What Makes a Good Performance Appraisal?
There are increasingly two schools of thought (we're sure there
are probably 2002): one for and one against Appraisals. And in
both, the bottom line still is that they will cost your company
money if not handled well. As we know, in vast numbers of cases
they aren't.
Although the appraisal format may be key, the best procedures in
the world won't really be effective if the person running the
appraisal isn't handling it efficiently, professionally and with
long-term care involved.
Performance appraisals are almost always a one or two-times a
year process rather than something that is a daily part of a
manager's job. They usually become 'tick the box' exercises that
cause a great deal of anxiety on both 'sides' and once they're
competed they aren't looked at again till the next time.
Difficult feedback gets postponed or sugar-coated, or even
worse, lied about on the Appraisal form. A lot of managers don't
want to put down in black and white that someone's performance
has been under par and therefore they (the manager) will be
responsible for that person not getting a pay increase or
promotion.
In turn, appraisals can also lack objectivity and, therefore,
have more personal rather than professional views included which
could be detrimental.
In addition, if everything is focused on the appraisal process
then you run the risk of creating anxiety during the build-up
and a lack of motivation and productivity as people anticipate
the results. In other words, there should be no surprises during
an appraisal.
Supposedly only 5% of organisations say they have satisfactory
appraisal processes, but we got that information off the
Internet, so I'd take it with a pinch of salt!
A truly good Appraisal is actually an agreed summary of what has
been happening on an on-going basis between appraisals. If it is
left to review twice a year, or quarterly, all the opportunities
to support and guide the employee to improve get missed. People
need to be engaged in the idea that managing people - and being
managed - is constant.
Fear, uncertainty, collusion, duplicity, embarrassment,
laziness, guilt and sheer incompetence are among the reasons why
appraisals are often not worth the paper they are written on.
One of our clients told us that rather than completely redoing
their appraisal process they decided to 'mark down' their
performance related pay levels: in other words if someone had
been scored a 4 (out of 5 levels) they were lowered to a 3. This
was because they discovered that most managers scored people
higher than their performance merited. It was an exercise in
trying to get rid of the 'invisible incompetence' that the
process colluded in.
A great appraisal needs to be fair, objective, two-way,
realistic, clear, on-going and specific.
It also needs to be positioned well.
It's easy to shoot yourself in the foot if you place too much
emphasis on the actual appraisal process and not on the on-going
performance management. People will focus on the process rather
than the objective, which is to help people develop in to more
effective, better managed members of staff.