Hybrid working arrangements are fast becoming the norm for a great many businesses which would normally have people working in an office. But a blend of people home-working alongside dedicated time in the office can throw up as many issues for leaders as it solves – including that of performance management. How can leaders effectively manage their team’s performance in a post-pandemic world?

Performance management might traditionally be framed as a formal meeting between leadership and team member, blocked out in the diary a couple of times a year. But the reality of performance management nowadays can be quite different. Regular, informal feedback conversations can – and indeed should – happen as part of the everyday interactions you have with your people. Whether it’s over a cuppa, or ‘talking as you walk’, making time for these conversations should mean that come a more formal review, there will be no surprises for either of you.

It’s vital that leaders consider their performance management style and how to match it to the individual requirements of their team members. Some managers might view a fortnightly half hour feedback with each of their team as best practice, for example. But does that best serve the needs of those individual team members? Maybe not. You may well have a team member who neither needs, nor appreciates a formal, diarised meeting that regularly and is perfectly happy to leave a longer gap between catch-ups. Tailoring your performance management to your people is key.

Tips for managing your team’s performance

Drawn from our years of experience managing people and training managers, here are some tips for managing performance when you can’t see everyone every day.

Get it in the diary

Opportunities to feed back to team members in a spontaneous, informal manner are more limited now than they were pre-Covid. So, although ideally we’d love to give feedback informally when we’re boiling the kettle or taking a stroll to the local sandwich shop, leaders (and team members) might need to accept that sometimes, these opportunities now have to be diarised. Once in the diary, it’s important to honour the commitment. Having meetings with your manager repeatedly cancelled can make people feel like they don’t matter – or indeed, that performance-related conversations aren’t important.

Get creative

You may have to become more creative about engineering opportunities for informal performance-related conversations – but it’s absolutely worth a little thought. Regular dialogue can uncover the talents and potential of your people – and can bring you an insight into how best to support your team to improve. The ‘water-cooler moments’ we used to have pre-pandemic might be rarer, but you can still find an informal way into those conversations; by asking what people are reading, which box-sets they’re bingeing, or what plans they’ve made for the weekend, for example. It’s more vital than ever to actively build a personal rapport with your people – not least so you can have a performance management conversation in a more informal way, because you have previously established a good personal connection with them.

Be adaptable

Make sure you’re sensitive to the distinctions between the different individuals you manage and adapt your feedback style and your offer of support accordingly. Consider who each of your team members is as a person and what they might need from you. What they regard as important and the values they hold should inform the way you handle the performance management process. This isn’t a one-size-fits-all activity, and should be led by your team’s preferences over your own.

Be meaningful

CEO of Stone Age, Inc. Kerry Siggins, was asked recently what the most important thing a manager can do to develop their people. Her answer? “Always being committed to providing meaningful feedback”. Performance management is all about regular, helpful, and constructive check-ins. ”Every team member deserves to know where they stand – all the time,” she said. It’s important to watch out for meaningful things to discuss as feedback with your team, and to flag positive ones much more often than the negatives.

Be relevant

Performance management is all about the individual as they are right now – but also about developing who they might become, and their own career path. But it’s worth remembering that it may not be for everyone. Some team members won’t have any aspirations to move on from the job they’re happy doing now; some may have ideas for their future that are along entirely different paths from the ones they’re treading now. The key to retaining and nurturing talent in an organisation is to have a plan – understanding who the individual is, where they’re at and what they want and need. Tailoring your feedback to improving in their current role will be right for some people. An added dimension of specific feedback useful for those who are looking to progress, or even move sideways, will also be great, but isn’t for everyone.

Take the time to discover more informal ways of engineering those performance management opportunities with your own team. Cube Learning and Development delivers bespoke, personal coaching programmes to help you navigate the ‘new normal’.  For a no-obligation chat about this and our other training, call Chris Burton on 07879 602002.