Nightmares don’t have to involve scary ghosts or masked ninjas to be terrifying. It can mean a top performer leaving when you need them most. Or, a disgruntled employee leaving a bad review the same day a job candidate is interviewing with you.
These nightmares too can leave you breathless, and give you sleepless nights. But, not all hope is lost.
You can still come out swinging if you have the right arsenal by your side. Peoplebox is your knight in shining armor to stay guard by your side, and in this article, we’ll discuss why and how.
Nightmares That Keep HRs Awake At Night
1. The Manager is Uncomfortable Giving Critical Feedback, So They Promote The Employee
You spend hours training your managers on giving feedback and ratings before the review season comes up. At the last minute, the people-pleasing manager you worry about gives an awesome rating to an awful performer whose results have tanked.
You were relieved all this while knowing they we’re going to be put on a PIP and monitored closely. But suddenly, the manager makes them a superstar – all because they couldn’t have a hard conversation.
Your leadership gives you a surprised look, and every person who has had to work with them gives you a cold stare. Heartbroken, you go, “Why God, why?!”
You dig deep into the review and find the employee you wanted to retrain is now on track for promotion. They think their skill set (which is average at best) is superior. A system to guide the managers would have made your life simpler. It should hold them accountable during the meeting. It should also have discussion points for each subsequent meeting.
When you mention retraining them in the HR review, they’re too pleased with themselves. They say, ‘I don’t think I need it;, I’m up for a promotion.’ Does anyone smell smoke?
Peoplebox is here to stop the smoke and prevent this horror from coming true. Managers can create a detailed agenda for each 1:1 meeting. It should cover all important points to discuss. No more fidgeting or struggling to give candid feedback.
This way, all discussions are focused and productive. Managers can list key topics and urgent issues to discuss. This helps both prepare for the conversation. This way, no one is caught off guard. This approach prevents discomfort in giving critical feedback. It ensures that important points are not overlooked.
After each call, managers can easily follow up on action items in Peoplebox. This feature fosters clear accountability and tracking of progress on previously discussed topics.
2. Employee Sues the Company For Wrongful Termination
Last week was too tiring. An employee, often picked on for poor work, was impulsively fired while you were OOO. You had to defend them hundreds of times.
When you came back, the manager said all was okay. They followed the procedure to the letter. But the emails you asked for, or the notice you wanted never saw the light of day. They seem to tiptoe around it. Something in your gut tells you they’re hiding something. You think about all the possible folders for their review docs every day until D-day arrives. You’re served with a wrongful termination suit for lakhs of rupees.
You gasp for breath. You head to the file room. You search for their records and all calls and emails from when the manager complained about them. Only records of complaints to you over calls. No formal docs telling the employee that their performance was bad. None, whatsoever.
News has reached the leadership team and they want to see you. Your manager is quite confident that you’re on top of things and you have evidence of poor performance. As they enter the meeting to defend you, you pull them aside. “Umm, I’m not sure we have any…”
Peoplebox is your ultimate partner-in-crime for preventing this conundrum. How much easier would life be if all your feedback, chats, and reviews were in one place?
No more vague recalling, or cloudy memories of conversations. Only accurate records that prove the inquiry into poor performance. So, you, as the record keeper, can be worry-free. Peoplebox has everything documented and ready to go. So, you’re never caught off guard when things get tricky.
You’ll spot patterns, find hiccups, and celebrate wins before they fade.
3. The Manager Misses The Performance Review Deadline
“Last time the variable pay was a day late, I had these people bite my ear off. This time, I’m going to get it done before time!”, you thought to yourself before this year’s review. You sent out emails and followed up with Slack messages.
Everyone has been responding with updates, and suddenly life seems a bit too positive. You go over the replies, cross-check with your list of managers, and find one person who hasn’t replied to you at all. Idle on Slack, no responses to emails, calls go unanswered – you’re worried. Will this person be the one to mess up this year’s perfect record? You wait for them to get back to you. You hurry up their direct reports to finish their self-review. No response yet.
