Performance appraisal

A performance appraisal, employee appraisal, performance review, or (career) development

discussion[1] is a method by which the job performance of an employee is evaluated (generally in terms
of quality, quantity, cost, and time) typically by the corresponding manager or supervisor[2]. A
performance appraisal is a part of guiding and managing career development. It is the process of
obtaining, analyzing, and recording information about the relative worth of an employee to the
organization. Performance appraisal is an analysis of an employee's recent successes and failures,
personal strengths and weaknesses, and suitability for promotion or further training. It is also the
judgement of an employee's performance in a job based on considerations other than productivity
alone.

Aims
Objective assessment of Individual Performance against well defined benchamrks Generally, the
aims of a performance appraisal are to:

 Give employees feedback on performance

 Identify employee training needs
 Document criteria used to allocate organizational rewards
 Form a basis for personnel decisions: salary increases, promotions, disciplinary actions,
bonuses, etc.
 Provide the opportunity for organizational diagnosis and development
 Facilitate communication between employee and administration
 Validate selection techniques and human resource policies to meet federal Equal
Employment Opportunity requirements.
 To improve performance through counselling, coaching and development.
 to judge gap between actual & desired performance

[edit] Methods
A common approach to assessing performance is to use a numerical or scalar rating system
whereby managers are asked to score an individual against a number of objectives/attributes. In
some companies, employees receive assessments from their manager, peers, subordinates, and
customers, while also performing a self assessment. This is known as a 360-degree appraisal and
forms good communication patterns.

The most popular methods used in the performance appraisal process include the following:

 Management by objectives
 360-degree appraisal
 Behavioral observation scale
 Behaviorally anchored rating scales
Trait-based systems, which rely on factors such as integrity and conscientiousness, are also
commonly used by businesses. The scientific literature on the subject provides evidence that
assessing employees on factors such as these should be avoided. The reasons for this are two-
fold:

1) Because trait-based systems are by definition based on personality traits, they make it difficult
for a manager to provide feedback that can cause positive change in employee performance. This
is caused by the fact that personality dimensions are for the most part static, and while an
employee can change a specific behavior they cannot change their personality. For example, a
person who lacks integrity may stop lying to a manager because they have been caught, but they
still have low integrity and are likely to lie again when the threat of being caught is gone.

2) Trait-based systems, because they are vague, are more easily influenced by office politics,
causing them to be less reliable as a source of information on an employee's true performance.
The vagueness of these instruments allows managers to fill them out based on who they want
to/feel should get a raise, rather than basing scores on specific behaviors employees
should/should not be engaging in. These systems are also more likely to leave a company open to
discrimination claims because a manager can make biased decisions without having to back them
up with specific behavioral information.

[edit] Criticism
Performance appraisals are an instrument for social control. They are annual discussions,
avoided more often than held, in which one adult identifies for another adult three improvement
areas to work on over the next twelve months. You can soften them all you want, call them
development discussions, have them on a regular basis, have the subordinate identify the
improvement areas instead of the boss, and discuss values. None of this changes the basic
transaction... If the intent of the appraisal is learning, it is not going to happen when the context
of the dialogue is evaluation and judgment.[3]

[edit] See also

 Employment integrity testing

[edit] References
1. ^ MIT Human Resources
2. ^ "Creating an Effective Employee Performance Management System".
http://www.pmhut.com/creating-an-effective-employee-performance-management-
system. Retrieved 22 December 2009.
3. ^ Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They Backfire and What to do Instead, by
Tom Coens, Mary Jenkins p.82

[edit] Sources
  Thomas F. Patterson (1987). Refining Performance Appraisal.
http://www.joe.org/joe/1987winter/a5.html. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
 Joyce Margulies (2004-03-24) (PDF). Performance Appraisals.
http://www.bnabooks.com/ababna/eeo/2004/eeo55.pdf. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
 1998, Archer North & Associatiates, Introduction to Performance Appraisal,
http://www.performance-appraisal.com/intro.htm
 U.S. Department of the Interior, Performance Appraisal Handbook

Management by objectives

Management by Objectives (MBO) is a process of agreeing upon objectives within an

organization so that management and employees agree to the objectives and understand what
they are in the organization.

