Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Agenda
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CHAPTER OVERVIEW BENEFITS OF CONDUCTING A PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL APPRAISAL PROCESS AVOIDING DISCRIMINATION IN PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS TYPES OF APPRAISALS TECHNIQUES FOR APPRAISING PERFORMANCE BIAS IN APPRAISING PERFORMANCE PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS INTERVIEW
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CHAPTER OVERVIEW
Performance appraisal is a powerful tool to help the supervisor meet the objectives of the department and organization.
The benefits of conducting performance appraisals include providing information necessary for improving performance and motivating employees. Performance appraisals also provide important records for the company.
Managers use this information for decisions on raises, promotions, and discipline.
Performance Appraisal:
Annual Performance Evaluation will be done during the month of April every year for each employee having been employed for six months or longer. The evaluation period will cover the period 1st April through 31st March. Self Appraisal forms will be given to each employee to appraise themselves on what their accomplishments were during the Appraisal Year. Completed forms have to be returned, through appropriate channels, to the HR Team. Upon receipt of the evaluation form, the following actions will be accomplished :-
The Immediate Supervisor will: a) Complete the evaluation form as promptly as possible. Exceptional must be discussed in Comments section of the evaluation form. Describe why performance is not satisfactory and specify how performance can be improved, or explain why performance is outstanding. b) Discuss evaluation with the employee emphasizing strong and weak points in job performance. Commend the employee for a job well done if applicable and discuss specific corrective action if warranted. Set mutual goals for the employee to reach before the next performance evaluation. Recommendations should specifically state methods to correct weaknesses and/or prepare the employee for future promotions. c) Allow the employee to make any written comments he/she desires. Have employee sign the evaluation form and initial after supervisor's comments. d) Forward the original copy of the evaluation form to the HR Department. Retain a copy of the completed form for the department and the employee. e) Subsequent to the completion of this evaluation by the supervisor, and review by the employee, revisions must be discussed by both parties. In addition, if changes in the form are made after the employee has signed the form, the level of authority making the changes must notify the immediate supervisor and give the employee and supervisor copies of the revised evaluation.
The Director will: Review each form to ensure further actions on the appraisal. See that proper actions have been taken to resolve any identified conflicts. Account for all evaluation forms in his area of responsibility. Forward all original forms together as a group to the HR Department. HR Team will: Review for completeness and accuracy. Any unresolved problems will be brought to the attention of the concerned line of authority. The completed form will be placed in the Employee's Permanent Personnel File.
Job Description
At the time of joining the employee will be given with a set of Job Description, that he needs to perform at the Job. In addition to it, according the employee position in the Organisation and the requirements of the company, the employee may be a given a new set of Job Description discussed mutually by the employee and the supervisor. Signed Job Description sheet has to be submitted to the HR Department which will be placed in the Employee's Permanent Personnel File and will be used for future appraisals. Promotions: Based on your Performance Appraisals, accordingly you might be promoted to a senior position as decided by the Company.
Performance appraisals provide information necessary for employees to improve the quality of their work.
It can help motivate employees.
Employees like to hear how they are doing, and behaviors that are evaluated or measured tend to get more attention from individuals.
Therefore, when it is useful to the organization to have special attention directed at a goal, it is useful to have that item on a formal appraisal.
For example, if the quality of a product or service is important, it is worthwhile to have a section on the performance appraisalon quality.
Another reason for conducting performance appraisals is that they provide important records for the organization.
They are a useful source of information when deciding on raises, promotions, and discipline, and they provide evidence that these were administered fairly. In the case of employee behavior or performance problems, an appraisal documents the problem.
APPRAISAL PROCESS
Appraisal Process
1.Establish and communicate expectations for performance. 2.Observe and measure individual performance against standards. 3.Reinforce performance to provide remedies
You can monitor performance in a number of ways: - Collect or have the employee collect performance data - Meet face-to-face to review progress - Physically check the work on a regular basis - Gather data at predetermined times.
Sometimes a supervisor needs to appraise personal characteristics, for example, an employee s dependability or attitude.
While such ratings are necessarily subjective, the supervisor can try to base them on observations about behavior and results.
3. Reinforce Performance
To keep employees motivated and informed, the supervisor needs to tell them when they are doing something right, not just when they are making a mistake.
Reinforce good performance by pointing out to employees the areas in which their performance is good.
In areas where the employee falls short of the standards, he or she needs to know how to improve.
An effective way to help the employee is for the supervisor and employee to work together in solving performance problems.
To move beyond discussing symptoms to uncover the underlying problems, the supervisor can ask which of the following kinds of causes led to the poor performance:
(1) Inadequate skills.
The supervisor should see that the employee gets the necessary training.
Evaluation Tips
Be specific Give deadlines Be realistic Be honest Be complete Evaluate performance, not personality Listen to your employees
In general, the behaviors or characteristics measured by a performance appraisal should be related to the job and to succeeding on the job.
The supervisor and others responsible for the content of performance appraisals should make sure that what they measure is still relevant to a particular job.
Ratings of performance should not be discriminatory.
That is, they should not be based on the employee s race, sex, or other protected category, but on whether the employee meets standards of performance.
Types of Appraisals
Types of Appraisals
Types of commonly used performance appraisal techniques include:
1.Graphic rating scales. 2.Paired-comparison approach. 3.Forced-choice approach. 4.Essay appraisal.
2. Paired-comparison Approach
Paired-comparison Approach: A performance appraisal that measures the relative performance of employees in a group.
