COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the world of work. Performance management systems have experienced a significant shift in view and effectiveness over the past few years, but pandemic accelerated the process further.

The introduction of new generation employees has driven a lot of change in workplace behaviours. Annual rating-based performance appraisals are slowly fading away to continuous performance monitoring. While the annual appraisal approach is still used in most companies, an increasing number of organizations have concluded that their performance management approach and methods are both outdated and ineffective.

This blog is based on a performance management report published by PeopleStrong – Performance in The New World of Work. Over 250 organizations participated in the survey, leaders, CEOs, HR heads and managers, all expressing their views on the future of Performance Management.

Thus, here are the 5 trends in employee performance management that we can expect in the next 3 to 5 years:

Trend #1: Mentorship Culture, For The Future

75% Senior HR Managers from the respondent group agree that collaboration, constant communication and a mentorship culture between managers and teams will become the future mandate of a high performing workplace

Trend #2: Driving Growth Mindset

Growth focused sentiment currently runs high amongst the manufacturing industry, as they have been impacted by lockdowns the most. Respondents perceive that product innovation with faster execution will be the elixir that will keep them forward in already competitive marketplace

Companies are getting the market ready to ride the next wave of change. It is of utmost importance to create a growth mindset within employees and amongst teams.

Trend #3: Collaboration Is The Key

When asked about enhancing output efficiency, 42.86% of the respondents from Manufacturing industry responded that a well synchronized network of teams would be the best approach in the future. Followed by IT/ITES industry.

As lockdowns are breaking the traditional workplace models, rethinking performance management system in 2020 was of utmost priority. The Work From Home concept is here to stay longer than expected. It is visible from the above table, industries which never thought of such practice are more inclined to adopt them

Trend #4: Outcome Oriented, To Remain Relevant

Focus on outcome rather than the process is slowly taking over organizational ideologies as enterprises are rooting for objectivity and looking beyond a simple checklist. Most of the organizations are adopting the concept of OKRs as they provide the best blueprint to better articulate your goals and outline a roadmap to achieving them.

Trend #5: Industries Have Different Focus In The Next 3 to 5 Years

BFSI – 83%

Of the survey respondents feel that the industry should start focusing on a mentorship culture, where constant exchange of feedback is the key

Retail - 79%

Of the survey respondents feel that the industry should start focusing on a mentorship culture, where constant exchange of feedback is the key

Pharma/Healthcare- 72%

Of the pharma/healthcare industry is highly focused on being agile and fail fast, as innovation in terms of products and services is crucial in our current scenario

Logistics- 65%

Of the respondents believe the logistics industry is bracing up for a major overhaul due to the pandemic, thus are leaning towards HRTech advancements that increase productivity by minimizing time, cost and errors.

Education Services- 60%

Of the survey respondents feel that they need to reimagine their current products/services and have the ability to launch them at a faster pace

Internet Business/ IT- 57%

Of the survey respondents perceive collaboration being the key to higher output, as most of the employees follow WFH model

Manufacturing- 54%

Of the survey respondents perceive collaboration being the key to higher output, as most of the employees follow WFH model.

Present uncertain times require immediate and long-term strategies that put an employee’s performance at the centre of all planning. Such sentiments have been expressed by leaders through the survey. The initial plan of action to deal with the pandemic did not include re-engineering of Performance Management systems by most organizations. But now it is a requirement for most and a game-changer for those who are proactive.