The term "management by objectives" was first popularized by Peter Drucker in his 1954 book
'The Practice of Management'.[1]

The essence of MBO is participative goal setting, choosing course of actions and decision
making. An important part of the MBO is the measurement and the comparison of the
employee’s actual performance with the standards set. Ideally, when employees themselves have
been involved with the goal setting and choosing the course of action to be followed by them,
they are more likely to fulfill their responsibilities.

Features and Advantages

[edit] Unique features and advantage of the MBO process

The principle behind Management by Objectives (MBO) is basically for employees to have
clarity of the roles and responsibilities expected of them. They then understand the objectives
they must do and the over all achievement of the organization. They also help with the personal
goals of each employee.

Some of the important features and advantages of MBO are:

1. Motivation – Involving employees in the whole process of goal setting and increasing employee
empowerment increases employee job satisfaction and commitment.
2. Better communication and Coordination – Frequent reviews and interactions between superiors
and subordinates helps to maintain harmonious relationships within the enterprise and also
solve many problems faced during the period.
3. Clarity of goals
4. Subordinates have a higher commitment to objectives that they set themselves than those
imposed on them by their managers.
5. Managers can ensure that objectives of the subordinates are linked to the organisation 's
objectives.
[edit] Domains and levels
Objectives can be set in all domains of activities (production, marketing, services, sales, R&D,
human resources, finance, information systems etc.).

Some objectives are collective, for a whole department or the whole company, others can be
individualized.

[edit] Practice
Objectives need quantifying and monitoring. Reliable management information systems are
needed to establish relevant objectives and monitor their "reach ratio" in an objective way. Pay
incentives (bonuses) are often linked to results in reaching the objectives

[edit] Limitations
There are several limitations to the assumptive base underlying the impact of managing by
objectives, including:

1. It over-emphasizes the setting of goals over the working of a plan as a driver of outcomes.

2. It underemphasizes the importance of the environment or context in which the goals are set.
That context includes everything from the availability and quality of resources, to relative buy-in
by leadership and stake-holders. As an example of the influence of management buy-in as a
contextual influencer, in a 1991 comprehensive review of thirty years of research on the impact
of Management by Objectives, Robert Rodgers and John Hunter concluded that companies
whose CEOs demonstrated high commitment to MBO showed, on average, a 56% gain in
productivity. Companies with CEOs who showed low commitment only saw a 6% gain in
productivity.[2]

3. Companies evaluated their employees by comparing them with the "ideal" employee. Trait
appraisal only looks at what employees should be, not at what they should do.[3]

When this approach is not properly set, agreed and managed by organizations, in self-centered
thinking employees, it may trigger an unethical behavior of distorting the system of results and
financial figures to falsely achieve targets that were set in a short-term, narrow, bottom-line
fashion.[4][dubious – discuss]

The use of MBO needs to be carefully aligned with the culture of the organization. While MBO
is not as fashionable as it was before the 'empowerment' fad, it still has its place in management
today. The key difference is that rather than 'set' objectives from a cascade process, objectives
are discussed and agreed, based upon a more strategic picture being available to employees.
Engagement of employees in the objective setting process is seen as a strategic advantage by
many.[5]
A saying around MBO and critical success factor's, or CSF's -- "What gets measured gets done"
[6]
-- is perhaps the most famous aphorism of performance measurement; therefore, to avoid
potential problems SMART and SMARTER objectives need to be agreed upon in the true sense
rather than set.

[edit] Arguments Against

MBO has its detractors, notably among them W. Edwards Deming, who argued that a lack of
understanding of systems commonly results in the misapplication of objectives[7]. Additionally,
Deming stated that setting production targets will encourage resources to meet those targets
through whatever means necessary, which usually results in poor quality[8].

