The new normal: How performance goals are changing

Did you have viral pandemic in your 5-year business growth forecasts? No, neither did we.

It is frightening to feel out of control, but while there are things we can’t plan for or change, there are others that we can get a grip on and do something about. One of those is how you manage your workforce through a challenging time, to make sure your business and teams stay intact, happy and engaged.

That, we can help with.

Is this the new normal? We don’t know how long the government’s social distancing measures will continue – or what the working landscape will look like once it’s over. Adapting our businesses, and our teams, to thrive in this new way of working is essential to seeing our businesses through this challenging time.

Over the past two weeks, we’ve been sharing our tips on how managers can make remote working a success. In our last installment we look at some of the key things to consider as we adjust to what is – for now at least – the ‘new normal’ for many of us.

With the right structure, advice, technology and communication, we feel that businesses really can thrive from home.

1. Employee experience: Without the tangible experience we have constructed in our shared workspaces, experience needs to be carefully crafted in other ways: by putting people first, building team spirit, making leadership accessible and visible, and communicating core business values.

2. Working relationships: Remote working can make it harder to build and maintain work relationships – between managers and employees, leaders and teams. But it’s not impossible. Look through our previous tips to find the best ways bring teams together in the ‘new normal’.

3. Changing performance objectives: This period of change may well cause people to reconsider their priorities – both temporary and longer term. Address changing performance drivers regularly, as employees adapt to the situation – but also be prepared for more permanent changes further down the line.

4. Productivity: Productivity and output in the office can look very different to productivity and output in a remote working situation. Think about how to assess what is being achieved reasonably, and factor in the immense changes to peoples personal and professional lives during the crisis.

5. Mindset: This will affect different people in different ways – and the impact on mindset could continue to change as time goes on. Be aware of this, make sure managers and employees alike feel supported, and use one-to-ones to assess wellbeing and its impact on engagement.

If you’d like to talk through how your OpenBlend performance management tool can help during this time, or would like information on setting up a new OpenBlend platform remotely, call us on 01628 613 040 or email hello@openblend.com.

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