Performance appraisal tools

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I. Contents of getting performance appraisal tools

==================
When your performance appraisal tools let the employee know exactly where they stand, it
makes for much smoother employee relations.
Many companies use a performance and appraisal process to evaluate their staff on a regular
basis.
Some organisations have quite elaborate performance appraisal tools that mathematically tie the
employee's next pay increase to their appraisal rating. Others are much less formal.
In most cases, however, these systems are an effort to let the employee know how they are doing
on the job. Promotions (or the rationale for not giving them) are much easier to manage when a
formal statement of the employee's performance is agreed upon.
"Lip Service"
Good ideas are worthless if they are not implemented. Excellent appraisal systems will fail if
they are not followed, or if managers simply pay lip service to them.
All too often, performance appraisals are done because the manager suddenly realises that it's
"that time of year again". They then throw something together rapidly, because they have to meet
the deadline.

The result is that the managers "appraisal target" is met, but the employee does not really get
properly appraised.
One reason for this is that many managers consider appraisals as just another chore that must be
done. They see it as outside their immediate job an added activity that does not really
contribute to their immediate situation.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
No Need for Complexity
Another reason for appraisals not being performed well is that the process itself is often far too
complex.
If the manager does not really understand how the appraisal system works, or how to administer
it, they will see it as complex.
An appraisal system that is based on opinion can, indeed, be complex. If the manager has to
make value judgements about the worth of a particular employee, they are justified in
complaining about the complexity of the process.
Opinions are never a stable basis for making such evaluations. Good performance appraisal tools
should be:

Simple.
Easy to administer.
Relevant to the job and the employees performance.
Such a system is far more likely to be used by managers. They would see the value of it and how
relevant it was to their activity. So, how do you construct a performance and appraisal system
that will meet these criteria?
Its simple you base it on actual performance that can be measured.
Define the Result
The very first thing you must do to ensure that your performance appraisal tools will work, is to
define exactly what result you want this employee to produce.

Look at the area they work in and how it relates to other areas around them.
What part of the whole activity do they contribute to?

This is probably the most difficult part of the exercise and you should spend as much time as is
necessary to get this right.
As has been said before, you pay people for the results they achieve. Results are measurable,
tangible things. If you think they are not producing a measurable result, what are you paying
them for? If they suddenly disappeared, what results would be lacking in your operation?
With some jobs it is very easy, of course, because the result is right there in front of you, for
example:

A sales person produces sales, or revenue, or some such.

A production worker produces completed production items.
But how about a secretary or an accountant? You need to look a little harder to establish the
valuable results they produce. But you will definitely find them.
Here are the key questions to ask yourself when establishing the results for a particular
employee:

1.
Is it of value to another part of the organisation?
2.
Is it measurable?
3.
Is it within the employees control to influence the result?
Get the Employee's Agreement
When managing performance appraisals, it is vital that the employee understands what the
measurable results are for the job. They also need to agree that these results are, indeed, valid
and achievable within their own sphere of control.
One way to achieve this is to actually get the employee to identify the valuable result they are
supposed to be producing.
Be careful here, however, as this will not always work. With a top performer (who is already
results-oriented) you have a good chance.
But if the employee cannot see the big picture, they may have no concept of how their job fits
into the whole. Consequently, they could come up with a wrong answer here. However, their
answer will give you a starting point for finding the right one.
Once you have their agreement on the way you will be measuring their performance, you can
then set some specific targets that can be measured and graphed. But get the employees
agreement on these too. Performance appraisal tools depend a lot upon agreement.

Its now much easier to measure their progress and final achievements because you have
eliminated opinion!
Opinion or Fact?
By focusing on the valuable result that the employee is supposed to be producing, you can now
talk in terms of facts that can be measured as statistics. You can now set some specific
benchmarks and targets against which to measure their performance.
Your performance appraisal tools are now in the realm of numbers that can be measured and
compared. Theres no opinion involved with saying, "Well, the target was 25,000 and you only
achieved 15,500. Thats not very good." They cant argue with that.

A secretary can argue with an opinion that they "did not give sufficient support". Whats
"sufficient"?

Or a training manager could attack an opinion that they "did not run good training
programs". Whats "good"?
A Workable System
If you can eliminate the opinion and replace it with measurable statistics, you immediately
remove the complexity from the process.
1.

By working with an agreed measure of the results, you make it easier to administer the
program.
2.
When you talk in terms of the actual valuable results that the employee is supposed to
produce, you are definitely beingrelevant to the job and the performance.
Giving your employees an appraisal based upon an agreed measure of the results they produce
can be very powerful.
They know exactly where they stand and there can be no argument about the results when your
performance appraisal tools are used this way!
==================

III. Performance appraisal methods

1. Essay Method

In this method the rater writes down the employee

description in detail within a number of broad categories
like, overall impression of performance, promoteability
of employee, existing capabilities and qualifications of
performing jobs, strengths and weaknesses and training
needs of the employee. Advantage It is extremely
useful in filing information gaps about the employees
that often occur in a better-structured checklist.
Disadvantages It its highly dependent upon the writing
skills of rater and most of them are not good writers.
They may get confused success depends on the memory
power of raters.

2. Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales

statements of effective and ineffective behaviors
determine the points. They are said to be
behaviorally anchored. The rater is supposed to
say, which behavior describes the employee
performance. Advantages helps overcome rating
errors. Disadvantages Suffers from distortions
inherent in most rating techniques.

3. Rating Scale
Rating scales consists of several numerical scales
representing job related performance criterions such as
dependability, initiative, output, attendance, attitude etc.
Each scales ranges from excellent to poor. The total
numerical scores are computed and final conclusions are
derived. Advantages Adaptability, easy to use, low cost,
every type of job can be evaluated, large number of
employees covered, no formal training required.
Disadvantages Raters biases

4. Checklist method

Under this method, checklist of statements of traits of

employee in the form of Yes or No based questions is
prepared. Here the rater only does the reporting or
checking and HR department does the actual evaluation.
Advantages economy, ease of administration, limited
training required, standardization. Disadvantages Raters
biases, use of improper weighs by HR, does not allow
rater to give relative ratings

5.Ranking Method
The ranking system requires the rater to rank his
subordinates on overall performance. This consists in
simply putting a man in a rank order. Under this method,
the ranking of an employee in a work group is done
against that of another employee. The relative position of
each employee is tested in terms of his numerical rank. It
may also be done by ranking a person on his job
performance against another member of the competitive
group.
Advantages of Ranking Method
Employees are ranked according to their
performance levels.
It is easier to rank the best and the worst
employee.
Limitations of Ranking Method
The whole man is compared with another
whole man in this method. In practice, it is very difficult
to compare individuals possessing various individual
traits.
This method speaks only of the position where an

employee stands in his group. It does not test anything

about how much better or how much worse an employee
is when compared to another employee.
When a large number of employees are working,
ranking of individuals become a difficult issue.
There is no systematic procedure for ranking
individuals in the organization. The ranking system does
not eliminate the possibility of snap judgements.

6. Critical Incidents Method

The approach is focused on certain critical behaviors of
employee that makes all the difference in the
performance. Supervisors as and when they occur record
such incidents. Advantages Evaluations are based on
actual job behaviors, ratings are supported by
descriptions, feedback is easy, reduces recency biases,
chances of subordinate improvement are high.
Disadvantages Negative incidents can be prioritized,
forgetting incidents, overly close supervision; feedback
may be too much and may appear to be punishment.

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