Point 7 of Deming's 14 Points encourages managers to abandon objectives in favour of

leadership because he felt that a leader with an understanding of systems was more likely to
guide workers to an appropriate solution than the incentive of an objective. Deming also pointed
out that Drucker warned managers that a systemic view was required [9] and felt that Drucker's
warning went largely unheeded by the practitioners of MBO.

Employment integrity testing

Integrity as defined by Webster's Dictionary [1] is a firm adherence to a code of especially moral
or artistic values. Some synonyms are uprightness, honesty, probity, rectitude, truthfulness,
veracity, trustworthiness, fairness, honor, moral fiber, principle, soundness, wholeness, and
oneness. All of these words describe the type of employee one would like to hire.

Integrity testing, pre employment screening, pre-employment screening tests, employee

assessments, credibility testing and employment testing are all synonyms for the analyses used in
detecting employee concealment. These tests are supplemental to background checks and can
also be administered after candidates have started to work. With today's technology a well
trained organization can objectively evaluate a candidate's potential both positive and negative.
Industrial espionage is one of the most important security issues in the business world today and
regular integrity testing can assist in the reduction of negligent hiring liability.

These supplemental tests can augment the requirement by all US states that require employers to
complete criminal background checks for certain jobs, which may include teaching, childcare
and healthcare professions that involve contact with vulnerable segments of our society [2]. The
advantage of the integrity test is that it does not require the access to a candidate's criminal
records, it gives pertinent information about how that person measures up to the company's code
of conduct. According to ADP [3] and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ)[4] pre
employment screening has become commonplace and has gained popularity of the last 25 years.

US Laws

The US laws can be interpreted differently and privacy advocates are quick to point out what can
and cannot be accessed by companies. However, by using a test that evaluates the candidate on
the spot and does not require outside involvement eliminates those issues. Integrity tests evaluate
the integrity of the candidate not whether the information on the resume is correct. For that
reason this type of test [5] is invaluable.

[edit] Pre Employment Screening Tests

Pre-employment screening tests are an invaluable tool to Human Resource Professionals. They
enable the company to verify the veracity of the information provided to them by the potential
employee. However, these background tests and credit checks require authorizations and may not
create a correct profile of the candidate. Supplemental tests that can verify the characteristics.
These tests are called Integrity Tests. test

[edit] Periodic Employment Testing

This type of reusable testing enables employers to verify that the employees that are currently
working are performing to the company's code of conduct. In addition it enables companies to
obtain an accurate assessment of its' workforce.

People differ in their abilities and their aptitudes. There is always some difference between the quality
and quantity of the same work on the same job being done by two different people. Performance
appraisals of Employees are necessary to understand each employee’s abilities, competencies and
relative merit and worth for the organization. Performance appraisal rates the employees in terms
of their performance.

Performance appraisals are widely used in the society. The history of performance appraisal can be
dated back to the 20th century and then to the second world war when the merit rating was used for
the first time. An employer evaluating their employees is a very old concept. Performance appraisals
are an indispensable part of performance measurement.

Performance appraisal is necessary to measure the performance of the employees and the
organization to check the progress towards the desired goals and aims.

The latest mantra being followed by organizations across the world being – "get paid according to
what you contribute" – the focus of the organizations is turning to performance management and
specifically to individual performance. Performance appraisal helps to rate the performance of the
employees and evaluate their contribution towards the organizational goals. If the process of
performance appraisals is formal and properly structured, it helps the employees to clearly
understand their roles and responsibilities and give direction to the individual’s performance. It
helps to align the individual performances with the organizational goals and also review their
performance.

Performance appraisal takes into account the past performance of the employees and focuses on the
improvement of the future performance of the employees. Here at naukrihub, we attempt to provide
an insight into the concept of performance appraisal, the methods and approaches of performance
appraisal, sample performance appraisal forms and the appraisal softwares available etc. An attempt
has been made to study the current global trends in performance appraisal.

