bigger picture.

Also Read: 7 Reasons To Set Employee Goals 

Promotes Communication

Performance reviews are a great opportunity to promote a culture of feedback and communication in the workplace. Feedback from managers helps employees know their strengths, weaknesses, blind spots, and gaps. It helps them understand where they are going wrong and what they are doing right. It also helps in employee engagement and enhances employee experience.

Clarity in Job Roles

Often employees are not clear about their job roles and responsibilities and how their work affects employees of the same team or others. Additionally, these meetings act as a great platform for them to understand their job roles better and remove any ambiguity.

Praise, Recognition & Rewards

Employees love being praised, recognized, and rewarded for their work as incentives, bonuses, promotions, or some time-off. Employees feel valued, important, and satisfied when the organization and managers show gratitude. Conversely, if you fail to reward or recognize them, they feel demotivated, disengaged, and ultimately leave your organization for other opportunities.

Also Read: Employee Recognition And Rewards During COVID-19

Personal & Career Development

Performance reviews are a great way to plan for the training, mentoring, and development programs. Identify where your employees see themselves in the next few years and what challenges they would like to tackle. These meetings act as a guide for employees to tread the correct path for their skill development. 

Want to know more about skill development?

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What Is Good Performance?

Although there is no specific yardstick to measure good performance, but we at Engagedly have identified six guidelines to measure someone as a good performer:

• Meets targets on time
• Takes complete ownership of responsibilities
• Completes job duties
• Have the willingness to learn and develop along the way
• Follow the ‘Code of Conduct’ and company policies
• Shows a positive attitude and collaborates with the team

Tips For Managers

As a manager, it is your responsibility to give your employees accurate reviews, which would help them perform better and achieve results. Here are some tips which will help first-time managers or even experienced ones to navigate smoothly in the performance reviews.

Prepare Well On Time

Although a performance review is not more than a half-hour or an hour activity but as a manager you can’t go in unprepared. Schedule the meeting well in advance so that it gives both of you time to prepare for it. Send a meeting invite and block a calendar slot of your direct report. Decide on the key points that you want to focus on and discuss and document them. Review their past performance and achievements. Collect feedback from other stakeholders on their performance and document them to share them with your employee.

Also Read: Top 5 Employee Goals And Objectives For 2021 

Communicate Clearly With Your Employees

Communicate clearly and concisely with your employees during a performance review. Make sure they understand what you want to convey. Avoid responding with one-word answers, such as Good Work, Unsatisfactory Work, Poor Work, or even avoid using phrases such as You did an outstanding job, or You did a terrible job. One word or a phrase won’t help employees to understand their performance any better. It would destroy one of the main motives of the performance reviews. Employees would leave the reviews being unsatisfied and with incomplete information. But as a manager, you don’t need to go overboard with your words but let them know enough, so they are at least in the right direction.

Set Goals And Objectives

A performance review is not only to assess what has happened in the past but also the platform to set goals for the future. Help your employees to set goals and objectives for the next quarter, half-year, or year. The goals should be tough to challenge your employees, but attainable so that we do not demotivate them. Track and review them from time to time to track the progress. It would ensure your employees are on track.

However, writing good employee goals is not that easy. Here’s our guide to help create attainable and smart goals for your employees.

Keep Your Employees Involved

Make sure it is not a one-way conversation, jazz up the conversation with question-answer sessions. Give your employees the opportunity to take part and speak. Half of the performance reviews do not create any impact because they are not interactive enough. Give them feedback, ask them questions and suggestions which will allow them to take part actively in the discussion. 

Design Performance Improvement Plans

Performance reviews are a great opportunity to discuss the performance improvement plans of your employees. It does not indicate that your employee performance was not up to the mark. It is a chance to improve future performance based on the previous one. In the performance review, set OKRs and design a performance improvement plan based on previous performance.

Review Frequently

Sharing timely reviews can greatly impact your employee’s performance. It motivates them and allows them to improve continuously. Moreover, it helps them stay aligned with their goals and objectives. Timely feedback, whether positive or constructive, helps employees perform better and reinforce what they are doing right. It also allows you to appreciate and acknowledge your employees regularly, which makes them feel valued and important.

