Performance Management: Changing Perspectives/Practices

CHANGING PERSPECTIVES AND PRACTICES IN PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR HRM
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Performance Management: Changing Perspectives/Practices
Introduction
During the first months of COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest concern that faced HR managers ensuring the safety and well-being of employees. However, when traditional work practices became untenable owing to widespread lockdowns and social distancing rules, the focus of HR leaders shifted from employee safety to performance management. The decision to have employees work from home brought forth several issues such as how to identify, measure, manage, and develop the performance of workers. HR managers were worried that one of the most important segments of organizational performance was going to suffer. This realization forced HR managers to change their perspectives and practices in performance management. The pandemic facilitated the implementation of new performance management methods including remote surveillance, gathering performance data in real time, flexible work hours, and mentorship. However, the single biggest change in how HR managers conceptualized performance management post-Covid relates to the digitization of team organization in terms of tracking performance, providing continuous one-on-one feedback, and mentoring employees. This essay will discuss changing perspectives and practices in performance management and the implications for HRM.
Trends in Performance Management
The pandemic is largely to thank for the marked changes in how HR managers are now approach performance management. For instance, although remote working was already proven to be a possibility, many organizations were hesitant to allow staff to work from home. However, remote working became an absolute necessity for many organizations and HR managers had to reconsider how to manage multiple hybrid teams (Kähkönen, 2023). Traditional performance management systems lacked the flexibility and effectiveness to adjust to the sudden switch to remote working. The pandemic called for a complete overhaul of how HR managers identified, measured, managed, and developed the performance of the staff in their organizations. Organizations that relied on annual and bi-annual employee reviews to manage their workforce were forced to migrate to a more flexible system that could facilitate optimum employee performance, motivation, and productivity (Ortlepp and Hloma, 2006). One of the biggest changes in how HR managers approached performance management relates to flexible work hours.
Traditional performance management systems relied on fixed work schedules to monitor, appraise, and mentor employees. The rigid system involved annual and bi-annual employee reviews: employees would meet with their HR managers every six months or once a year to create a few SMART goals. These goals were hardly revisited until the next annual or bi-annual appraisal. However, the switch to remote working emphasized the need for ongoing performance management. Every staff experienced the pandemic uniquely with some employees experiencing greater challenges adjusting to mobile work. A significant number of employees experienced anxiety and depressive disorders from the isolation of virtual work (Forbes et al., 2020). Moreover, most workers had to balance between domestic responsibilities like childcare and professional commitments. HR managers quickly realized that sporadic check-ins were not enough to provide the same level of performance management as before. It was clear that traditional performance management processes could not be applied to create a sense of stability amongst staff, assess employee performance, or build trust between employers and employees.
Remote workers were not only feeling isolated but were also disengaging from work without regular and meaningful conversations. To navigate the challenges of remote working, HR managers had to consider new ways of supporting staff as well as identifying and addressing work issues promptly. Flexible working hours proved to be an effective approach to motivating staff to remain engaged and productive (Alaqra and Andersson, 2020). Employees could now balance their domestic responsibilities or personal interests with work commitments. Innovative working time arrangements improved employees’ work-life balance, which in turn increased productivity, engagement, and creativity (Prasad, 2021). Conscious of the importance of proving they can work efficiently from home and to justify the flexible work arrangement, most employees performed better than ever to deliver results. Besides, the opportunity to improve their work-life balance helped mitigate the mental health impacts of the pandemic, particularly the effects of isolation. A significant number of employees were more willing to think outside the box and contribute meaningfully.
