Question

Managing performance evaluations during a pandemic

During a time of crisis, it can be difficult to operate business as usual. Amidst the uncertainty, HR faces the challenge of being pulled in different directions – from managing communications and crisis response planning, to maintaining some level of continuity of business operations.

As Strategic Human Resource Management (SHRM) suggests, it’s critical for organizations to aim to manage operations with minimal loss and disruption to the normal business flow. Uniting the employees around the common goal of doing their best to run “business as usual” can help inspire and enable them to refocus during a crisis. Maintaining the organization’s operations also offers some of the safety, normalcy, and comfort that people would usually find in the routine of daily life at work.

We’re all facing unchartered territory and learning as we go. This means that many organizations are currently reassessing their feedback strategy and will need to weigh in on a variety of factors in order to meet their unique organizational needs.

Over the last few days, we have heard of organizations deciding to either abandon their current or upcoming performance cycle, give everyone the same rating, or just continue with evaluations as planned.

But many HR leaders are still unsure about how to manage performance reviews during the COVID-19 pandemic.

1. Based on the given case, explain ONE (1) main issue faced by the HR leader.
2. Explain TWO (2) main purposes of conducting performance appraisal.
3. During a pandemic, employees might not be as productive due to crisis-induced circumstances. Therefore, it is unfair to hold employees to the same standards during this outbreak. If for example, organization stop evaluating their marketing and sales employees based on the revenue they generate, explain THREE (3) other criteria that are suitable to use in evaluating the performance of these employees.
4. In the current situation, many companies, government entities, and universities have asked their employees to work remotely. Some organizations have a clear work from home policy that has matured through the years, but many are seeing this for the first time due to the pandemic. It is a major cultural change in the way work is performed. Discuss FOUR (4) major challenges faced by companies in managing employees work from home performance.
5. Many of the organizations have adjusted onsite work and settled into a work-from-home routine. Thus, it’s important for leaders to actively foster engagement and productivity in the daily lives of employees. Given that it will not be business as usual for quite some time, how can you help your employees to stay focused in the face of such significant change? Discuss FOUR (4) efforts that organization can take to foster engagement and productivity of their employees.
6. Based on the given case, should the organization abandon their current or upcoming performance cycle, give everyone the same rating or just continue with evaluations as planned? Discuss ONE (1) justification for each option.

Answer 1

a.)

In the COVID-19 time, the hardest task for the HR is to evaluate the performances of the employees, as most of them have mandated work from home at the time. Especially the sales teams which cannot function because of the lockdowns imposed by the various nations. This is because most of the sales teams compensations dependent on the contingent outcome of the amount of sales they are able to generate for the month, which can no longer be used as a determinant if the cities are locked-down and they cannot pitch their sales to the prospective customers.

b.)

Two major purposes for which performance appraisals are conducted are -

1. To motivate the staff to perform better with incentives such as increased pay
2. To make sure that there is no lax in the employees performances, as periodic evaluations will ensure that the employees are doing their tasks adequately

c.)

Apart from sales, three other cirteria that can be used to evaluate the performance of the employees can be as follows-

1. Quality of work. Since the quantity of work cannot be used in the face of the pandemic, then the quality of work done by the employees can be effectively used. This will not only serve as an efficient method to evaluate performance during the pandemic, it will also prepare the employees to have better quality work even after the pandemic is over
2. Consistency. Even if the employees are working from home, the consistency of work can be a useful metric of evaluation. This is because inconsistency is not profitable for the employee or the firm. An employee clocking for two hours on one day and for ten hours straight the next day or an employee finishing ten files on one day but going through fifty the next day is not as reliable as one who clocks in for eight hours regularly and gets through twenty five files on a average everyday.
3. Execution. It is very important to execute the orders of the superiors. In the face of the pandemic when work from home is the new normal, it is important that the employees are able to execute the orders of the superiors even without having them present to guide them to through the process. This goes on to talk about the productivity of the employees.

d.)

Major challenges for work from home can be -

1. Most companies have confidential data that the employees have to use. This data cannot be used on the personal computers of the employees. This means for all the employees who did not have remote laptops and coputers and used to work on office desktops, personal laptops have to be arranged and delivered, which is immense pressure on the logistics and increases the cost as well.
2. Most of the employees might not have a stable internet connectivity which will be required to stay connected and to be able to get the work done
3. New recruits might have a problem getting productive work done during the lock down, since they will need one-on-one training and also proper orientation and guidance.
4. Allocation of work might be difficult if the nature of the work entails several different teams to work together

e.)

Four efforts that organization can take to foster engagement and productivity of their employees during the work from home schedules are -

1. Regular meeting calls to check up anf follow up on the work.
2. Team connect meetings that foster communication among fellow colleagues.
3. Regular calls from the HR that are aimed at knowing how the employees are doing emotionally
4. Organizing online seminars that aim at increasing the knowledge of the employees

f.)

If the employees are given the same rating as before, then their inability to perform due to the lock down and in general lower consumer demand will not affect their payscale and their rating and this will greatly boost their morale at the time of the crisis.

On the other hand, continuing with the evaluations but with new parameters will also increase employee porductivity during the lock down and prevent them from laxing their tasks.This will incentivice them to perform well even in lock down and that will increase the overall profitability of the firm.