The increase of hybrid and remote work models has fundamentally changed the way to manage employee performance. Historically, managers would simply observe employees in the physical work environment as a means of determining performance. This is increasingly no longer possible – even within an office environment. The larger the team, the harder it is for one leader to track everyone. There are also just as many ways that workers can ‘slack off’ in the office – water cooler chat, wandering around the office, long bathroom breaks, checking Facebook, or other distractions on their computer.
Trust is the foundation of the employer-employee relationship, and perhaps this is why hybrid and remote models work so well. Employees who work from home at least two days a week are just as productive as their in-office counterparts. Plus, they have higher rates of retention – resignations fall by 33% compared to traditional work environments.
The mass exodus of top talent from Tesla and Amazon backs up the data – 71% of workers surveyed said they would start looking for other opportunities if their company mandated a return to office. Given more than half of employees surveyed would forgo a raise if it meant they could work hybrid, remote work may be your secret ingredient to improved attraction and retention.
So if corporations are moving away from the physical observation model, how can you ensure that you are:
- Maintaining organisational standards?
- Trusting your employees to get their work done?
- Motivate underperforming employees?
- Ensure productivity in a remote or hybrid environment?
- Tackling communication and feedback issues?
- Setting expectations and KPIs within a remote or hybrid model?
- Managing potential disengagement or isolation challenges?
In this article, we’ll explore an easy to apply four-step management strategy that you can use when managing performance in a hybrid or remote environment.
Revisit performance goals
Firstly, you should revisit performance goals and objectives in a hybrid/remote context. We’re familiar with how to transition from a physical to a remote environment, but many organisations forget to redefine what the expectations of KPIs and performance look like in a hybrid model. Some things might change, for example, the nature and regularity of one-on-one’s and catch-ups between line managers and team members.
So help your team understand the expectations, know what success looks like, understand what the expectation is for them, and what their outputs are. Then ensure their success by ensuring there are practical ways to achieve these expectations.
Remember that within the remote and hybrid work model, flexibility and adaptability is the key.
Set up one-on-ones with your team members
Create regular space for one-on-ones with your team members for open sharing and feedback. This is valuable in the physical environment, but critical within hybrid and remote models.
Providing safe spaces for your team members to give feedback and share what’s happening can help lift their emotional burdens, detect isolation or personnel issues they may be experiencing, and identify blockages preventing them from completing tasks. The informality of a one-on-one can encourage the sharing of any issues sitting underneath the surface that may not normally get addressed.
Use digital communication
Using digital communication to increase touchpoints takes strategy and intention. It’s very important to think about how you can use those digital communication tools to increase the way that you’re connecting, and where possible, choose solutions that emphasise human connection and relationships. The biggest part about remote and hybrid is the isolation or fragmentation from the rest of the team and from the usual interaction. So by increasing communication, even if it’s digital communication, it can be very helpful in just bridging some of those gaps.
Create regular routines for how you maintain communication, using different digital touchpoints. This will typically mean selecting one source of truth for internal messaging, external messaging, video conferencing, project management, and documentation. Try to avoid doubling up on tool types to avoid employee confusion and streamline processes – having three types of project management software or two internal messaging platforms is a recipe for chaos.
Many organisations will make the choice between using Google or Microsoft as their bedrock of software solutions, so start there.
An example of digital solutions based on Google Workspace
- Google Workspace and Drive for documentation.
- Slack for internal messaging.
- Zoom for video conferencing.
- Email for messaging clients or external stakeholders.
- Trello for project management.
An example of digital solutions based on Microsoft Office
- Microsoft Office (including SharePoint and Teams) for documentation, internal messaging, and video conferencing.
- Monday.com for project management.
- Email for messaging clients or external stakeholders.
Identify and support any skill gaps
Finally, it’s a good idea to identify any skill gaps and create support solutions. You can use assessment methods or feedback mechanisms to identify where skill gaps might be and what they are for your team.
Digital literacy is one of those skill gaps that more closely resembles a skill chasm. 87% of jobs in Australia require digital literacy skills. Yet a quarter of employees believed their digital literacy skills to be out of date, and more than half had little understanding of technologies that are increasingly vital to the way we work. Find ways that you can support and help those individuals to take their skills to the next level, whether that be through on-the-job training, mentoring, coaching, or using training programs.
Leading with consistency and reliability sends a strong message to your team that you value them and find their contributions important, which is really a powerful part of using this four-step management strategy.