Secondly, we need this to be consistently applied across the entire organisation regardless of where or when an employee works.
It became blatantly clear that managers were not able to measure the right things at the start of the pandemic. The global demand for employee surveillance software went up by nearly 80% in March 2020, compared with the 2019 monthly average, according to research by Top10vpn.
The scariest part is that it looks like it could be the new normal. Demand for employee surveillance software was as strong in 2022 as in 2021 at 57% higher than in 2019, a bigger increase than in 2020. In 2023, it remains 51% above 2019 levels.
These managers have what is termed “productivity paranoia.” The term was coined by Microsoft to describe the situation where managers fear that employees are not working when they are working remotely.
The sad indictment of these managers is that when they had a line of sight of an employee in the office for 8 hours, they still did not know if they were working. They assumed that they were. These misguided souls believe that hours equate to outcomes.
At the start of the year, I wrote a newsletter called “Resolution or Resolve?” which explored the need to reset the performance management system. I said:
“Even before the pandemic, less than one in five HR leaders believed that performance management was effective at achieving its objective according to Gartner. This must be a concern. If the process was broken before the pandemic, failure to act now will destroy it. Leaders must have the resolve to change how they handle the performance management of a remote workforce. If they don’t, trust will disintegrate, employee engagement will fall, and employees will walk out of the door.”
I discussed the need to make the following changes. I will leave you to read the newsletter for yourselves.