Over the past decade, remote working has increased 115%, and in the last year, the entire world had shifted to remote working or no work concepts to prevent the spread of pandemics. This shift made all the employers and employees pragmatically learn the pros and cons of remote working. It seems like there are more positives than negatives to both parties. 

And yes, of course, every approach comes with its own advantages and disadvantages.  

From an employer’s perspective, company culture goes for a toss when there is no face time. And, with many new joiners joining he organization, no enough awareness is created on the company’s values, mission, vision because there are no in-person interactions while working remotely. 

The adherence of employees to the company culture can be measured with Synergita’s culture score. 

For employees, they feel very isolated as they cannot have watercooler conversations and have to make a list to discuss company affairs with colleagues and also use tools and mails, whereas when in office, they can just drop by the desk to ask queries.  

WFH has removed the face time among managers, team members, and peers. This aloofness greatly impacts the productivity and the efficiency of the employees. 

To steer clear of it, get the help of technology to implement an effective performance management system that has continuous check-ins as one of the important features. 

“Teams are the main building blocks of organizations, and HR practices as performance  management should become more team focused.” 

– Tom Haak, Director, HR Trend Institute 

Continuous feedback is a great tool to still keep the coaching/mentoring/communicating/appreciating. No HR intervention is needed and enables individuals to interact and share inputs across.   

How Technology Can Help in Conducting Continuous Check-ins While Working Remotely? 

1. Foster continual performance conversations between employees and managers to maximize employee performance.    
2. Enable employees to track the progress of individual goals and their completion while providing managers the visibility into an individual, team, and company-wide success.    
3. Allow employees to indicate their career aspirations and training plan so as to provide managers insights to plan employees’ career development.    
4. Allow generation of key analytics and dashboards to enable HR and management teams to draw insights for decision-making.   
5. Remote monitoring of the progress & provide inputs – Check-in feature enables employees to update the achievements; Managers shall review the progress and provide their inputs against each goal for each team member. 

Don’ts of Continuous Check-ins 

1. It is a session to strengthen the manager-employee relations. Do not ask or give status updates.
2. Strictly no “good performance, anything you have to share?” from managers, or “Yes, I am doing good. So, the meeting is over, right?” from employees. It has to be an interactive session where there needs to be preparation done beforehand like having a list of questions or pointers to carry out the conversation seamlessly. 
3. Do not boss around in the conversations, if you are a manager. 
4. Do not develop a defensive attitude if something against you is shared. Preach the same to your employees too. Feedback is to develop oneself no matter it is from who unless it is from someone who takes interest in your professional growth.  

How Leadership Plays a Vital Role in the Delivering the Continuous Feedback? 

“Good performance accountability is about having a positive conversation between manager and employee. A manager is a coach and communicator, not command and controller.”

– Dave Ulrich, Co-Founder, and Principal, The RBL Group  

The performance of an employee is directly proportional to the number of positive conversations between a manager and an employee. Everyone is aware of the influx of millennials into the global workforce. They are a generation of minds who look for continuous feedback that leads to growth and success in life. They also join a company that has a robust culture and offers a plethora of growth opportunities. 

Then, what kind of culture should be built in your company to accommodate such a dynamic workforce? 

You should update your systems and processes to the latest demands and trends in the talent market. Continuous feedback plays a significant role in the decision-making of employees. But if the managers are not trained enough to handle the chats with employees, you are missing out on something HUGE. And then, there would be a large employee turnover rate. 

You know the famous saying, employees do not quit the company but their bosses. 

“Performance should be an expectation of employment and it is the leaders’ job to create an  environment where maximum performance is possible.” 

– Rob Burn, President, L & L Solutions 

Especially, in this remote working scenario, managers should be more understanding than ever. They should listen to the concerns of the employees and help them find solutions like a mentor. If it is something you should handle, take action immediately as a leader. Guide the employees as this is a new model to them. Do not nag and micromanage like a boss. Give them autonomy and hold them accountable for their works.

Continuous Check-ins Help in Achieving the Right Goals in the Right Time 

With regular feedback and conversations with the managers, the employees hardly go off the track. The midway corrections are done, and so the employees can achieve their goals within the stipulated time and without compromising the quality. In fact, productivity and innovation rise twofold because the employees will be always engaged and motivated.

Mutual trust and loyalty are built between the managers and employees. Besides, the employees see growth in the company. Research proves that employees who feel that the top management cares for them and takes their concerns seriously, perform 10 times better. In addition to that, learning is one of the significant priorities of job searchers, and so they choose a company based on that. Learning is higher with continuous check-ins.    

The feature boosts employee morale and dedication. This is the most needed interaction in 2021 where employees work and collaborate remotely.   

HANDPICKED RELATED LINKS: 

• How to Set SMART Goals That Actually Work for Everyone
• Employee Goal Management for Millennials: Tips & Tricks
• How Does Employee Goal Management Drive Business Outcomes?