Workforce 2020

 I was cleaning out a bookcase of business books over the summer of 2020 and came across Workforce 2020. Written in 1997 and published by Hudson Institute, this study was the sequel to Workforce 2000. Thumbing through it, I saw a passage about telecommuting. The authors had some interesting things to say about the topic.

High-speed, reliable telecommunications devices (meaning mobile) open up options, and the rapid advances in telecommunications in the 1980s allowed increasing numbers of Americans work outside a traditional office setting, mostly at home. “Telecommuting,” they said, “is becoming increasingly common.“ They went on to cite predictions by the U.S. Department of Transportation regarding the percentage of the labor force (10%) that will telecommute by 2002. 

It is unlikely the authors of Workforce 2020 could have predicted the lightning speed at which remote work occurred on a large-scale basis in the year 2020 when employees were sent home to work because of the pandemic. 

The study went on to say that telecommuting would become more common and be increasingly attractive to both employees and employers, affording employers the opportunity to decrease real estate costs and increase worker productivity by up to 20 percent.

Fast forward to December 2020 and a holiday letter from a friend. His organization moved to near 100% telework and, to his surprise, it had gone relatively smoothly. He attributed it to many core services moving to the cloud during 2018 and 2019, and having the infrastructure pieces in place to handle the switch. As a manager, and he’s not alone in this sentiment, he had been skeptical of remote work. (So much for increasingly attractive.) However, to his surprise productivity hasn’t lagged and in some areas it increased—as predicted in the study. He enjoys the environment where he can focus near exclusively on the task at hand and doesn’t miss the one-hour commute each way, every day, another point made in the study. Of course, he has a very real concern that lack of in-person professional contact is having a negative effect on his team. 

By now, there is no denying that working, at least for people who work in offices, will not go back to the way it was. Change was thrust upon organizations and many found they were not prepared. Out of the chaos that we’ve experienced comes opportunity. Organizations are finding new ways to work which are efficient and productive. New ideas are emerging and people are learning new skills. As we emerge from the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, hopefully the new normal will embrace accepting change and putting people first. 

Cornelia 

The Legend of Larry King

 

It seems to me that we are losing a lot of amazing people lately. I’m thinking of the recent death of broadcast legend Larry King. HE will be missed.

When Larry was on CNN five nights a week, I tuned in as often as I could—especially if his interview was with someone I either admired or knew could teach me something.

What I didn’t think about until reading all the tributes to Mr. King was the things I was also learning from watching him interview people from all walks of life and doing it in a way that appeared to be effortless.

In my HR career, I’ve interviewed thousands of job applicants, so I know a little about how to gather information during an interview. Now that I am a published author, I’ve been interviewed many times for radio, podcasts, and webinars as well as a speaker at conferences and meetings. So, I’ve seen interviews from both sides.

Larry King had a wonderful way of getting people to talk. He made them feel comfortable. He asked the questions any of us would have asked if we’d met the person, but most importantly, he listened to their responses.

When asked about his tips for interviewing, he said, “I open with broad questions, listen carefully, focus on details, interrupt if the person filibusters or grows boring, and have the discipline to stay out of the way.”

In our book, The Manager’s Answer Book, we talk about the importance of being a good listener. We say on page 126, “Listening is hard work for most of us, and we’ve spent little time learning how to listen. A good listener makes a deliberate effort to understand the other person’s message. A good listener listens to learn, is interested in what the speaker is saying, and lets the speaker know they’re listening.”

Larry King said he wasn’t afraid to sound like he didn’t know everything—another key to being a good interviewer and manager He said he was willing to admit he knew a lot less than his interview subject. This is another good piece of advice to anyone who wants to be a good listener.

He excelled at concentrating on what the interview subject was sharing. He wasn’t focused on what his next question would be. He really listened to what was being said because he trusted his instincts to come up with the next question. 

This last point takes some work but can be done. We wish you well as you work to become a better listener.

Barbara Mitchell

Ratings & Reckonings

 

Washington Post columnist Michele L. Norris wrote a piece about racial reckoning in December 2020. She described a reckoning as “...not an action item on a wish list. It is a thing. An accomplishment. A checked box. A reckoning by definition refers to the moment when we finally deal with an ugly situation. It is more than just admitting that there’s a problem.” An epiphany, she explained, is not the same thing as a reckoning. Think of epiphanies as those aha moments we often have.

Undoubtedly, 2020 was a year of disruptive discovery with lots of aha moments. Turned on our heads by the pandemic, we saw drastic changes when it came to working. Leaders in likely all organizations had epiphanies on many aspects of work. One that comes to mind: performance appraisals and evaluations.

Many organizations adjusted their performance evaluations in 2020 to account for the challenges created by the coronavirus. Google combined its usual two review periods into one and rated employees against revised expectations. Facebook suspended performance ratings in the first half and used a formula to calculate bonuses that were above the standard target. In the second half, it returned to its typical process. Box, the file-sharing service, encouraged more regular feedback between managers and employees and had just one, not two, formal review cycles.

On the same day that Norris’s column appeared, there was a post on LinkedIn by Dan L. Ward. “My best advice for those considering what sort of rating/ranking process to inflict on employees who have survived 2020 is to leave those poor people alone. They have suffered enough for one year!” Ward has led the redesign of employee performance management systems at three major organizations, processes that were rated industry best practices.

Other organizations made changes in 2020. Goldman Sachs, acknowledging that the dynamics of today’s challenges underscore the need for more transparency, had managers meet with employees three times a year, formalizing a process that was only encouraged before. Hopefully, employees received more meaningful feedback.

Some organizations suspended formal reviews for 2020, recognizing that no one, employees and managers alike, needed the additional stress. Some of these organizations are contemplating never bringing back a formal review process. 

Have these changes accelerated the shift toward more frequent feedback? The world of remote work forces managers to have more check-ins with team members. Will this be the new default?

When work returns to its normal rhythms, or something close to it, will leaders in organizations have a reckoning about performance management—namely, taking a systems approach rather than being preoccupied with performance ratings and rankings?  

Granted, performance management systems must be unique to every organization and meet their individual needs. However, the dreaded performance review, with its associated ratings, is an ugly situation in many organizations. One reason is that they are often tied to pay increases, promotions, and future layoffs. If the only time you talk to employees about their performance is when you are also talking about money, what are they listening to hear? Perhaps it’s time for a reckoning in many organizations―an opportunity to move their performance management system to a feedback mindset rather than one focused on quantitative measures.

Cornelia & Barbara