Preparation for Performance Review

The performance review meeting should not be strictly formal nor should it be completely informal in
nature. Ideally, the review meeting should be structured, semi – formal meeting which needs prior
preparation by the appraiser as well as the employee for it to be effective.
Following are some points that need to be prepared before the review meeting of Performance
appraisal:

 Inform the concerned employees the date, time and place for the review meeting well in advance.

 Review and be prepared with each and every employee’s

o Job description

o Performance standards

o Planned performance goals

o Performance measures collected throughout the time period

o The critical incidents details

o Past appraisals of the employees.

 Be ready with all the important dates

 Give the employee a copy of the appraisal form

 The appraiser needs to completely understand the standards for the employees at same
level to maintain the consistency in the process.

 Prepare what to say and how to say it calmly.

 The feedback should be prepared in quantifiable measures where ever possible.

  The appraiser should be familiar with the performance review form and the details

 The employee and the appraiser both should be prepared to discuss and figure out the
future goals and training needs

 They should be mentally prepared for constructive feedback

 Collect as many evidences to support your point as possible like the monthly, quarterly
progress reports.

Analysis for Improving Performance

Any performance review process is incomplete without the feedback to the employees. The feedback
could be given in the review discussion. Review discussions are semi formal, scheduled, periodic
interactions – usually bimonthly or quarterly – between a manager and his employee. The basic
purpose of the review discussion is to analyze the performance of the employee in the past to
improve the performance of the employee in future.

A review discussion is an opportunity to coach, mentor, learn and understand. The manager
encourages his/her employees to critically reflect over progress made on the Performance appraisal
plan and to develop creative, yet feasible alternatives for problem areas.

The manager uses this opportunity to:

 Review the performance of the each employee individually.

 Discuss the problems faced by the employees during the course of action.

 The solutions tried, and the degree of success achieved in solving the problems faced.

 Revisit with the employee, his/ her annual plan for the remaining time period and develop
revised action plans, if necessary.

Review discussions reassure the employees that each one of them has structured opportunities for
one to one interaction with the manager once every two or three months during the year. These
opportunities are important as they provide an important chance for performance monitoring or
development mentoring. The aim of the performance review discussions is to share perceptions,
solve the problem faced during the course of the action, decide on the new goals jointly and provide
a feedback to the employee for the past performance i.e. to look at his strengths and weaknesses
and also help to chart out a career plan for the employee.

The focus of these performance review discussions should not bet o judge the employees’ past
performance; rather it should be to motivate the employee to improve his future performance and
 reinforce his good behaviour.

Active Performance Appraisal Conversation

Active conversation plays an important part in the performance review meeting. The appraiser
should ensure that the meeting has a two way conversation and that the employee should get a fair
chance to speak. The "manner" of giving the feedback of the performance of the employee is very
important. The conversation should have an optimistic and motivating tone.

Some important points that should be taken care of in the active performance appraisal
conversation are:

1. Make it a two-way conversation. An effective Performance appraisal review requires an

interactive discussion with an open agenda. Try to formulate questions that seek the
employee’s ideas and input. This will help the employee feel you value his or her opinions.
Give the employee a fair chance to put forward his ideas; let him speak.

2. Be a good listener. Remember to be an active listener and to pick up on your employee’s

verbal and nonverbal cues. Listen to his ideas and problems.

3. Address what’s important to the employee. Since job satisfaction is the most important
factor affecting an employee’s attitude (and therefore his or her level of performance and
value to your company), an effective review should delve into areas that include issues most
important to that employee.

4. Lead with the positive. It’s important to reaffirm the employee’s strengths at the
beginning of the review. Since job security is the number one concern of most people, the
performance review is a good time to tell an employee how much you value their
contributions to your business.

5. Don’t be confrontational. It’s important not to criticize the employee in general terms.
The goal is to evaluate job performance and not the person. A performance review that
turns into a gripe session misses the opportunity to raise employee morale.

6. Positive reinforcement – emphasizing what has been done well so that it will be done
even better in the future and making only constructive criticisms (i.e. those that point the
way to improvement).

