The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted how organizations are operating, with many experiencing reduced hours, adjusted goals, furloughs, or even layoffs.
It is necessary for organizations to re-evaluate aspects of their performance management system to better respond to the current context of their organizations. Performance management conversations can be a daunting experience for managers and employees when they are not properly carried out. During a pandemic in which uncertainty and economic downturn abound, employees’ worries are likely to be amplified.
Carrying on with your performance management process without any amendments will likely lead to negative experiences for your employees and biased information upon which to make decisions, such as decreasing short- and long-term motivation, increasing burn out, and declines in perception of fairness. It could even result in managers holding back critical feedback.
Therefore, carrying out performance management conversations within a thoughtfully adjusted performance management framework can help create a sense of stability among your employees, strengthening the perception that the process and outcomes are fair and making it easier for managers and others to provide reinforcing and redirecting feedback.
Learn more about creating a culture of high-performance here.
Let’s Talk About Biases
Researchers and practitioners have identified dozens of biases that affect our ability to provide objective performance reviews. Systems and processes developed for in-office work and pre-COVID-19 times need to be updated to create more fairness in the new work environment. One of the biggest concerns is that organizations may be more susceptible to biases that have a negative effect on accurately measuring employees' performances and providing valuable feedback to drive and develop high performance.
Recency Bias
“What have you done for me lately?" Most of us are more likely to remember things that have happened recently than things that have happened throughout the entire year or quarter (such as a performance cycle).
It is possible, for example, that one of your employees was performing highly at the beginning of the year; however, the transition to working from home has been difficult for a myriad of potential reasons (some that you may not even be aware of). You will want to prepare yourselves and others to consider the employee's performance throughout the entire performance period rather than focusing on recent performance since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moving forward, through ensuring that managers are documenting an employees’ performance and development, and highlighting their key wins, future biases can be alleviated and can help keep employees motivated.
Proximity Bias
It is likely that your organization has moved to a large (if not fully) remote working environment. Be wary of the effects of proximity bias—the notion that people place higher value and impact on work that they actually see or are directly aware of. In a virtual working environment, it’s easy to discount work that we aren’t actually seeing ourselves.
We recommend coaching and enabling managers to have regular check-ins with employees to keep up to date with the current state of their projects and day-to-day accomplishments as well as their well-being. This is also an opportune moment to use 360-degree feedback; it is likely that others in the organization are more privy to the work of your direct reports, so make sure to ask.
Idiosyncratic Rater Bias
Fun to say but not fun to experience. This bias encompasses the tendency of humans to evaluate others based on their own skill level instead of the skill level of the person being rated. This means that people rate others less favorably on skills they’re good at and, conversely, if they’re not so good at something, they rate others less favorably. Ratings are also dependent on how tough of a rater a person thinks they are.
We all know the effect of working remotely differs on an individual basis—some folks are great at it, while others may struggle. It is possible that, for example, a manager who has had a relatively simple time transitioning to working remotely will rate employees who may be struggling more to balance their workload on a harsher scale, simply due to their personal eccentricities. It’s also important to note that, as we cut down on aspects of the performance process (such as self-reflections or peer and upward feedback), this bias can be amplified.
This bias is not necessarily more amplified by the pandemic or remote work but by the decisions that are made due to it. The most powerful ways to mitigate this are frequent manager-employee check-ins (and don’t forget to document it), requesting and considering 360-degree feedback from people the employee works with before reviews, and including behaviors aligned with the core values of the organization. Thus, when abbreviating or lightening the performance management process, it is crucial not to entirely skip over these modules.
Gender Bias
We’ve all heard of gender bias, but how does it play out in performance management? Through analyzing more than 25,000 pieces of peer feedback, Culture Amp has found that individuals tend to focus more on the personality and attitudes of women. On the other hand, men tend to receive feedback that is more based on behaviors and accomplishments.
Amid a crisis, all of the above biases (and more) are likely to be exemplified for women, especially as we omit portions of the review process. Often, women may take on unglamorous tasks that are necessary for business success but go unnoticed.
Ensure that you’re providing managers with the training to provide structured feedback and formalized criteria to assess their direct reports. This can help them concentrate on assessing women based on their behaviors and accomplishments rather than personality attributes.
Self-Reflections
Self-reflections can serve employees by helping them take a step back, reflect on the current situation, integrate learning, and plan for the future and celebrate accomplishments (personal and professional) during a time of uncertainty. Check out this blog for more information on the value of self-reflections during a crisis.
You’ll want employees to take a moment and consider what their goals and priorities were prior to the pandemic, how much they achieved in reaching those goals, and what accomplishments they’ve had since the start of the pandemic.
Question Regarding Accomplishments Pre-COVID-19
· How far were you from reaching your goals?
Questions Regarding Accomplishments Post-COVID-19
· What are some additional tasks that you took on to get the company through the pandemic?
· What skills or knowledge have you developed over the last (time frame) that enabled you to be successful during the crisis? ([Description] Reminder: Your manager has likely less visibility on your behaviors and accomplishments. This is your space to fill in the gaps for them.)
· How has the crisis allowed you to work on additional projects you previously did not have the opportunity to?
· Given the changing nature of many businesses during this time, what additional tasks or roles did you take on to contribute to getting the company through the pandemic? What challenge are you most proud of overcoming?
· Have your career aspirations or development goals changed as a result of the pandemic?
· Where would you like to see yourself grow?
Peer and Upward Feedback
When it comes to designing our 360-degree feedback, potential biases resulting from the transition of the workforce to fully or partially remote have to be considered as well.
For example, in a distributed workforce, employees who had to remain in the office or on-site may have different perceptions of others’ work than those who were able to work from home (proximity bias).
Manager Review
A crisis or pandemic causes a lot of disruption in organizations and has led to a number of different outcomes for employees ranging from taking on additional work to support their organizations, being redeployed based on the needs of the organization, or adjusting their hours to balance additional responsibilities outside of work.
As such, many employees will have adjusted their goals, either because they were not reachable anymore due to lockdowns or because the organization’s priorities and mission have changed. Ensure that your review questions are objectively asking about an employee’s behaviors, growth, and performance against goals and expectations while considering the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
For example, you may want to include an open-ended question asking, “How did this employee go above and beyond to help the organization during this time?” or “How did the employee perform on their adjusted goals?”
Fair feedback and appraisal are not only important for your employees to remain or become high performing, engaged, and motivated, but they are also crucial for managers to perceive the process as fair before having feedback conversations with their employees.
Ensuring employees are rated on the same questions and managers receive adequate training around the new rating questions as well as around biases they may unconsciously be bringing to the performance review process are critical in ensuring fairness and mitigating bias during this turbulent time.
Ensuring Employees Feel Valued Moving Forward
As a result of the uncertainty the pandemic has posed on our lives, performance management can play a key role in ensuring employees feel that their contributions are valued. It gives them some stability and motivation moving forward. Adjusting performance management processes can have a big impact on how employees view their workplaces as well as their roles in it. Organizations that recognize and reward employees, help them learn and develop through feedback, and treat them fairly will likely emerge stronger from the pandemic than those that do not.