This is a method of performance evaluation that results in a rank ordering of employees to come up with a best employee. This type of approach measures the relative performance of employees in a group.
Employees are ranked by comparing the first two employees on the list.
The supervisor places a check mark next to the name of the employee whose performance is better. The process is repeated, comparing the first employee s performance with that of the other employees. Then the supervisor compares the second employee on the list with all the others, and so on until each pair of employees has been compared. The employee with the most check marks is considered the most valuable.
The paired-comparison approach is appropriate when the supervisor needs to find one outstanding employee in a group for a promotion or special assignment.
The fact that paired comparison makes some employees look good at the expense of others makes this technique less useful as a method of providing feedback to individual employees.
3. Forced-Choice Approach
Forced-choice Approach: A performance appraisal that presents the appraiser with sets of statements describing employee behavior; the appraiser must choose which statement is most characteristic of the employee and which is least characteristic.
This type of appraisal form gives the supervisor sets of statements describing employee behavior.
For each set of statements, the supervisor must select the one that is most and the one that is least characteristic of the employee.
These questionnaires prevent the supervisor from saying only positive things about employees. It is used when an organization finds that supervisors have been rating an unbelievably high proportion of employees as above average.
4. Essay Appraisal
Sometimes the supervisor must write a description of the employee s performance.
The essay appraisal is often used along with other types of appraisals, notably graphic rating scales. They provide an opportunity for supervisors to describe aspects of performance not thoroughly covered by an appraisal questionnaire. The disadvantage of this method is that their quality depends on the supervisor s writing skills.
The advantage of using this technique is that it is tailored to the organization s objectives for employees. It also tends to be less subjective than some other approaches. However, developing the scales is timeconsuming and therefore relatively expensive.
6. Checklist Appraisal
A checklist appraisal is a record of performance, not an evaluation by the supervisor. It contains a series of questions about the employee s performance.
The supervisor checks boxes to answer the questions yes or no. The human resources department has a key for scoring the items resulting in a rating of the employee s performance.
The advantage of this type of appraisal is that it is easy to complete. However, it has several disadvantages.
The checklist can be difficult to prepare, and each job category will probably require a different set of questions. Also, there is no way for the supervisor to adjust the answers for any special circumstances that affect performance.
7. Critical-Incident Appraisal
Critical-incident Appraisal: A performance appraisal in which the supervisor keeps a record of incidents that show positive and negative ways the employee has acted; the supervisor uses this record to assess the employee s performance.
To conduct a critical-incident appraisal, the supervisor keeps a written record of incidents that show positive and negative ways in which the employee has acted.
The record should include dates, people involved, actions taken, and any other details that are relevant. At the time of the appraisal, the supervisor reviews the record to reach an overall evaluation of the employee s behavior. During the appraisal interview, the employee has a chance to respond to each of the incidents recorded.
Peer Reviews: Performance appraisals conducted by an employee s coworkers. Peer appraisals are less common. In organizations that use teams, the members may appraise the performance of their team members.
An increasing number of major companies are having subordinates rate how well their bosses manage. The purpose is to give managers information they can use to supervise more effectively and make their corporations more competitive.
Harshness bias tends to frustrate and discourage workers who resent the unfair assessments of their performance. At the other extreme is the leniency bias, where supervisors rate their employees more favorably than the performance merits.
Employees who receive favorable ratings may see it as an advantage.
However, it cheats them and the department of the benefits of truly developing and coaching employees.
There are also supervisors who tend to select ratings that are related to the structuring of answers on the questionnaire.
A tendency may be to select ratings in the middle of the scale, which is called central tendency.
This type of bias misses important opportunities to praise or correct employees.
Proximity bias, or assigning similar scores to items that are near each other on a questionnaire, can result in misleading appraisals.
If the supervisor is uncertain about specific questions or wants to adjust a low score, he or she may resort to making random choices. This should be avoided by trying to apply objective criteria.
Similarity Bias: The tendency to judge others more positively when they are like oneself. The halo effect refers to the tendency to generalize one positive or negative aspect of a person to the person s entire performance, resulting in either a higher or lower rating than the employee deserves.
Finally, the supervisor s prejudices about various types of people can unfairly influence a performance appraisal.
The supervisor must remember that each employee is an individual, not just a representative of a group. This is especially important in light of the EEOC guidelines discussed earlier in the chapter.
The purpose of holding an appraisal interview is to communicate information about the employee s performance. An interview is an appropriate setting because if sets aside time to focus on and discuss the appraisal in private. It is a two-way communication with the supervisor and employee working together to devise ways to improve performance.
In preparation for the appraisal interview, it is also useful for the supervisor to review for himself or herself why appraisals are important for the organization, department, and most of all for the supervisor to be competent at the job. When the supervisor is convinced the performance is a positive enterprise and that it can be a win-win situation, it will be easier to do the interview.
When the supervisor and employee understand each other s point of view, they should reach a decision on how to solve problems described in the appraisal.
At the end of the interview, the supervisor and employee are usually required to sign the appraisal form. By doing so, they acknowledge that the interview has been conducted and that the employee has read and understood the form.
After the interview is over, the supervisor continues to appraise performance. Training and coaching for improvement should ensue. The follow-up is an ongoing process.
Summary
Prepare for the appraisal discussion Discuss employee s dreams, goals Set mutual goals; put them in writing Give positive and corrective feedback Use up-to-date job descriptions Evaluate your performance Involve the employee in the discussion Be open, candid and specific Evaluate performance not personality Sincerely care about your employees