7. Exchange of views - Ensuring that the discussion involves a full, free and frank exchange
of views about what has been achieved, what needs to be done to achieve more and what
 the appraiser think about their work the way they are managed and their aspirations.

8. Agreement - jointly coming to an understanding about what has to be done by both parties
to improve performance, knowledge and skills and overcome any work problems raised
during the discussion.

Performance Appraisal Training

Every organisation conducts performance for assessing the performance of the employees and the
organisation. But if not conducted properly, they can give a false impression about the performance
of the employees and affect the overall performance of the organisation; therefore, there is a need
to train the appraisers to ensure the maximum effectiveness of the process.

Studies have revealed that appraisals are often conducted by the managers and the supervisor who
sometimes, are themselves not aware of the procedures to be followed. They should be explained the
importance and the implications of the Performance appraisal to the organisations, the methods to
be followed, the principles and the processes of the appraisal.

All managers and supervisors who consult performance appraisals should be given training for the
following:

 Methods, techniques and guidelines for setting goals and objectives

 How to evaluate the performance and rate the employees

 Standards for performance documentation

 How to complete a performance appraisal form

 How to maintain objectivity in the appraisal

 Questioning techniques for appraisals

 Responding to employee reactions

  Improves rapport and communication

 Building morale and motivating employees

 Observing and measuring performance

 Tracking results

 Structuring the interview with the focus on improving performance

 Feedback techniques (providing constructive feedback)

 How to deal with non-performers and people who refuse to co-operate

 Post review actions

The training can be given by conducting special workshops by professional HR consultants or

qualified and experienced HR professionals of human resource management. The venue for the
purpose can be a suitable seminar hall, training room, conference hall, boardroom, or at some place
away from the workplace like some hotel etc.

HOW TO MEASURE EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE

The most difficult part of the performance appraisal process is to accurately and objectively
measure the employee performance. Measuring the performance covers the evaluation of the main
tasks completed and the accomplishments of the employee in a given time period in comparison with
the goals set at the beginning of the period. Measuring also encompasses the quality of the
accomplishments, the compliance with the desired standards, the costs involved and the time taken in
achieving the results.

Measuring employee performance is the basis of the Performance appraisal processes and
performance management. Accurate and efficient performance measurement not only forms the basis
of an accurate performance review but also gives way to judging and measuring employee potential.

For the purpose of measuring employee performance, different input forms can be used for taking
the feedback from the various sources like the superior, peers, customers, vendors and the
employee himself. All the perspectives thus received should be combined in the appropriate manner
and to get an overall, complete view of the employees’ performance. Observation can also be
exercised by the superior to obtain information. Some suggestions and tips for measuring employee
performance are:

 Clearly define and develop the employee plans of action (performance) with their role,
duties and responsibilities.

 Organizational outcomes or the achievement of organizational goals should also be kept in

mind.

 Focus on accomplishments and results rather than on activities.

 Also take note of the skills, knowledge and competencies and behaviors of the employees
that help the organisation to achieve its goals.

 If possible, collect the feedback about the performance of the employees through multi-
point feedback and self-assessments.

 Financial measures like the return on investment, the market share, the profit generated by
the performance of the team should also be considered.

For an organisation to be an effective organisation and to achieve its goals, it is very important to
monitor or measure its’ and its employee performance on a regular basis. Effective monitoring and
measuring also includes providing timely feedback and reviews to employees for their work and
performance according to the pre-determined goals and standards and solving the problems faced.
Timely recognition of the accomplishments also motivates the employees and help to improve the
performance.

Measuring the performance of the employees based only on one or some factors can provide with
inaccurate results and leave a bad impression on the employees as well as the organisation. For
example: By measuring only the activities in employee’s performance, an organization might rate
most of its employees as outstanding, even when the organisation as a whole might have failed to
meet its goals and objectives. Therefore, a balanced set of measures (commonly known as balanced
scorecard) should be used for measuring the performance of the employee.