CHANGE AND REVISION IN WORLDWIDE PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

POLICIES DUE TO COVID-19 PANDAMIC.

(M. Atif Bashir)

“Performance Management is defined as “A strategic and integrated approach to increasing the effectiveness of
organizations by improving the performance of the people who work in them and by developing the capabilities of
teams and individual contributors”. (Armstrong and Baron, 1998).

Performance Management Helps to Boost Employee Engagement and Productivity. Engaged employees stay longer,
actively involve themselves in the workplace and produce better results. Improving levels of employee engagement
is key to boosting productivity and maximizing Return on Investment. Performance management can improve the
effectiveness of public services. They also have a positive impact on outcomes for service users. There is less hard
evidence that performance management produces efficiency savings, so alternative means for promoting cost-cutting
innovations may be required.

Every country focuses on performance management policies and revised it with the passage of time to meet with
global standards. Government of every country annually review performance management policies but due to
COVID-19 worldwide pandemic every country reviewed their performance management polies on urgency basis to
meet with crises occurred by COVID-19.

After brief reading of the 4 to 5 countries (both Eurpion & Asian) performance management policies and recent
changes to manage COVID-19 effects, it is concluded that each country more or less changed following policies to
compromise with pandemic effects. The

 Change in Performance Evaluation Criteria

 Revision in Performance Budgeting
 Change in Performance Auditing
 Cross-Cutting Issues
 Revise New Public management Policies
 Revise Performance Improvement Policies
 Revision in Wages & Salary Policies

Change in Performance Evaluation Criteria

Performance evaluation and reporting should be studied under the complex and multidimensional concept of
performance. Performance evaluation is an important element in the management control of an organization
through the incorporation of key performance indicators in performance measurement systems. A traditional
Performance evaluation system includes a standard evaluation form, standard performance measures, and guidelines
for delivering feedback, and disciplinary procedures, performance evaluations can enforce the acceptable boundaries
of performance, promote staff recognition and effectiveness, but despite the ongoing policies of performance
management, due to non-availability of employees during pandemic tenure almost every country changed
performance evaluation criteria.

Change in Performance Budgeting

Performance budgeting also plays a vital role in performance management. Before this pandemic the most of the
budget is used to pay rewards and incentives to motivate & encourage employees towards productivity and
achievement of organizational goals, but to COVID-19 pandemic all the countries revised their performance
budgeting to manage economic crisis and to provide hygienic working environment for better health of the
employees.

Change in Performance Auditing

Performance audit defined as adding value to the Management by way of reliable, objective and independent
information, highlighting the shortcomings in programme planning, implementation, information systems affecting
the outputs and outcome specifically and quality of expenditure or management generally. In traditional way the
performance auditing was judged by observing employees at real time environment with productivity and behavioral
aspects, but due to pandemic, when employees are at virtual platform, all the countries changed performance auditing
criteria to meet real time performance auditing. The rate of performance auditing criteria is different in European and
Asian countries but more or less all the countries changed their policies.

Change in Cross-Cutting Issues Management

Cross-cutting issues are topics that are identified as important and that affect and cut across most or all aspects of
development. These topics should therefore be integrated and mainstreamed throughout all stages of development
from policy design, to implementation, evaluation and learning. Major cross-cutting issues include gender
mainstreaming, community empowerment, sustainability, equity and inclusion, and social accountability. During
pandemic period all the countries revise their cross-cutting management policies to overcome the fairs and balance
empowerment issues for better productivity of public sectors.

Revise New Public management Policies

The core themes for the New Public Management is Greater customer orientation and responsiveness and increasing
the scope of roles played by non-public sector providers but this is also effect public management and applicable in
public sector . Deregulating the labor market, replacing collective agreements to individual rewards packages at senior
levels combined with short term contracts.
Measuring performance of organization for better public service delivery is an essential part of recent public sector
reforms in many countries. It is widely recognized that a “performance management” in public sector reform is an
application of new public management (NPM) disciplines that seek economy and efficiency of public organizations
through a competitive market for “public choice.

The coronavirus has crawled across the globe. One person at a time, it has passed through millions, reaching every
corner of the earth. It has not only infected people, but every aspect of our human cultures. Policymakers and the
public sector face their biggest test in generations. Facing health crises, economic collapse, social and political
disruption, keeping in view the current situation all the countries revise their public management policy to compete
with sectorial objectives and global community as well.

Revise Performance Improvement Policies

A performance improvement plan (PIP), also known as a performance action plan, is a tool to give an employee with
performance deficiencies the opportunity to succeed. It may be used to address failures to meet specific job goals or
to ameliorate behavior-related concerns. Every country and all the organizations within country have a performance
management plan to rescue performance deficiencies to fulfill sectorial goals. Majority segments of performance
management consists on physical activities, during COVID-19 it was not possible for any country to execute this plan
with physical activities. To seek out the solution of this problem all countries changed their existing performance
improvement policies by using technological frameworks.

Revision in Wages & Salary Policies

Salary is a fixed amount paid or transferred to the employees at regular intervals for their performance and
productivity, at the end of the month whereas wages are hourly or daily-based payment given to the labor for the
amount of work finished in a day. Basic salaries & wages are determined by observing economic situation of the
country and according to the inflation/deflation & economic crisis annual increment is calculated, but due global
pandemic all the economic situation of all the countries were badly effected and the rate of inflation is rapidly
increased all over the world. Due to this global issue wages & salaries policies are also revised to manage performance
management of the employees and organizations as well.