Human Resource Management

Making
Fairer inPerformance
a Hybrid Reviews
Workplace
by Scott Behson
February 03, 2023

Klawe Rzeczy

Summary.   Creative approaches to performance evaluation are necessary at

hybrid workplaces to make sure that all employees are evaluated and developed
according to their merit, regardless of where they do most of their work.
Workplaces that have successfully managed the... more

One of the biggest challenges managing in a hybrid work

environment is finding ways to accurately assess performance.
With some employees working most of the time at the office and
others working most of their time remotely, it’s essential that
evaluations are not unduly influenced by the amount of time a
manager sees his or her employee face-to-face.

When I was writing The Whole-Person Workplace, I interviewed

representatives from over 40 companies while they grappled with
the challenges of pandemic-related remote and hybrid work,
focusing, in part, on employee evaluations. While there were
many examples of how traditional good management still
mattered, I also found that there were new hybrid-specific
approaches that were evening the playing field and allowing
employees and managers alike to do their best work. Here’s what I
learned.

Emphasize Culture and Values

It is crucial for hybrid workplaces to have all employees
understand and act according to the values of your organization
— regardless of where they work.

One way to reinforce a common set of values is through your

approach to performance appraisal. For example, online retailer
Zappos evaluates employees both on performance and whether
they are promoting Zappos culture in their day-to-day work.
According to founder and former CEO Tony Hsieh, “We’ll fire
people if they’re not good for the culture, even if they are doing
their work perfectly fine.”

Similarly, the performance evaluation program at Johnstone

Supply, a New Jersey based HVAC supply company, places its
values front and center. According to CHRO Chris Geschickter,
“When we do performance reviews, our values are our leading
criteria. The majority of how we do performance evaluation is by
reflecting on our core values, and then assessing whether an
employee’s behavior is aligned with them, in terms of customer
service, teamwork, and such. To us, performance evaluation is a
conversation throughout the year, with a lot of self-evaluations.”
Values-based approaches to evaluations create a common
platform for assessing performance of differently situated
employees while promoting a unified workplace culture. While
incorporating values into performance evaluation isn’t
necessarily new, redoubling efforts towards this seemed to
resonate particularly strongly in hybrid environments.

Continually Track the Most Important Metrics

Dallas-based tax services firm, Ryan, LLC, shifted to a Results-
Only Work Environment in 2008, allowing employees to work
from anywhere and at any time. Their transition has been a huge
success — turnover has plummeted; morale, engagement,
customer satisfaction, and financial performance have soared.

Key to making it work is a performance appraisal approach that

uses a set of agreed-upon performance metrics that are
consistently tracked, and can be accessed at any time on a
convenient intranet dashboard. Former CHRO, Delta Emerson,
explained, “Managers and employees can log on and see their
dashboard. It displays their revenue targets and other
performance goals, as well as where they stand and how their
performance feeds into incentive pay. Finally, we hold managers
accountable by tracking turnover and engagement scores in their
groups.”

It’s important to note that Ryan’s approach — which provides

clarity on goals and continuous measurement of performance —
translates perfectly to hybrid work environments. Their system is
fair and transparent for both those employees who mostly work at
the office and those who mostly work remotely, and, importantly,
creates accountability for managers in engaging and retaining
employees.
Leverage Technology
With agreement on which metrics of employee performance to
track, companies can then leverage technology to further level the
playing field. General Electric, for example, uses an app-based
system that allows employees to share performance milestones
with their teams and managers.

While the company once prided itself on its process of formal,

competitive annual performance reviews, this new approach
encourages collaborative performance conversations. Managers
use it to provide frequent feedback through performance
“touchpoints” to employees. And peers use it to provide real-time
developmental feedback and recognition.

This approach focuses employees and managers on continuous

improvement and development, bolstering decisions on raises,
promotions, and developmental opportunities which now occur
year-round. As a result, the app-based system helps level the
playing field by ensuring employees, managers, and coworkers
can better “see” each other’s work and provide feedback no matter
where work gets done.

Ifhasyour
to, workplace
too has changed, your evaluation process
The move to remote or hybrid environments for many companies
has been a bumpy one. What I saw in my research though is that
traditional good management including frequent goal-setting,
peer feedback, and progress reporting, still mattered. The
difference was in how companies now need to apply these
principles. And while I saw companies applying them in the
variety of ways I outlined above, they all were successful for three
reasons.

First, they defined performance in terms of customer satisfaction,

company values, core activities, and project completion. Second,
they incorporated regular goal-setting and feedback sessions.
 Finally, they encouraged collaboration and team building by
sharing performance assessment responsibilities across the
workforce.

The lesson, then, is that creative approaches to performance

evaluation are not only possible, but required at hybrid
workplaces. It is the only way to ensure that all employees are
evaluated and developed according to their merit, regardless of
where they do most of their work.

Scott Behson is a professor of management

and Silberman Global Faculty Fellow at
Fairleigh Dickinson University, and the author
of the new book, The Whole-Person Workplace:
Building Better Workplaces Through Work-Life,
Wellness and Employee Support. 

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