You follow up with their skip-level manager and find out they’re out of the country for an impromptu event. All their reports have finished self-review. They await their variable pay. Finally, one fine day, you hear back from them. Not an update, not an apology, but a Slack message –” Hey! Got back just yesterday, and saw a deluge of emails from you. What should I do?”
You hop on a call and go over the entire process again. After briefly working on a review or two, they go missing again. They say they’ll get it done before the end of the week, but you don’t see any progress. Your patience is waning.
Finally, you bring in the big guns. You get the CEO to send a personal email to all managers wanting immediate action. Suddenly, the passive manager started updating their reviews. But, the deadline for submission has already passed.
The rude things people are going to say about HR when you’re not at fault! Just before your next follow-up, the inactive one goes sick and takes time off. All other departments have received their variable pay, but not this team. Your worst nightmare is coming true.
But here’s where using Peoplebox could help you avoid this nightmare! The platform helps managers stay organized. It sends automated reminders and notifications via Slack, Google Workspace, and MS Teams. They will never miss a deadline again. Those gentle nudges pop up well before the due date, on email, and on your work comms tools.
This takes the pressure off and helps keep performance reviews front of mind! You can also launch the review in phases. Start with some departments and then work your way from there.
The tool also provides a framework for reviews. It guides managers through the entire process. It helps them gather feedback and insights easily. So, when it’s time to write reviews, they’ve got everything at their fingertips.
Also Read: Top 10 Benefits of Performance Management
4. Applicant Tracking System (ATS) Filters Out Worthy Resumes
Imagine spending hours on a job description. Then, many promising candidates get disqualified. Their resumes lacked the right buzzwords. This is frustrating. It can also cause lost opportunities for your organization.
The horror unfolds when you rely too much on an ATS. There is often little oversight on how the algorithms work. A highly skilled applicant might miss an interview. Their experience may be framed differently. Or, they used synonyms that the ATS didn’t recognize.
For instance, a candidate who led ‘project management initiatives’ might be overlooked for someone who just wrote ‘managed projects.” This over-reliance on technology can hide all but resumes that meet narrow criteria. This ultimately deprives organizations of diverse talent and innovative perspectives.
Fortunately, Peoplebox can prevent this nightmare. It has an AI-powered resume screening tool. Unlike traditional ATS systems, Peoplebox uses advanced algorithms. They scan for keywords. They also check the relevance of candidates’ skills and experiences.
It means that qualified candidates are still recognized for their potential. This is true even if they don’t use the exact terms in the job description. Peoplebox’s tool improves recruitment by prioritizing candidate fit over keywords. It helps HR find a wider range of applicants.
5. Conflicting OKRs
Every company loves setting lofty goals. Your organization sets ambitious OKRs for the quarter. They aim to align everyone on common goals. However, as the teams execute their plans, they realize their goals are misaligned. They often work at cross-purposes.
It can quickly become a nightmare. Employees will be torn by conflicting priorities. This will lead to burnout and chaos. It can have severe consequences for organizational performance.
Your teams might face a constant tug-of-war. They’d waste time negotiating whose objectives matter most. It would be complete mayhem. Productivity wanes as employees are left questioning the direction of their efforts. As frustration builds, morale drops. Team members feel their work is futile.
You need a tool like Peoplebox. It can help you check if each micro goal aligns with the macro goals. It should also help you follow a perfect cadence. Peoplebox has an intuitive platform. It helps organizations create a clear, collaborative environment. In it, OKRs are aligned and transparent at all levels.
Suggested Read: 6 Steps for OKR Alignment within Your Teams
Peoplebox gives a single view of all team goals. It helps teams spot conflicts early. This leads to open talks and better strategies. The platform allows for real-time updates and progress tracking. This keeps everyone aligned and moving toward shared goals.
Choose the best OKR software for your organization with the ultimate checklist from Peoplebox.
