This year is a time to measure certain behavioural clusters/competency areas, to find a true picture of how people think, feel and act under such pressure and as their true selves. If you realize, this year would have taken away most, if not all the masks, people usually wear in the workplace.
2020 was a year of discovery, adjustments, and ambiguity. Is the ambiguity over? The answer is not signed and sealed yet. In many senses the future of work and workplaces, both are still getting rewritten in most industries. In some industries, much more than the others.
One part of the economy saw lay-offs, rollbacks, role rationalizations, and make-do with the least workforce approach. Aviation, hotels, retails and even manufacturing had these challenges. The other industries/ businesses had a different challenge. Some businesses were struggling with delivering on-the-fly. Insurance, telecom, unorganized & organized retail are a few of these. Others were in the middle of the pandemic and working in the hazard zone. Medical, waste disposal, delivery services, transportation, logistics, and more to name a few. Yet others had to manage stable demands with work from home as the mainstay. Healthcare, several services companies, essential services, and manufacturing or logistics units had such challenges. Much of this
pandemic, affected business processes from strategy & financial planning to pay-outs and debt servicing. Leaders and business owners are still searching for the right responses to the changes.
In this context, the yearly appraisals and goal-setting exercises too are at the receiving end and am sure none of us will have a perfect answer here too. Traditionally, assessment cycles have relied on yearly goals, goal cascade, periodic checks, and year-end appraisals. Much depended on these cycles – promotions, merit increases, bonus pay-outs, and even talent refresh. But in 2020, truncated timeline, and well-planned goals laid to waste, could have been very well your organization’s story, like most. Additionally, as the restrictions opened-up, serving the new patterns of customer demand could also have been your reality.