Also Read: How Continuous Performance Management Help Improve Performance

Document Everything

Human memory has a limited capacity, and it can only store a certain amount of information. If you do not document the ongoing performance review, it might cloud your next one with biases. It will serve as a benchmark for the next performance discussion. Not only this, it will provide evidence-based support for your next discussion and help you decide regarding rewards, promotions, or incentives. A performance review software such as Engagedly can help you store and document historical performance data of your employees.

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With many organizations still functioning remotely, it is crucial for employees to have clear and well-defined goals to keep them on track and focused. Having clear goals helps them improve their productivity, enhance their decision-making skills, and keep them motivated and engaged.

It is almost the end of the first quarter of 2021, and it is time to set goals for your second quarter. So it is necessary to set them right, and avoid the mistakes made previously. Here are seven common goal setting mistakes to avoid when setting goals for yourself and the team.

Failing to Set SMART Goals

We understand setting SMART goals might sound a little bit cliche, but you simply can’t ignore it. George T Doran introduced SMART goals in 1981, and it has been used by organizations worldwide since then. When employees don’t set SMART goals, they lack direction and fail to understand their goals clearly. SMART goals have five main key focus areas:

– Specific: Goals should have a specific purpose. It becomes easier for employees to understand. If goals aren’t specific, they will fail sooner or later

– Measurable: Goals must be measurable so that employees can track the progress of their goals. It will help them track achievements and define success

– Achievable: Goals cannot be too easy, nor can they be too difficult. Easy goals will not challenge the employee, whereas a difficult one will demotivate them

– Relevant: Goals should be relevant and linked to the overall organization and department goals

– Time-Bound: There needs to be a specific time within which the goal needs to be completed. When goals are time-bound, it drives performance, and employees stay motivated and engaged

Also Read: 5 Reasons Why You Need A Performance Management Software

Excluding The Employees

As per recent research by Gallup, only about half of employees understand their job expectations.

Often managers commit the mistake of excluding the employees from the goal setting process. This results in employees lacking a clear understanding and expectation of their goals. Instead, it should be a collaborative effort between the manager and the employees. Employees, when they are part of their goal setting process, they feel more accountable for it. Additionally, the employees don’t feel the goals as forcefully imposed, which results in job satisfaction and increased productivity.

Non-Aligned Goals

According to a report by McKinsey&Company, 91 % of businesses noticed an improvement in profits when organization goals and key strategies were linked to team performance goals.

Non-aligned goals lack directions. Furthermore, employees fail to understand how they contribute to the bigger picture. For employee goals to be effective, they should be aligned with the team, department, and organizational goals. Employees who understand what role they play in an organizations’ success tend to be more productive and are more engaged at work. When they know how they contribute to the overall picture, they are more focused and motivated, which results in success for the organization.

Goals Are Not Flexible

It is often possible that the objective of a goal itself changes even after an employee starts working towards it. In this case, it is wise to update the goals as per their needs. Static goals often affect the motivation and productivity of the employees. Most organizations commit the mistake of not revisiting their goals or updating them until it is time for employee performance reviews. Having flexible goals makes them relevant and important for the employee and the organization.

Also Read: How To Conduct An Effective 360 Degree Feedback?

Fail To Track Progress

As mentioned above, organizations often fail to revisit the goals until performance reviews. It results in employees failing to understand what they are doing right and need to keep on doing, and what they are doing wrong and need to stop.

When goals are tracked, it helps identify problems as well as their progress. As a manager, help employees identify key milestones and set up a timeline to achieve the same. Review the progress of the goals from time to time and share feedback with your employees. This will help them to stay focused and aligned with the organizational goals.

Ignoring The Small Wins

“People work for money but go the extra mile for recognition, praise and rewards.” — Dale Carnegie, Leadership Training Guru, and Author.