Many staff viewed flexible working arrangements as an indication that their companies valued them. Allowing employees to work flexibly from home allowed HR managers to tap into the creativity of happy, motivated staff. Working from home and in a different environment from the typical formal workplace improved employees’ wellbeing (Chen, 2021). Remote working can be less tiring and even emotionally therapeutic compared to working in traditional brick-and-mortar offices. For instance, an employee working from home is better rested and can devote some part of their day to personal interests that improve their physical and mental well-being. HR managers had to accommodate remote working as the new normal and flexible working hours became ingrained in workplace practices post-pandemic (Yang et al., 2021). On the whole, working in a flexible and different way encouraged employees to offer up innovative ideas on general working culture, work processes, and ongoing work assignments. Another significant change in how HR managers perceived performance management relates to goal setting. The traditional pre-pandemic workplace analytics were no longer fit for monitoring or evaluating employee performance.
The shift to remote working resulted in dispersed hybrid teams and HR managers could not rely on legacy key performance indicator (KPI) metrics to evaluate work-from-home performance. Staff were used to physical monitoring and the move to mobile working left them feeling separated and unsupported (Battisti, Alfiero and Leonidou, 2022). Employees were challenged to work effectively with little to no support from other staff. Traditional performance management systems did not account for the disjointed realities of remote working and could not be relied upon to give helpful or accurate measurements of work-from-home performance. Consequently, many staff found themselves requiring additional insight into how they were performing, including the areas they need to improve on (Shahriar et al., 2022). HR managers had to develop new KPIs that reflected the realities of remote work including acknowledging the blurred distinctions between domestic or personal life and home life. The pandemic facilitated the recalibration of performance management KPIs to include more aggressive and practical insights. For instance, many organizations adopted a goal setting approach that significantly fast-tracked work assignment delivery schedules for hybrid teams.
The switch towards aggressive goal-setting deliberately fostered greater communication, teamwork, and coordination between employees. To meet the accelerated project delivery timetables, employees had to ensure they were in constant communication with each other. By setting aggressive goals for remote workers, mobile teams were forced to collaborate and coordinate more closely to meet the demanding deadlines. Even with flexible work arrangements, staff had to learn to balance their domestic or personal life with their work duties to meet performance requirements (Ferrara et al., 2022). At the same time, the forcing mechanism generated a buddy system where employees could feel connected with their colleagues even if they were not sharing the same physical space. Moreover, they had set clear expectations upfront while ensuring that workers feel supported and connected to each other. To improve the overall performance of the entire organization, HR managers had to start focusing on developing the core strengths of their employees rather than ranking their miniscule deviations.
Most organizations abandoned the ratings-based evaluation system in favor of an outcome-based approach that provided remote workers with more autonomy but still held them accountable for their output. One of the ways the pandemic changed how HR departments measure employee performance relates to the more abstract aspects of work. For instance, remote working placed a lot of emphasis on communication, teamwork, coordination, and critical thinking. These intangible processes undergirded team performance during the crisis and took on a new importance during the pandemic and after. HR managers had to consider these qualitative aspects of work as essential metrics for evaluating employee performance (Kowalski and Ślebarska, 2022). In addition to quantitative KPIs, administrators included communication, teamwork, mentorship, coordination, and complex thinking in goal setting as future mandates of a highly effective employee. Another instance of how the pandemic changed HR perspectives and practices in performance management concerns mentoring and career development.
The pandemic forced HR managers to move away from back-office functions and more towards the role of remote work enabler and mentor for dispersed teams with stringent deadlines. In addition to instituting flexible work arrangements and setting demanding goals for remote workers, HR managers had to take a more active role in mentoring their staff and facilitating career development. The instability caused by the pandemic required administrators to demonstrate strong leadership through holistic conversations about training and learning needs (Hackney et al., 2022). Helping employees put their career progression into perspective took a slightly different approach from previous methods. For instance, mentoring became as much about helping staff navigate virtual relationships with their colleagues and juggle their domestic charges with work duties as it is about career and talent development. HR managers had to be closely attuned to the emotional and mental state of staff and this sometimes meant understanding their daily schedules or personal challenges (Ergovan et al., 2021). For many employees, striving to upskill or reskill during the pandemic for the sake of it was no longe...