Global Webinar On Performance Management - Work From Anywhere / Hybrid Environment Write-Ups

1. Ms. Roopa Menezes- Associate Director (Senior HRBP), NielsenIQ, Sydney.

Ms. Menezes spoke about how the ways of working have changed amidst the pandemic. This has changed the goal-setting that is done by organizations. They have become boundaryless. Earlier, everyone used to look forward to having a face-to-face interaction which helped in a lot of things such as analyzing one’s behavior using physical and emotional cues. But that has changed now as things have become virtual. However, one thing that did not change is the possibility to have discussions even if they are restricted to virtual platforms. Carrying out discussions that can still motivate people to brainstorm using breakouts such as Google suite that is used in Ms. Roopa’s organization is another way method to keep up the engagement. They have encouraged their employees to share their thoughts without any filtration as there are no filters in the real world. Another important aspect that was highlighted was the use of technology. Using technological tools to their maximum capacity and pus the potential of the firm and its employees resulting in better output and growth. Further, it is was highlighted in the discussion that goals set by an organization need to be flexible so that changes can be made and understood depending upon the external factors that are affecting the operations such as updates on what was happening in other countries during the pandemic. Hence, it is necessary to have a flexible goal and not be hung up on what was decided. This will help the company to make its goal disruption-proof.

1. How has covid impacted the organization and changed the expectations of the employees and managers:

Ms. Roopa answered this question by saying that organizations must not let the virtual world limit the interaction or filter the thoughts. It is always good the share and discusses past experiences and other perspectives to keep up the engagement and learning. One must invest all their learning while setting a goal for the future. This is especially because managers do not get to observe the physical cues of their employees now hence, it is vital to ask the employees to keep their cameras on during the meeting. However, such requirements of a virtual meeting must be communicated in advance to the employee so that they are prepared for the same. She added by saying that “Trust has taken the front seat.” Employees are no more directly aligned with their managers, nor do managers question their employees like before. Managers consider the productivity and output given by their employees rather than the time invested by them to complete a task. Trust is now more aligned to productivity.

2. Sometimes thought filtration disrupts the creativity that an individual tries to bring into the organization, how can that be dealt with?

This question was addressed by Ms.Roopa saying that employees must be encouraged to share their thoughts openly without any filtration. This is what the employees expect, and managers must encourage it to motivate the employees and bring out their creativity.

- Simran Gupta

2. Ms. Molline Nhenjan - Deputy Director Human Resource, Office of the Auditor-General.

Ms. Molline has spoken about the impact of work from home. The positive effect of the is that companies have reported more productivity. The opportunity has come for employees to spend with their families and take care of their families in COVID situations. One of the benefits of work from home is that transportation in certain countries is that 2-3 hours is spent reaching their offices. They don’t get time for family and personal life. The significant benefit is regarding the flexibility in the work for the employees. She has highlighted the negative impact of work-life balance. Employees face an issue to balance between work and personal life. There is no bifurcation of work time and personal time in work from home, and calls are attended even at night after 10:00. Creating boundaries is a challenging task for employees in work from home format. Loneliness is another negative impact created in employees due to the interaction, and personal touch is minimal.

- Ravula Gowthami 3. Mr. Nikhil Dabhole - HR Head, TCS Sub Saharan Africa, Johannesburg

Mr. Dabhole talked about how things have become complicated during work from home and it has become more challenging for managers to manage all the employees. It has become more difficult to monitor the teams and the quality of results. Managers need to assess issues and conflicts instead of blaming the teams for being underperforming. Now since the working hours have disturbed, new ways must be found to increase productivity during long working hours. Also, work evaluation has become complicated due to working remotely from homes. Work cannot be measured in absolute numbers and is hence difficult to justify. All in all, this era is like a sea of change for the industries and offices and it is important to understand that employee engagement increases with the positive working environment.`

- Shambhavi Khare

4. Faisal M. Al-Asfoor - Senior Manager L&D, Y K Almoayyed & Sons (B.S.C)

Mr. Al-Asfoor started by addressing how COVID has removed all the whiteness from the market. And as a result, Human Resource has expanded in helping entire business in all the areas. The working structure has moved to twenty-four hours and all seven days. Not only the levels of responsibilities have multiplied, but also, new changes and time zones are eliminated to ensure that productivity comes first. Managers need to indulge in deep thinking to make sure people work from home and give quality results and productivity. But on the positive side, new technologies and tools help in better tracking, and communication had reached a global level. Mr. Faisal ended with a positive note by mentioning that even though many people went through great losses in both professional and personal lives, things are getting better and digitalization has paved the way for many emerging businesses and working patterns, so there is a hope that the future holds better things for all.

