Performance management is a dynamic field that keeps on evolving in sync with the industry's needs. Effective performance management creates a positive environment for employees to meet their objectives and contribute to meeting the organisational and individual goals.

The pandemic which swept the country led to people working remotely because of the lockdown. The banking industry which came under essential services had a pivotal role to play in keeping the economy running. The industry witnessed a disruption with digitisation getting an unprecedented push. As a result, performance management saw its fair share of changes as well. Setting mutually aligned expectations, constant communication on the progress, and feedback became imperative in ensuring banks deliver in meeting customer needs while taking care of employee well-being and expectations.  

Changes in Performance Management Process

As banks today focus on excellence in customer service delivery, productivity at work has become the focus of performance. As a result, productivity-based identification of high performers and underperformers is gaining prominence. Besides, this also leads to optimal utilisation of human resources. Productivity-based identification will no longer be only limited to business functions, but endeavours will be made to extend it to support and control functions. 

Similarly, role-based scorecards could be introduced to ensure role clarity for incumbents of each role to provide stretch targets and strengthen objective performance discussions on an ongoing basis. A balanced scorecard approach to ensure these provide each employee line of sight into their contribution towards the bank’s success.

Digitisation of Performance Management Process

As digitisation pervades business functions and operations processes, the Human Resource Management Services find themselves more digitised than ever. A banking institution has a geographically distributed workforce and the ability of employees to experience each aspect of performance management through a digital platform- including confirmation reviews, dynamic goal setting, review discussions, journal maintenance, PIP makes the process seamless. Endless possibilities have opened up since all functionality is available on the mobile app of HRMS ensuring “performance management on the go. Performance management should be an ongoing process and digitisation is enabling performance discussion to become a part of daily life.

Communication Overhaul

Agility and simplicity will be the key going ahead and digitisation will aid banks to that effect. Leveraging new-age tools, communication processes are streamlined through HRMS notifications and task assignments. As new communication channels open, conference calls, email are useful in establishing performance standards as well as in reiterating performance benchmarks and requirements. Similarly, the use of SMS, WhatsApp messages to cascade and broadcast messages and use by leaders and supervisors to reiterate various key messages brings clarity.

As a result of various such continuous reinforcement of messages, employees will develop much greater clarity on performance management practices and will understand what each rating means. The pandemic will also bring a clear understanding that will transpire in bringing a performance-linked philosophy of meritocracy. Banks will meanwhile continue to create processes tailor-made to their needs and those that put them in a higher trajectory will stay.