Business Management -> Human resource management: performance appraisal
Performance appraisal
The level of employee performance is the key to business success. Managers are responsible for the performance of employees and should therefore establish a system whereby the performance of each employee is evaluated on a regular basis. Such an assessment will help the organisation to achieve its objectives and help it to run both efficiently and effectively.
There are many methods that may be used to assess the performance levels of employees. These methods include:
- management by objectives
- performance appraisal systems, and
- personal interaction and feedback
Performance appraisal methods include the process of establishing the performance levels of the employees, developing the criteria to be used to evaluate the performance of the employee and actually carrying out the appraisal and providing feedback to the employee. The end result will be an assessment of the performance of the employee based on the current period and a projection of expected performance over the next period.
The performance appraisal process may be carried out by an outsourced organisation, superiors or peers of the employee being appraised, or the appraisee themselves.
wages and salary assessment
promotion
feedback about current performance levels
establishing objectives for the employee for the next period
motivation
future training requirements
discipline of an employee
establishing a record to dismiss an employee
recording performance levels to warn employee of poor performance
There are many steps to a successful appraisal process. These include:
- the preparation of a written self-appraisal
- an evaluation of the employee's work performance
- a discussion between appraiser and appraisee
- a written statement of the intended outcomes of the process - personal objectives, benchmark to be achieved, assessment process to be followed
- a signing of the agreement
- a future evaluation of the outcomes of the agreed document
Management by Objectives is another method of employee performance appraisal. This method relies on the creation of a set of objectives that an employee hopes to achieve within a specified time-period. A timeline is established and an assessment of the employee's performances is based on the extent to which the employee achieves these objectives within the specified time period. New goals are established when the original goals have been attained.
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appraisal often involves observation or some kind of testing. It motivate employees to add more effort on their job for better results
i know that there's a regular perfomance evaluation and my question is how often it should be done? once a year or every six months?
Performance appraisals have and can be used to motivate individuals to continue strive in their position of success or assist in notifying individuals their areas of challenges and opportunity/options to improve.
Establishing performance standards 1.The first step in the process of performance appraisal is the setting up of the standards which will be used to as the base to compare the actual performance of the employees. This step requires setting the criteria to judge the performance of the employees as successful or unsuccessful and the degrees of their contribution to the organizational goals and objectives. The standards set should be clear, easily understandable and in measurable terms. In case the performance of the employee cannot be measured, great care should be taken to describe the standards. 2. Communicating the standards Once set, it is the responsibility of the management to communicate the standards to all the employees of the org anization. The employees should be informed and the standards should be clearly explained to the employees. This will help them to understand their roles and to know what exactly is expected from them. The standards should also be communicated to the appraisers or the evaluators and if required, the standards can also be modified at this stage itself according to the relevant feedback from the employees or the evaluators. 3. MEASURING THE ACTUAL PERFORMANCE The most difficult part of the Performance appraisal process is measuring the actual performance of the employees that is the work done by the employees during the specified period of time.It is a continuous process which involves monitoring the performance throughout the year. This stage requires the careful selection of the appropriate techniques of measurement, taking care that personal bias does not affect the outcome of the process and providing assistance rather than interfering in an employees work. 4. Comparing actual performance with desired performance The actual performance is compared with the desired or the standard performance. The comparison tells the deviations in the performance of the employees from the standards set. The result can show the actual performance being more than the desired performance or, the actual performance being less than the desired performance depicting a negative deviation in the organizational performance. It includes recalling, evaluating and analysis of data related to the employees’ performance. 5. Discussing results [Feedback] The result of the appraisal is communicated and discussed with the employees on one-to-one basis. The focus of this discussion is on communication and listening. The results, the problems and the possible solutions are discussed with the aim of problem solving and reaching consensus. 6. The feedback should be given with a positive attitude as this can have an effect on the employees’ future performance. Performance appraisal feedback by managers should be in such way helpful to correct mistakes done by the employees and help them to motivate for better performance but not to demotivate. Performance feedback task should be handled very carefully as it may leads to emotional outburst if it is not handing properly. Sometimes employees should be prepared before giving them feedback as it may be received positively or negatively depending upon the nature and attitude of employees.
MBO as a tool for performance management to me can be the best but also carries some risk. Meeting up objectives within a specified time span should be weighed in both qualitative and quantitative manner. This can be a base for performance assessment. You can meet up time span but achieve less quality meanwhile you might not meet up with the time given, but achieve quality. So the evaluator has to take into consideration small issues like this.
The level of employees performance is the key to business success..
Companies would be wise to do a review after the initial 90 day period and again at six months. Managers should be communicating on a regular basis with their employees so there are no surprises at performance appraisal time.
It can be done by analyzing recorded data.
I think performance appraisal does not only help the HR manager ascertain the performance of the employees with respect to the mission of the organisation , it equally helps self motivated employees to set goals for themselves for their professional development.
Effective appraisals have to happen at every point in the employment cycle of a staff to be fair and be effective. Staff can have a low period but with effective engagement they may shoot high the next phase