What is an appraisal?
Performance appraisal is “a process of determining how well employees do their jobs relative to a standard and communicating that information to them” (Mathis et al. 369). It may combine various oral and written approaches in order to evaluate employee job performance in the best possible way (Inc. Magazine). Realistic performance standards should be developed before employee appraisals are applied. These standards should rely on results-, behavior- and trait-based information. Results may include sales volume, cost reduction, improved quality, etc. (Mathis et al. 369). Behavior-based information is concerned with how well an employee may communicate with customers and partners and how professional he or she is at work. Finally, trait-based information describes employee’s values, traits, and creativity (Mathis et al. 369). This information is crucial even though it is the least related to the company’s performance.
Appraisals may be used for specific administrative or developmental actions. An employee may be even dismissed from work if his or her appraisal shows that the results of work and behavior do not correspond to the high corporate standards. However, employees usually get support from HR or managers and improve their skills if appraisals show that they have some problems at work. This is why standards have to be measurable and realistic.
What is the purpose of an appraisal?
Appraisals have many purposes. They help: “to assess an employee’s performance; provide a platform for feedback; help administer wages and salaries; identify employees’ strengths and weaknesses; answer worker-related questions and improve job performance” (Mathis et al. 372). In general, appraisals help to improve company’s productivity, provide HR and managers with information that will help to make informed job-related decisions, identify what is needed to perform certain kinds of jobs (Inc. Magazine). If a performance level is intermediate and novice, it means that the company has to help an employee to improve his or her performance up to the expected level. Appraisals may have different goals. Therefore HR should develop such approaches that will limit the number of possible rater errors. Timing and number of appraisals is also important for making them more effective and relevant to the company’s business practices.
How would you be involved with an employee appraisal if you were a manager or worked in HR capacity?
As it was written above, if there are too many errors in rating employees, there will be no point in carrying out appraisals. Thus if I were a manager, I would create an appraisal system that would be aligned with the overall performance management system. In particular, I would think of the most important standards (behavior, traits, and results) that employees have to comply with. It could be a long process, because I would need to consult with HR, supervisors, middle managers, etc. in order to collect as much information as possible. This information would be used for creating questionnaires, forms, guidelines for supervisors.
Next, I would apply different types of reviews in order to objectively evaluate every employee. Assessment could rely on numerical and nonnumeric information as well as on written or oral forms of evaluation. If there was an HR department, they would be in charge of maintaining appraisal system and working with raters. In turn, if I were a manager I would probably rate employees and identify development areas for each employee. In order to reduce the number of errors, I would suggest using several sources of appraisals. As the result, employees would also have a chance to rate each other and themselves.
Works Cited
Inc.com. Employee Performance Appraisals. n.d. Web. 25 May 2016
Mathis, R., Jackson, J., Valentine, S. Human Resource Management. Cengage Learning.
2014.
