A new Performance Management Report from leading software and services provider, Advanced, has revealed that 48 percent of UK and US workers are struggling in a hybrid environment.
Also, 73 percent state that their teams would benefit from spending more time with their manager. The report, which was conducted in November 2022 and surveyed 1,350 workers across the UK and USA, reveals that remote working is having a negative impact on effective performance management practice, leading to employee insecurity around their role with 51 percent of respondents concerned about pay cuts and 44 percent worried about being made redundant.
The findings also demonstrate a worrying upward trend when it comes to staff burnout with 91 percent of HR directors believing that burnout is now an issue, up from 84 percent compared to last year. Strikingly, 42 percent of the workforce are more stressed than last year, with only 21 percent feeling less stressed.
The report also highlighted a concerning disparity between managers and staff with regards to effective performance management. 77 percent of managers surveyed said that they have the right tools to support staff – but according to employees, they are not using them effectively, with 39 percent or workers stating performance management at their organisation is basic, or actively bad.
Disagreements between managers and their employees
There also seems to be a disagreement between managers and their employees around their views on how frequently performance management conversations are conducted. More managers than ever (72%) say they are having performance conversations with employees at least once a month, up 5 percent from last year. A stark contrast to employees when we asked them the same question. Only 25 percent of employees say this is true, which is down 2 percent from last year.
Nick Gallimore, Managing Director, People Management, Advanced comments; “This year’s report is starkly demonstrating the real impact of hybrid working on individuals, and we are now seeing the cracks emerge; which coupled with challenging trading conditions, could have disastrous results. Many businesses have fundamentally changed the way they work but with pressure on productivity and growth, what is becoming apparent is that organisations are lacking permanent management structures to accommodate the changes they made when adapting to a new way of working.”
“We know that labour market resilience is vital for economic growth. Without happy, healthy and productive employees, companies will fail to prosper. It is therefore critical that companies quickly prioritise the needs of their workforce. By adopting the right performance management technology, companies can feel confident that they are adopting best practice, implementing regular communication, goal setting, development plans, performance tracking, open and honest feedback and engagement tracking. Fundamentally ensuring one-to-one meetings with staff and managers are based on meaningful conversations that tackle issues before they become a major problem.”
Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