Setting clear and well-defined goals is crucial, but it is also necessary to take out time to recognize and reward your employees. When you recognize or reward your employees on small wins, they are motivated to achieve further. But failing to do so often makes employees feel undervalued and unimportant, and they get derailed from their goals. A lack of appreciation decreases their morale and motivation to work. It reduces the engagement and productivity of the employees. On the other hand, even a small announcement on the company website or social media or paying bonuses is enough to make them feel appreciated.

Additionally, it helps in creating a culture of appreciation throughout the organization.

Also Read: 5 Benefits Of Investing In Employee Recognition Software

Not Using A Goal Setting Software

We all know COVID-19 has changed the way we all work today. Organizations globally have ditched the traditional goal setting process and have invested in a goal setting software. If your organization has not invested in one yet, it is the right time to do so. Goal setting software helps the creation and managing of goals easier for everyone in the organization. In addition to that, it also improves the visibility of the goals and helps to track them easily.

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2020 has been a year of complex experiences, revelations and learnings. As a result, we have understood that the way the world works can change drastically without warning. Most working people today are facing uncertainties coupled with family needs and probable financial tensity, presenting unprecedented challenges. Our functions and ways of life need to change in tandem. 

A recent research by SHRM shows that ‘work-related concerns have left more than 40 percent of employees feeling burned out.’ In fact, many organizations have even taken the decision to skip performance reviews this year. 

Keeping a tab on these ongoing transitions, we sought to understand how the recent shift in the way we work has affected performance management and people development processes. We curiously asked ourselves the question, “What has changed in performance management and people development during the COVID era?” To have a closer look at the changes and how it affects us, we conducted surveys on performance management and people development processes. 

Want to know what we found? We will get there in a moment. But before that, allow us to give you some details about the survey.

Which industries did we cover? 

The survey covered about 20 different industries. However, our results clustered into 5 key industries: 

• Construction
• Manufacturing
• Healthcare
• Financial
• Telecommunications

These 5 key industries accounted for 50% of responses to the survey. (View survey)

What was the survey about?  

As we have mentioned before in this article, we wanted to gauge how the pandemic has affected performance management. So we asked the leaders to report the degree of change for different performance management processes by reporting whether or not each of the performance management processes was occurring more or less frequently during COVID-19. They responded on a five point scale (1= significantly less frequent and 5 = significantly more frequent).

We focused the questions on these key areas performance management processes:

• Pay for Performance Incentives
• Usage of Performance Ratings
• Focus on OKR/Goal Management Processes
• Frequency of Reviews/Assessments
• Ongoing Check-Ins with Managers/Others

Wait! The survey does not end there. We wanted to be slightly more thorough. So after they reported on the degree of change they experienced during COVID, we asked the leaders two additional questions.

1. Do you anticipate the changes to continue post COVID? (Yes or No)
2. How satisfied they were about the changes to the performance management processes due to COVID? (1 = Very Dissatisfied and 5 = Very Satisfied).

Here is what we found! 

So now that we have a better understanding about the changes in performance management and their impact, we come to the next important step.

Read: Performance Management and Employee Development in the Covid Era

Key takeaways for you:

1. Performance Management process changes from once-a-year reviews to a continuous approach has been an ongoing shift. But it is clear that the impact of COVID to a virtual workforce has been an accelerant in that shift. 
2. Organizations are moving to a more continuous check-in based approach and also towards a Goal/OKR oriented approach to managing performance.
3. Moreover, what we learnt from this survey is that these changes were welcomed by the leaders by and large. 

Then the key question becomes, do these changes stick or is this only a temporal effect?

• It seems (at least from the current responses) that these changes may be permanent in the post COVID workplace. Permanence may be driven due to the fact that these shifts to a more progressive approach were well received and hence, there will be little reason to go back to the ‘Old Way’ of doing things.

Among the other questions, we pondered regarding use of ratings in performance reviews and changes in pay-for-performance models. It appears there was some shift in doing more Ratings-based Reviews and increased Pay for Performance, but the data did not suggest that it was significant enough to make a claim that that shift was more than temporary, possibly due to cost containment efforts. We will need to run another study in a few months to test our hypothesis. So keep a look out for the follow ups on this piece!

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