Performance Development in a Remote or Hybrid Workplace

An important consideration in establishing a remote or hybrid work arrangement is that the employee must be able to do their work as well or better than they do when working on campus. Proceeding without addressing this can pose problems and undermine even the best performance development practices. 

Performance development is a shared responsibility of manager and employee both in person and in a remote or hybrid workplace. In addition to the standard performance development practices, the following practices can be helpful in a remote or hybrid workplace:

Special Considerations in a Remote or Hybrid Workplace

Visibility: It is possible a manager will have less visibility into the daily activities of an employee in a remote or hybrid workplace. This might affect a manager’s confidence in the employee’s performance. At the same time, an employee might worry that their manager is unaware of or disinterested in what they are doing.

Tips

• Staying in touch (Linkedin Learning, 3:19)

Fairness: A manager might unintentionally favor an employee they regularly see in person over more remote employees. This could show up in the assignment of tasks,  development opportunities, and in performance evaluations. A mostly remote employee may also worry they are at a disadvantage compared to their on-campus colleagues.

Tips

• Are You Ready for the Hybrid Workplace? (13-minute podcast from Wharton Business Daily touching upon equity and power considerations)

Communication: Communication between a manager and a hybrid team is at risk of being uneven, with employees who are regularly co-located with the manager having more timely access to information. More remote employees are at risk of not having helpful context and background for their work and should ask if they need that context or background. Working remotely also requires a thoughtful approach to using the best mode of communication for a particular message.

Tips

• Remote Communication (Linkedin Learning, 4:26)

Feedback: Managers might be less inclined to provide regular feedback in a hybrid or remote environment. When feedback is provided remotely, it can be hard to gauge a person’s reaction to the feedback, as body language and facial expressions are less evident virtually, especially if cameras are off.

Tips

• Giving and receiving feedback virtually (Linkedin Learning, 4:00)

Accountability: Managers are more likely to see signs of performance issues in person, whether through tardiness, poor effort, or disengagement in the work or meetings. We tend to address what we plainly see. Performance issues with mostly remote employees can be less evident, potentially showing up only in work deliverables. It can be hard to know the cause of a poor deliverable, and in such case, a manager might be slow to address a performance issue.

Tips

• Managing remote workers (Linkedin Learning, 2:36)
• Create a culture of accountability (Linkedin Learning, 2:58)

Engagement: Fully or mostly remote employees might feel disconnected from their manager and colleagues and might not have the sense of being part of a shared enterprise. While they might perform well in their role, a sense of isolation can affect their engagement over time.

Tips

• How to avoid feeling isolated while working remotely (Linkedin Learning, 3:27)
• Politics of not being in the office (Linkedin Learning, 3:20)

Trust: Trust is essential to the effectiveness of a team and to the relationship between a manager and employee. Factors that can help build and maintain trust include communication, personal connections, being part of a shared endeavor, and reliability over time. These factors are potentially at risk of not being adequately met with remote or hybrid teams.

Tips

• How to Build Trust with Colleagues You Rarely See (Harvard Business Review)

Finding the Right Balance for Remote and Hybrid Teams

Avoid measuring only:

Activities. Activities are the actions taken to produce results. Although it is easier to see the activities that in-person employees are performing, remote tasks are just as important to mission success. Don’t forget to recognize and thank your employees for their work, whether you can see the effort that went in or not.

Labor Hours. Labor hours are the measure of time spent at a desk. Productivity and performance are not driven by an employee’s physical presence during work hours, but by the output created during their time working. Whether employees are in the office, at home, or elsewhere, taking breaks and establishing work-life balance should be encouraged.

Strive to measure holistically:

Accomplishments. Accomplishments are the products of employee activities or tasks. While activities are described as verbs (e.g., writing, filing, scheduling), accomplishments are described as adjectives and nouns (e.g., timely reports, reliable data, exceptional customer service, proactive solution development, etc.). Aim to measure employee performance by the accomplishment along with the activity.

Outcomes. Outcomes are the final results of an organization or team’s work. Individuals and teams should also be measured by their ability to make progress towards outcomes over time through hard work and innovation, such as enhancing process efficiency, improving client satisfaction, and reducing costs.

Balance these factors:

• Skills-Based: The core competencies or skills necessary to successfully operate on a day-to-day basis
  
  Vs.
  
  Results-Based: The indicators to measure progress based on outputs, outcomes, and impact
   
• Qualitative: A variable, abstract, and typically more open-ended form of measurement
  
  Vs.
  
  Quantitative: A data-driven, numerical, or statistical form of measurement
   
• Objectivity: Impartial and concrete measurement without bias or prejudice
  
  Vs.
  
  Fairness: Fair judgement of performance with acknowledgement of the various struggles an employee may be facing

See Also

Our manager resources on Engaging Staff and Teams, which includes curated tips on managing staff who are in remote or hybrid mode.