PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

Process of evaluating the performance of an employee and communicating the results of evaluation to him/her for the purpose of rewarding or developing the employee. employee. Performance Appraisal in some org is the measure of results achieved and targets accomplished whereas in others it is a measure of employee efforts and results. results.

Performance Appraisal is concerned with the process of valuing an employees worth to an org with a view to increasing it.

APPRAISAL PROCESS


Determination of standards of performance based on organizational objectives and job description. description. Performance standards have to be determined by employer and employee. employee. Measurement of employee performance against pre-determined pregoals and standards. standards.

Performance Appraisal is a continuous process and the feedback should be given to the employee at regular intervals. intervals. Feedback has to be given once in 2 to 3 months. months. Involves communicating the results of appraisal to the employee concerned. concerned. Responsibility of the manager to make the employee comfortable with the whole process. process.

Once the appraisal is finalized most organizations link it to the rewards system, some prefer to restrict it to the development of employees.

The Appraisers
 

SelfSelf- Appraisal Employees are given a role to evaluate their own performance. Can performance. easily identify the problem areas that need training and development. development.

 

Supervisors Responsibility of the supervisor to ensure that his subordinates perform their jobs well. The authority to well. evaluate the employee performance has been with the supervisor. supervisor.

Peers  Peer evaluation may lead to false and unhealthy appraisals because of competition among peers. peers.  Customers/ Clients In service organizations like banks and hotels customer feedback has become the most imp tool in evaluating employee performance. performance.


 

Subordinates The subordinates evaluating the performance of his supervisor is yet to become a reality in many cos.

Performance Appraisal Methods

Traditional Methods 1- MBO or Goal- Setting GoalQuantifiable and measurable goals Well laid out action plan Employees who are equipped and motivated to achieve these goals. goals. Continuous feedback and guidance Identification of areas for improvement and corrective action. action.


2- Graphic Rating Method Requires to rate the employee on factors like quantity and quality of work, job knowledge, dependability, attendance etc. etc. 3- Work Standards Approach More suitable in a manufacturing scenario where the goals are pre-determined work prestandards. standards. Work standards can be set based on the average output of a typical employee in the org. org.

4- Essay Appraisal The appraiser prepares a document describing the performance of the employee. employee. Questions or guidelines are provided to the appraiser based on which he analyses and describes the employees performance. performance.

5- Forced Choice rating Method The appraiser is required to assign ranks to different attributes of the employee. employee. Once the employee attributes are ranked, the HRD applies the weights and arrives at a score which is the final score. score. 6- Point Allocation Method The appraiser has to allocate points to different members in his team. He team. has a specific number of points to distribute among his team members

7- Ranking Methods 3 common methods of ranking namely, alternation, paired comparison and forced distribution. distribution. First two methods are used only when there are few employees to be ranked, whereas the forced distribution method is used in large cos like GE, Microsoft and Wipro which have thousands of employees. employees.

8- Checklist  The rater has to respond yes or no to a set of questions which assess the employees performance and behavior. behavior. Weights are assigned to each of these questions based on which the final score of the employee is calculated. calculated.

Modern Methods
 

360 degree Performance Appraisal The employees performance is evaluated by his supervisor, his peers, his internal/ external customers, his internal/ external suppliers and his subordinates.Cos like Wipro, HCL, Infosystems, Tata Infotech and Asian Paints have gone for this system of appraisal.

 

 

Team Appraisals In the team appraisal method, the indiv team members evaluate their colleagues in the team and provide feedback. feedback. Balanced Scorecard As a method of measuring performance channelises the efforts of people to achieve organizational goals. Involves goals. formulating a strategy and deciding what each employee needs to do to achieve the objectives based on the strategy. strategy. Assigning of responsibilities to indivs and tracking for achievement of objectives is called HR scorecard. scorecard.

Pitfalls in Performance Appraisal



Halo effect The appraiser allows a single characteristic of the appraise to dominate his judgment of the employee performance which may result in either a positive report or negative report. An employee who is report. disliked by his appraiser for his dressing may be rated poor on factors like attendance and reliability. reliability.

Leniency effecteffectrefers to the situation where the appraiser tends to give high ratings and only positive feedback to the appraiser irrespective of his actual performance. performance. Stringency effect- An appraiser who effectfeels that the rules and stds of the org are not strict enough tries to be very strict in rating his appraisees. appraisees.

Recency effect Appraiser tends to get influenced by the performance of the employee over the last 2-3 months of the appraisal period as it is still fresh in his memory. memory. Primacy effect- The appraiser tends effectto be influenced by the behaviour exhibited in the early stages of the appraisal period and this leads to a distorted evaluation. evaluation.

Central tendency effect- The appraiser effectgives neither high nor low ratings and tends to give ratings in the middle of the scale to all the appraisees. appraisees. CultureCulture- In the Indian context, a young appraiser who has to evaluate the performance of his elder colleague may tend to give him higher ratings than his performance warrants. warrants.

Stereotyping: Stereotyping: Involves judging someone based on the group he belongs to. For exp an appraiser who to. believes that woman make good managers would tend to rate his female appraises better then his male appraises. appraises.