The global workforce underwent a massive transformation even as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted work. This prompted organizations to significantly change their performance management, and learning & development processes to tackle productivity challenges.
A recent surveyOpens a new window by Engagedly, which covered about 20 different industries, explored how these two areas of talent management changed in 2020 despite the evident challenges to keep the workforce engaged as they continue to work remotely. Here’s what it observed:
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Performance Management Goes Virtual
As work from home became the new normal, organizations not only adopted a more continuous check-in based approach but also moved toward a Goal/OKRs-based approach while managing performance.
More than half of the respondents said they more frequently participated in ongoing check-ins with their managers and performance review assessments. This  helped at least 64% of surveyed employees  to feel more engaged. Also, 70.7% said they were satisfied with changes related to performance management processes.
When asked if these changes would stay, more than 73% of leaders believe this trend will continue post-COVID.
Leadership response to whether the changes will persist post COVID
    Source: Engagedly
The study also noted that it is the finance sector that was very satisfied with the changes. More than 39.4% of respondents said they were very satisfied with the changes, while only 3% mentioned they were very dissatisfied.
The tech industry seemed to be happy with the changes as well. While 20.8% said they were very satisfied, 5.7% said they very dissatisfied.
Meanwhile, the healthcare sector is not satisfied with the evolution of Employee Performance Management and Learning & Development processes. While only 8.0% of respondents said they were ‘satisfied,’ 0% respondents confirmed they were ‘very satisfied.’
People Development Becomes More Feedback Focused
After COVID-19 reduced physical interaction, organizations are banking on more virtual and real-time feedback to understand if the changes they adopted are yielding desired results.
The study also said, “Given the level of satisfaction with remote work changes, the future work environment may embrace a hybrid model (remote and in office), so we anticipate many of these shifts will be permanent.â€
Over 50% of respondents feel they were more frequently participating in various people development processes. Though the response varies from small to big companies, the overall experience seems positive
Company Size-wise Employee Responses
Source: Engagedly
More than 71% of leaders also said they were satisfied with the changes around people development processes. Also, 78.7% said that this trend is likely to continue post-COVID.
According to the study, online training from internal content providers and live online training from internal teams became more frequent (45.3% and 45.7%, respectively). The other people development processes that saw a significant rise in frequency are live online trainings from external content providers (44.2%), ongoing feedback (42.7%), developmental assessment (36.7%).
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What Made Employees Happy & How Does the Future Look
More than half of the employees surveyed said that they were very satisfied with the changes to both performance management and people development process and felt that the changes will be long-term.
When it comes to performance management, people seemed to be more satisfied with recognition for good/improved performance, frequent check-ins with employees around performance as well as their personal lives and optimization of systems and technology.
Similarly, with people development, employees said they were most satisfied with improved training technologies/processes, more frequent and accessible trainings for employees.
However, the majority of satisfied people feel that the challenges are far from over. They believe they will now have to manage the transition back to the in-person work environment, as well as investments in technologies and supporting a more flexible work environment.