Performance Appraisal

Performance Appraisal

1. Definition

   • Staff appraisal is the process whereby current performance in a job is observed and discussed for the purpose of adding to that level of performance
   • Met by many employees with distrust, suspicion and fear
   • Many managers see control in appraisal + employees may feel controlled by appraisal
   • Assumption; the past is main determinant of the present and future so need to assess past strengths and weaknesses

2. Two Views of Appraisal

   • Helper / human relations view
     • Appraiser should assist individual in formation of own goals, create a positive, creative and helpful situation, no allocation of blame and responsibility, help clarify expectations and provide useful positive, constructive feedback & be day to day and for one purpose only
   • Control
     • Practice takes place once a year, seen as bureaucratic and time wasting, looking for how individual can best meet organizational needs & can be mixed with reviews for pay and promotion

3. Objectives need to be SMART

   • Specific, Measurable, agreed / achievable, realistic, time bounded

4. PA discomfort

   • May lead to inflating ratings of employees to avoid difficult conversations

5. Common Problems

   • Halo Effect
     • Favorable rating given to overall performance as person has performed will in one aspect, which is important
   • Pitchfork Effect
     • Where the appraiser gives unfavorable rating as person as performed poorly in one important aspect of the job
   • The loose rater
     • In order to avoid conflict, the appraiser does not discuss any weak areas of performance
   • Recency error
     • Appraiser makes disproportionate use of instances of performance, which are recent
   • Length of service bias
     • Person who has been rated well in past-assumed not to need close monitoring of performance

6. PA is used as one element of much broader performance management system.

   • Performance Management (PM)
     • Performance management has been defined as ‘systems and attitudes which help organizations to plan, delegate and assess the operation of their services’

7. The outcome of an appraisal is typically a rating (1,2,3,4,5), (A,B,C,D,E) or (average, above average) grade that can be used for admin purposes e.g. pay increases, promotion of dismissal or developmental purposes e.g. identifying training needs

8. Upward Appraisal

   • Involves the employee rating their manager’s performance, especially their leadership skills (usually anonymous)
   • Can provide feedback that can assess the manager’s ability to provide clear direction, motivate performance, recognize accomplishments etc.
   • Seen as being more in tune with the delayered organization where managerial spans of control are greater and working arrangements much more diverse

9. 360-degree appraisal

   • = multi-rater or multi-source feedback - describes the all-encompassing direction of feedback derived from a composite rating from peers, subordinates, supervisors and occasionally customers
   • Can improve both the fairness and accuracy of the performance assessment

10. Feedforward

    • FFI is intended to enhance performance and improve the manager-subordinated collaboration by focusing on the positive aspects of employee experiences instead of focusing on what is ‘wrong’
      • (1) employee is asked to identify stories that illustrate successful performance in order tohelp generate new knowledge about performance, (2) the supervisor focuses the conversation on situations wherein both the employee and the organization benefit in order to identify when the employee demonstrated extraordinary performance without compromising the either their own needs or those of others, (3) the employee is asked to identify the discrepancy between his or her goals and the current performance. A gap between goals and current performance can generate the motivation for behavioral change

11. Customer Appraisal

    • TQM and customer care programs are now very widely spread in both the private and public sectors
      • A mix of ‘hard’ quantifiable standards such as ‘delivery of a customer’s first drink within two min’ and soft qualitative standards such as ‘warm friendly greeting’ - Through surveys, telephone surveys, interviews
        • e.g. Mystery shopping (usually breads content)

12. Team-based appraisal

    • Only focusing on team performance can create problems (free-riding, peer pressure, perverse sorting); as all employees will want to belong to the highest performing teams, individual high performing employees will be unhappy with the lack of recognition for their efforts

13. Competency-based appraisal

14. PA is controversial

    • A number of high profile organizations have recently dropped their PA as it generates more costs than benefits (Gap, General Electric) and only 6% of HR executives regarded the PA process as an ‘excellent’ use of time

15. Performance Management System (PMS)

    • PMt and PA are often seen as key features of an organization’s drive towards achieving competitive advantage and high performance, such information can be used in goal-setting as part of a performance and development plan (PDP)
    • Performance management refers to the set of interconnected practices designed to ensure that a person’s overall capabilities and potential are appraised, so that relevant goals can be set for work and development, and so that, through assessment, data on work behavior and performance can be collected and reviewed
    • ‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it’

16. Self-appraisal

    • When the emphasis on PMS is on evaluation and control it is only to be expected that differences will exist between an individual’s self-appraisal and the appraisal of their superior
      • Campbell + Lee (1988) put forward a number of discrepancies between self-appraisal and supervisory appraisal;
        • Informational, Cognitive, Affective

17. Multi-source feedback (MSF)

    • The various sources of feedback may include; Immediate manager, Staff (upward appraisal), Peers (peer appraisal) . The manager and or other staff (180-degree), The manager, staff and peers (360-degree). The manager, staff, peers, customers, suppliers and other (540 or 720-degree feedback)