This archive report was first published on 24 June 2020.
Thriving in a Post-COVID Work Environment ¶
With many organisations having settled their staff after the COVID-19 disruptions, it's time to expect more from every employee in terms of productivity.
As organisations review their business objectives to align them with market realities, performance objectives set at the start of the year have been overtaken by recent events.
Managers will have to determine how to conduct performance reviews for the past two quarters, which will be unfair due to unforeseen challenges including remote working, lockdown, and curfew.
However, with key measures in place to enable a conducive work environment, employees must take note that to whom much is given, much is expected.
Here are some thoughts on how you can stay ahead of the pack:
- Take note of the key deliverables across the organisation and use this as a guide to inform your new objectives.
- Review and identify what may be carried forward, revised, or disregarded from your original objectives.
- Ensure that your roles and responsibilities are well aligned to the changing organisational structures.
- Scan the market to align your tactical interventions to the new reality.
- Define the resources you need to achieve your targets, noting that there will be an expectation to do more with less.
- Seek to proactively bring your ideas to the table and demonstrate what would be at stake if support is not provided.
- Check-in with your manager for agreement and clear direction on regular review, feedback, and calibration.
Feedback is also crucial in this new environment. You have an opportunity to structure feedback more broadly to include frequent check-ins with longer bi-weekly feedback sessions to strategies and align with the market landscape.
With the complexities of remote working and other precautionary measures, feedback may need to be reviewed to allow more time or be automated to allow immediate feedback without taking precious work time.
The key message is to be open to feedback as often as possible so that you know what you need to do differently and apply it swiftly.
Finally, do not forget to set personal goals, especially looking at ways to enhance your skills to be well equipped for the job ahead.
The best way to arrive at this is to list the top three competencies that you need to exceed your goals, evaluate to see your gaps, and work on a plan to enhance your competitiveness.
While some of these skills may be available within your employer's development plans, look for ways to invest in yourself.
As Ms Muthiani, an HR specialist with over 20 years’ experience, and MD of MillennialHR notes, disruptions can birth outliers, but this happens mostly to those who embrace challenges and thrive in finding solutions.