6. Biases in the Performance Evaluation Process
You have a good sales team, but the manager is heavily partial to the men in the department. The ladies on the team work as hard as the men. But, the manager thinks they don’t and is here to do the bare minimum.
There’s obvious bias – the manager thinks ladies aren’t the best fit for sales roles. So, every time a review comes up, he presumes the men worked hard. He then gives them higher ratings without objectively evaluating their performance. This has been consistently reported by the women in the team, but to no avail.
No matter how much client appreciation the women in the team get, the manager seems to be critical of them. When you discuss succession and future leaders, he ignores the women.
When he has to adjust ratings to fit into the bell curve, he doesn’t modify the ratings equitably. This is very concerning, and you’re worried about how this issue is going to come back to bite you. There were rumors and tension in the grapevine during the last review season. But if this isn’t rooted out this time, it’s going to blow up.
Your solution is an intelligent tool that can spot potential bias and ensure a clean and fair rating. That’s where Peoplebox comes in.
It addresses bias in performance ratings by using a goal-driven performance review process. You can also assess performance by its projects and the required skills. This will create a fairer evaluation process.
Setting specific, measurable goals reduces subjective judgments. It helps ensure that individuals base ratings on performance, not personal biases.
7. Consistent Underperformance is Ignored
Sometimes, managers can go too far the other way. They may overlook poor performance. They may resent, poor performers for not meeting their expectations. Without a discussion, and finding the cause of the slacking, there’ll be no improvement.
When this continues, other team members have to help the underperforming one. This leads to further frustration. If you don’t fix the underperformer who coasts, your hard work to build morale will soon fail.
The other team members gradually follow suit and begin doing less than the bare minimum. Before you know it, it spreads to the whole department and the organization too.
By the time leadership sees the issue, a crisis is usually underway. Then, time is wasted on damage control, reallocating tasks, and rallying the team to get back on track. This time could have been saved by addressing the issue earlier.
The best way to tackle this issue is to have candid talks with employees, before it escalates. Use a robust performance management tool like Peoplebox to compare goals to actuals. Record conversations and action points from 1:1 check-ins, pulse checks, etc.
Employees feel accountable for their work. They know they can’t slack off when someone cares so much and won’t let anything slide. They see how important their work is to the organization. That builds momentum, too. Frequent check-ins let managers find the real cause of performance issues. That’s the best part. If it’s not fixable, we can let them go respectfully, without snowballing into full-blown chaos.
8. Hiring A Complete Misfit As Opposed To Job Requirements
You provide detailed job descriptions, hiring protocols, and screening criteria. You also define each score on a 1-10 scale. You use every metric for selection. Then, your hiring managers hire a misfit on a whim.
That’s a whole other level of scary; we agree.
This happens when the hiring team is swept off their feet by a candidate’s achievements, bias creeps in. Or, the team is blindsided by the fancy company or the school the candidate worked with.
The hiring team seems to be trusting their gut. They’re deciding based on instincts, not on cold, hard facts. All the job design and job analysis work you did goes to waste as you see a recruit fail at basic tasks. What a colossal waste of time!
How do you stop this vicious cycle from happening? You use a super smart, intuitive, and exceptionally trained AI tool. It screens candidates, finds misfits, and helps set a high standard. You bring in a tool like Peoplebox.
With its advanced capabilities, you can screen any resume, no matter the format. You can read its context and find the best of the best. When you do, the hires can hit the ground running.
9. The HR Team Sets Vague Or Irrelevant Job Descriptions
Using vague stock job descriptions, without knowing each job’s details, is a recipe for disaster. If not now, then definitely in the future. You’ve received too many hiring requests. So, you lack the time to sit with the hiring manager to discuss every job’s specifics. However, irrelevant, outdated, or vague descriptions can attract misfits. They may clog your performance pipeline.