- Shambhavi Khare 5. Ms. Baljeet Chabbra - C&B Leader APAC, Avaya

Ms. Baljeet Chabbra is a storyteller, and she told us about the Lego narrative. The narrative begins in the Danish country of Denmark. Ole Kirk Christiansen, a carpenter, was having financial difficulties. Then his wife, who was also the mother of his four sons, died. This was difficult for everyone. He was on the lookout for new methods to generate money while also making his children happy. As a result, he began crafting wooden toys. They were excellent in every way. His four kids aided him in his business, and word quickly spread, and large orders started to pour in. However, the toys did not sell quickly. He thought that his stuffed animals required a new name. He picked the name "Lego," which means "play well" in Danish. Then, a few years later, his workshop was destroyed by fire. Everything had been ruined. Ole was on the verge of giving up. But he concluded that supporting his staff and children was essential. He began making a few plastic toys not long after. He then decided to design a toy "system" that would encourage children's imagination and creativity. To test the concept, they created a town. And it was a hit right away! Sales began to flood in quickly. Then they had to find out how to join the components together. Soon after, they decided to cease producing wooden toys and concentrate only on the plastic toys that went with them. Then they began to construct an increasing variety of models. Every single one had to be of the most extraordinary caliber. In Danish, Lego's motto is "Det bedste er ikke for godt," which translates to "only the finest is good enough." Ms. Baljeet linked this anecdote to the concept that disruption creates new chances. These present circumstances aid in the discovery of new methods for achieving objectives. Life being divided into three phases.

 

The present pandemic has caused changes in the environment, but it has also provided us with opportunities to develop answers and better ways to achieve our goals. She followed up by saying, "How corporations deal with change will decide whether employees can work from anywhere, whether at home or in the office."

- Sherin Susan Thomas 6. Mukesh Mali - Regional HRBP EMEA & S. America, BASF Chemetall, Frankfurt. Mr. Mukesh Mali through his talk focussed on how the change in the work environment brought about a lot of uncertainty amongst the employees and the work processes in the Chemetall as an organization.

The sudden changes in the work environment created a lot of uncertainty amongst the employees and work processes at Chemetall. Mr. Mali stressed how there was a sudden need for the employees and stakeholders to stay connected more than ever before. The change to a virtual work setting was so sudden that various tools and processes had to be adopted and implemented to ensure the communication and performance of employees were not hampered.

The change created a lot of space for thought and innovation where since decisions could not be taken for other countries, understanding their needs and then drafting rules and policies became the need which then gave rise to a hybrid work setting. Mr. Mali testified that the hybrid work setting proved to be effective in terms of productivity as well as maintaining a work-life balance.

But this change was accepted by the senior leadership with a lot of uncertainty. Mr. Mali mentioned that in Germany leaders are working in seniors positions even at the age of 60 years. Thus, getting them adapted to change and having a change in the mindset was a challenge.

Apart from this, as mentioned by Mr. Mali, various processes like performance management were now looked at differently from a productivity lens and not at face value. The regular reviews too were changed from 6 months to an ongoing process lately.

