Remote staff evaluation is no longer just about performance; it is about the staff and leader engaging together in best work processes.

Students in the logic class braced for their final test. Through the year, the exams had been difficult. The professor decided to help out, and told the students that they could bring as much information to the final exam as they could fit onto a piece of notebook paper. Most students crammed as much as possible onto an 8-½ x 11-inch sheet of paper.

One student walked into class and put a piece of notebook paper on the floor. He then had an advanced logic student stand on the piece of paper. The advanced logic student told him everything he needed to know. He was the only student to receive an “A” on the test.

Prior to Covid-19, we had seen a shift in how companies evaluate staff. Business had been moving from performance reviews to personal development coaching. What once had been primarily an annual exercise had become a monthly to quarterly progress check-in. Fortunately, the trend anticipated a new reality: Measuring the performance and progress of remote staff.

Remote work has proven beneficial prior to Covid adjustments. 80-90% of remote workers surveyed cited improvements in personal and family life, reduction of stress, increased morale and engagement, and improved collaboration. Over 60% felt more trusted and respected. But remote work is not without issues. The most common issues form the basis by which performance reviews and coaching plans must now organize around: Connection with leadership, Communication, Community, and Coordination of Work at Home dynamics. These four serve as mutual review of leader and staff; performance evaluations are more process-focused than ever before. The leader and the staff member are asking the question, “How well is this working” and engaging in solutions together.

Connection with Leadership

One of the most common issues that arises in remote work is belief that leaders are out of touch with needs of the staff.

For the leader, the key answer to this need is to increase the relational and emotional connection with a staff member. Especially for the newly remote worker, it is important to allow for small talk and to extend the time spent 1:1. Effective leaders are finding that spending as much as an hour in 1:1 time results in increased productivity and morale. As well, leaders are employing simple gestures of emotional connection, such as the increased use of gifs, and including family members in the giving of SWAG. After all, much of the work-from-home force has now become a family affair.

In terms of evaluation, the staff member is now being measured as to progress in areas of relationship building with the leader, engagement in the time spent, teachability and query. One of coaching’s great maxims is that you can only coach what another speaks. Staff need to be evaluated more on their ability to identify their own needs in order to give their leaders a relevant agenda of progress.

Communication

Remote work and virtual meetings lose the benefits of in-person communication. Emotions do not come across in email or messaging as well. Body language is harder to read. Group dynamics are harder to discern.

Communication requires much more work at defining context. Most disagreements or misunderstandings arise because two or more people do not have the same information, have a different interpretation, or bring different implications to the table (an issue might have much more impact for one person than for another).

Leaders do well to establish regular check-ins, and to be clear on how each vehicle of communication is used: When do we video conference versus when do we IM versus when do we use channels, etc.

Leaders also establish the protocol and etiquette for conference calls and video. Best practices include training participants to be concise with what they say, clear in what they say, and courteous in listening and contributing. Stepping on someone’s comment is easier to apologize for in person than over conferencing.

From an evaluation standpoint, staff and leaders are reviewing how the process is working, and the adjustments that need to be made for mutual benefit. Staff are developing growth plans around communication dynamics.

Community and Belonging

Isolation and loneliness is the chief complaint of remote staff.

Healthy social systems are composed of trust, connection and purpose. Leaders build the sense of “being in this together,” and being valued within it.

Within the Covid crisis, leaders are finding value in setting up “tip” sheets that staff are contributing to: what tools and equipment are people finding to be effective, how are people managing time with flexible schedules, what is work-life balance looking like, what are the great restaurants for delivery service, how are you maintaining health?

Virtual events are a premium experience. Companies are covering the cost of food delivery so that everyone is eating at the same time; staff spotlights, group contests, surprise guests - all options drive the dynamic that, though separate, we are together. Pete Carroll, coach of the Seattle Seahawks, has invited celebrities and non-football athletes into his virtual team meetings, many of them going viral.

From a coaching perspective, leaders are asking staff how they are maintaining levels of trust, intentional efforts at connection, and cultivation of purpose (seeing how their work relates to the whole).

Coordination of Work from Home

Work from home has unique issues: home distractions, flexible scheduling, questions of expectations. Leaders provide for their staff insights and tools for best practices, as well as the community “board” discussed above.

Of particular importance is communication of expectations. Timelines and follow-through action steps are more critical than ever to know for a remote worker. Unless virtual group coordination is working well, it is easy to misunderstand the priority of a task and who is waiting for whom to complete a piece of work.

Evaluation must center on how well the leader is getting to the staff person what they need to know, and how well the staff member is attentive to time and completion.

The test has moved from how well a staff member performs to how well the leader and staff are working within a process. Though the emphasis is still on an employee’s growth, the leader is standing on the paper helping the staff member through the exam. It’s a four-question final exam: How is our connection? How is communication going? How is your sense of community and belonging? How well-coordinated is your work from home?