Your hiring managers are frustrated. The candidates don’t know the job basics. You’re wasting hours searching for candidates with no luck. The problem is your cryptic job description.
This can be spooky until you find Peoplebox. It analyzes job roles to find the skills and qualifications needed for success. It can reference historical performance data and success profiles within the organization. It can also suggest skills and traits that match the role’s expectations.
Peoplebox aligns job descriptions with company OKRs and performance metrics. It ensures that they clearly outline core duties and expected impacts.
10. High performers leaving during peak season
Peak season is tiring for everyone. Like chefs at dinner time, managers are on edge. They’re irritable and want perfection. There’s tension everywhere. People are walking on eggshells to get the job done without causing trouble. Everyone’s working hard, and suddenly, on a Friday night, you receive an email from a team’s superstar. It says ‘Letter of Resignation – Requesting Immediate Relieving’. Your heart sinks.
All your convincing isn’t working out. No one can change their mind. They want an immediate release. There’s almost no time for a knowledge transfer or to hire a replacement. Being peak season, if you add onto anyone’s workload, they’re sure to leave too.
Quite a conundrum!
You need a super-intelligent tool to prevent this – like Peoplebox. It helps managers maintain open lines of communication with employees. Regular check-ins can help managers spot early signs of dissatisfaction. The platform also offers detailed analytics that tracks employee engagement levels over time.
11. Frustrated Ex-Employee Leaves Scathing Glassdoor Reviews
A huge fight blows up between the manager and an employee, and they leave with a few days’ notice. The management wants to withhold the settlement for a few days. The employee didn’t serve their full notice period. You must follow this instruction. You try to calm the angry ex-employee. You explain the delay in their settlement.
But, after many failed attempts to get them to understand, they went on Glassdoor and left a bad review. As you frantically think of ways to douse the fire, you’re called into an immediate meeting. You’re blamed for the entire issue.
After the dust settles, you will look back at their time with the company. You will recall all the times they were unhappy with the organization. They’d also complained often in the 1:1 HR calls. If only you had a tool to gauge their growing disengagement and warn you. You’d have jumped in to fix the issue instead of having to deal with the aftermath.
What tool would have these advanced capabilities? It would give you a list of people to talk to and solve problems for. It would also show their lowest engagement scores. Peoplebox does!
Its robust, thorough survey can capture your workforce’s views on employee engagement. It can also identify the biggest concerns. This way, you can stop a fire by checking the responses of departments, regions, and teams when you see smoke.
12. Poor Survey Response Just Before The Survey Closes
You researched all the ways to make your survey fun. You also looked for ways to incentivize your people. For the first few weeks, you sweated too much thinking about why people don’t want to answer an extra-long survey. But after a while, you stopped looking at it and fretting about it.
It seemed to pick up when the CEO advocated for your cause. But, just two days before the deadline, you check the results. Your heart skips a beat. Only 15% of the workforce has answered.
The survey is about to close and no one cares. Your frantic efforts to salvage the initiative fail. Managers say people are exhausted from trying to fill out the survey. With last-minute reminders, people mindlessly fill in responses. You get a result that reveals nothing.
How can you escape this nightmare? With Peoplebox of course!
First, the platform lets you design shorter, focused surveys. They should prioritize the most critical questions. Use pre-built templates and customize them for your needs. This will make your surveys concise and relevant. This way you reduce survey fatigue but also encourage higher participation rates.
Peoplebox uses targeted messages and reminders. They help employees see how their input will affect decisions. It will also improve the organization. You can use Peoplebox to survey your team via Slack and work tools. You can also adjust the timing and type of reminders and notifications employees get.
Conclusion
Wake up! Your nightmares are just nightmares. If you don’t want them to come true, let’s get ourselves the right tools to prevent them from happening. This Halloween, let Peoplebox work its magic. With the knight in shining armor by your side, you can now cast away these nightmares, and protect your people and organization culture effectively.
Get a glimpse of how Peoplebox make performance reviews painless, actionable and fair
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