Over the years, the corporate world has evolved into what it is today. Though, technology has bridged the gap between the old ways of working and the new way. It has given people powerful ways to communicate, collaborate and access information that is important to the growth of their organizations.
However, the challenge is, many organizations are stuck in the old way of working. And for them to overcome that challenge, they need to evolve. In this era of an ever-changing work environment, it's time to create new ways that employees can quickly adapt.
The first new way of working is by setting goals. Companies who don't set goals are prone to be unsuccessful. It when they fail to plan, there's already a plan for failure.
Companies that set goals have employees who are self-confident, perform excellently well, and they experience a boost in productivity. Goal setting is a way of keeping everyone focused on the top list priority of the company.
It is important to set SMART goals that align everyone to the vision and mission of the company. It establishes a guide for your company's decisions, operations, and execution.
And the new way of the set goal is by OKR. Google uses it, so does Twitter, Uber, Zynga, to name a few. These companies have adopted a new way of working with OKR. This method is one of the most effective systems used to manage goals in recent times.
OKR is a cross-functional alignment that makes employees see the bigger picture of the company. And not only that, employees see the value of their work and how it contributes to the company goals.
If there's a doubt on why companies should implement OKR consider this survey that says: 70% of employees are disengaged and not satisfied at work, which costs companies $500 billion per year. And why that? Because these employees don't know if their work contributes to the growth of the company.
You can learn more about how to set up OKR successfully in your company in this post.
Performance Review: Employees need to know where they stand and their performance compared to the company's expectations. Several companies have performance review systems that keep employees in lop on how they are performing. It is usually conducted annually, but holding it quarterly is the new way of working.
It is conducted according to employee set objectives and the previous performance evaluation. The review analyzes how well an employee performed toward achieving their goals. There's self-evaluation, where the employee rates his performance relying on the set objective. Also, the Peer evaluation where employees who work on the same task rate each other building on the team's objective. Same also goes for the Manager's assessment, where all employees rate the performance of their manager regarding his roles and responsibilities.
Holding a frequent performance review has several benefits, including improvement of workforce performance and productivity. Though it is usually viewed as formalities and accomplishes little or nothing, so, to get the best out of each performance review, companies should exchange feedback as frequently as possible and also conduct 1-on-1 sessions.
First thing first, to make performance review go smoothly and eliminate surprises, exchange internal feedback when the situation that warrants it occurs. As easy as that may seem, many companies still fumble in that aspect. And it's quite understandable. Employee engagement reduces to 29% when there's no exchange of internal feedback. But when it is regularly exchanged employee engagement increases to 79%. You can read more on reasons to trade internal feedback in this post.
Exchange feedback on the action and not the personality. When requesting for feedback, make sure to be specific at the things you do and not who you are. Same goes for when giving feedback.
Exchange specific feedback. 'Great job!' or 'Try harder next time' is not enough, be clear on what task or what needs improvement. Unclear feedback is difficult to respond by the employee. Let the feedback be on what happened and not what you think happened.
Exchange feedback when in the right frame of mind. Otherwise, it will affect the feedback, either positively or negatively.
Exchange feedback when it can be remembered, which is immediate. Waiting for the best time will not make negative feedback positive. The sooner feedback is exchanged, the quicker everyone moves forward.
Exchange feedback in an excellent manner. The feedback that wants the other party feels evil or incompetent won't be productive. But negative feedback when exchanged nicely has a positive effect and becomes productive.
The second way to keep the performance review system running smoothly is through scheduling and conducting a manager-employee 1-on-1 session. It helps employers avoid possible problems and also make the employees feel heard. Several fast-growing companies like Intel, Hubspot, Moz, etc. are advocates for the 1-on-1 session as it is effectively implemented within these companies.
Communicate with each employee on a weekly or bi-weekly basis for at least 30 minutes. It has a long-term positive effect on the productivity of your employees and the company at large. Read more about the importance of 1-on-1 discussion in this post.
Consistency is key when it comes to 1-on-1. It should be held regularly.
Avoid discussing the status of employees projects or tasks.
Hold 1-on-1 in a pleasant and relaxing environment.
Prepare ahead of every 1-on-1 session. You can send survey questions to employees that can act as a guide during the meeting.
A scheduled session should never be canceled.
After each 1-on-1 session, follow up on each employee. Especially those who may be facing one challenge or the other.
A new way of working is through effective communication in the workplace. Unfortunately, the connection is the most common struggle in most workplaces. Data shows that it lacks in the work environment today.
Companies that practice effective communication experiences higher employee engagement, productivity, and all-around success. While companies with poor communication system are more likely to experience the opposite. And to achieve successful communication within the company, both the managers and employees at every level must be equipped. Overall, communication is an important key to business success in today's world and it's the new way of working.
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