Welcome! Join us as we dive into the dynamic and crucial, yet often misunderstood and barely tolerated world of human resources.

ALMOST THAT TIME AGAIN

AS another December rolls around, it’s almost time for those dreaded end-of-year performance conversations, and with COVID-19 still a reality, reviews are anything but normal.

How do you fairly assess team members for whom overwhelm, exhaustion and anxiety are still major themes?

Should you still be considering the impact of the pandemic in your assessments almost two years in?

How do you ensure that you are fair given everyone’s unique circumstances and this hybrid world of work? Is that even a reasonable expectation?

THE UPSIDE

Very few managers ever look forward to doing performance reviews, period. Many found them stressful when life was “normal”, and with now many stressed, distracted, stretched and remote team members, they present an even greater challenge.

In these times there is no one-size-fits-all approach, and it may be helpful to keep the following in mind:

•Consider approaching assessments with more empathy, flexibility, and compassion. This is more than a tool for weeding out poor performers or deciding who gets bonuses. With the myriad things that continue to impact our team members in unusual ways, where possible, consider giving weaker performers a time-sensitive grace period to improve and turn things around.

The way you continue to lead through these crazy times speaks volumes to those you are leading. This is an opportunity to show your leadership mettle and to support your team into becoming stronger, more focused, adaptable, and resilient than it’s ever been.

•Be deliberate about recognising and showing appreciation for those team members who have been consistently engaged and productive. It is critical for their morale and engagement, and important for retaining them in the long run.

•For those conversations that must happen remotely, turn your cameras on, and please, please, please, schedule time for more than a fifteen-minute monologue.

Whether your reviews happen online, or in person, prepare a narrative for each team member. This will be helpful with providing very specific feedback about what has gone well and where there needs to be improvement.

•Be objective, unbiased, and more collaborative in putting together your feedback. The goalposts have shifted in most organisations, and it would be unfortunate if the focus stays only on the transactional side of performance.

With ongoing budget cuts, team rationalisations, changing strategies, re-imagining work, and the many other hard decisions that have become the order of the day, critical to many companies surviving the pandemic so far have been team members who exemplified traits such as collaboration and teamwork, compromise, resilience, agility and creativity. Let’s acknowledge and reward that.

Remember, performance reviews aren’t meant to be either beating sticks or free money earners. Done right, it is one of the most valuable tools you have in your arsenal for building and shaping your team, and nothing is more critical in this “now normal”.

Talk more soon,

Carolyn.

My name is Carolyn Bolt. HR happened upon me seven years ago, and there has been no turning back from this challenging, critical, very rewarding and often frustrating matter of people since then. Reach me at peoplematter.s21@gmail.com.