- Sanaya Mathew

7. Mr. Sanjay Tiwari - Head Business HR - GAS (BU) Value Chain, AHL NIGERIA, Lagos

The knowledge Mr. Sanjay Tiwari shared was mainly revolving around performance management. Initially, Mr. Tiwari spoke about the impact of COVID-19 on various business formats and how it bought certain hardships and difficulties to the same. In his statement, he said that the most affected industry during COVID-19 was the manufacturing industry. They witnessed severe problems like difficulty in the movement of goods and services, improper delivery schedules, non-functioning of workstations and plants, which put business people in a huge dilemma. Apart from the above-mentioned physical challenges, people were struggling mentally too. Managers had a difficult time spreading psychological positivity around the work environment. The surge of the COVID-19 virus has highlighted that organization requires a collective effort from employees and other associated people to survive the scenario. Mr. Tiwari mentioned that the HR department was of great importance during the pandemic. If people working in the organization are physically and mentally enriched, it will flourish no matter what the environment is. An organization should devote time and money for the beneficial development of its employees, which would later help the organization. Especially in the pandemic period, the human resource of an organization should be provided with ways to make them and their families well connected. The gravity of the situation is much more intense; the employees working in the organization would be worried about their near and dears, thus leading to poor performance. At the same time, an organization cannot allow all its employees to be at their homes. Employees must stay at the organization and work rather than performing their daily work routines at home. The second most crucial element to be taken care of is the work environment. Organizations must ensure to provide healthy and safe work environments. The infrastructure designed must be able to deliver physical and mental support and be equipped with policies, practices, and other facilities covering employees and their families. This is primarily to create a mindset where the organizations take sole responsibility for their significant stakeholders during tough times. The latter part of Mr. Tiwari's session explained how his organization – AHL Nigeria (Gas-BU), geared itself to tackle the changing environment and meet the demanding mental health needs. He ended his session by saying that performance management is important, but the above-mentioned elements are equally important.

- Rahul R 8. Mr. Dolphy Goveas - Goodhope Asia Holdings Ltd, Head Global HR, Greater Jakarta

Mr. Dolphy Goveas gave an insight into performance management. As the head of Global HR Operations at Goodhope Asia Holdings Ltd, which is a plantation company, the company couldn't have work from home during the covid situations. It was the biggest challenge for the company to handle the situation as there were movement restrictions. Several changes happened including mindset change, how people look at the situation and the work. The company was trying to find a solution to support the workers who were working from home and who were working in the field. Ensuring whether the productivity has increased or decreased was the challenging part. He also mentioned that the outcome and performance of the employees have increased as the employees have been given much liberty to work at any time. 

- Shreyashi Bhattachharya 9. Mr. Ritesh Agarwal – SalesCapability Head-AsiaBU Food & Beverages PepsiCo Bangkok

Ritesh Agarwal stressed the need to encourage students to understand background context in performance management to adapt in a working environment as covid is not the first change to have ever. happened. He tells us that it is very evident that since the pandemic came into existence, all working ways have changed. Mr. Agarwal pointed out some of the factors that possibly contribute to the changes in the working environment, with some being, the external ones, like the Covid 19 pandemic, and internal factors such as the change in ambiance and routines since the pandemic started. He also mentioned the change in tools, ease of transactions, and ease of collaborating in terms of communication channels, such as Skype, Microsoft teams, etc. He also mentioned that changes can be decided whether they are permanent or temporary based purely on the context of things around us.  

Mr. Agarwal also spoke about how to understand what changed are needed in performance management and not make any changes if they can be avoided, creating a 2x2 matrix helps and can be much needed to understand it visually and clearly.  

- David George Mathews 10. Mr. Parsuram Dash - Head of Training HR & Admin, VE Pharma, Manila

Mr. Parsuram began his talk by stating how grateful today's generation should be since they can choose the job location of their choice and not being influenced by the decisions of their parents.

Further, Mr. Dash spoke about the Performance Management topic and how it made him think about the last 2 years on how monitoring the KPIs during the pandemic was done as the annual KPIs were not met. He explained how in June - July his organization did the half-yearly review and realized that several employees were not able to meet their KPIs cause of the lockdown and the several changes that they were going through. They realized that if this wasn’t happening, how could they rate their KPIs, how do they give the employees scores, how do they decide their annual increment and how do they prepare their annual appraisals were all topics to ponder on. He mentioned that it was a very challenging job for HR and there they decided that they will go for a quarterly review and quarterly assessment of the parameters.

In 2021, VE Pharma started its performance management KPIs to match certain needs. An example given by Mr. Parsuram was that certain needs never existed and they had to incorporate them and certain departments weren’t needed anymore that had been shut down like the travel department. There and many more different changes were done by the organization to meet the needs of the business.

Mr. Dash ended his talk by saying, “We are still growing and that means the way you adapt to new dynamics and the smarter you change the parameters, the business will be benefitted. At the end of the day, if the business is not surviving, nobody would have a place. During these 2 years, the maximum learning has happened for the HR professional where they were always challenged and questioned on how the organization can improve week on week and month on month.

- Sanaya Mathew