Question

You are the CEO of a company with four foreign subsidiaries. Your work schedule makes it nearly impossible to visit more than once per year. How would you ensure you receive accurate information to fairly appraise each expatriate manager? Explain your answer. Must be at least 200 words in length.

Answer 1

• Employ 360-degree performance review system – where feedbacks can be taken from all sources – customers, peers, sub-ordinates etc. Time-to-time 360-degree feedback ensures that the manager is reviewed from all aspects continuously. For customer facing roles, build an open communication channel between me, customer, and the expatriate manager regarding his performance. The customer may appraise me if it feels the manager is not meeting expectations and falling short from agreed benchmarks
• Explicitly let the mangers know what’s expected of them at all time. Link their performance to SMART goals derived from company financials. Linking performance to KPIs will act as motivation and drivers even in my absence, as the finally the outcomes and achievement of KPIs will determine the performance at the end of review period. Hence continuous physical assessment of work/performance is not needed
• Leverage employee productivity tracking software to get data-based update on what the managers do during the workday. Such platforms provide intermittent screenshots for me to know exactly which tasks are being worked on, and what the status is. It will serve as a quantitative data for performance management. Moreover, the platform also ensures that the managers stay focused and engaged at work