Everyday Phenomenon, Yet Conducted Once a Year ; Revealing True Colors
Employee appraisal is a method by which the job performance of an employee is evaluated typically by the corresponding manager or supervisor. 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. Avoiding performance issues ultimately decreases morale, decreases credibility of management, decreases the organization's overall effectiveness and wastes more of management's time to do what isn't being done proper. Managers cite performance appraisals or annual reviews as one of their most disliked tasks. Performance management eliminates the performance appraisal or annual review and evaluation as the focus and concentrates instead on the entire spectrum of performance management and improvement strategies. These include employee performance improvement, performance development, training, cross-training, challenging assignments, 360 degree feedback and regular performance feedback.
To make your performance reviews as productive and as painless as possible,
Be prepared. Make sure you are fully prepared before sitting down with the employee.
Plan both what & how you're going to say.
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.
Be consistent.
Make sure to handle performance reviews in a consistent manner. Top performers should hear affirmations from you regarding their exemplary efforts; weak performers need to hear that their performance requires improvement.
Evaluate work based on quantity and quality relative to the job requirements.
Secondary considerations might be employee attitude, willingness to help other personnel with their work when appropriate, and the ability to get along with others.
Make it a two-way conversation.
The review should also be a forum for employees to voice their concerns.
Since job satisfaction is the most important factor affecting an employee’s attitude, an effective review should delve into areas that include issues most important to that employee.
The performance review is a good opportunity to show your concern for the employee’s work/life balance, and to jointly discuss solutions to improve that balance.
It’s also a good time to create a plan for the employee’s career advancement and discuss what future opportunities might exist for him or her.
Be a good listener. Remember to be an active listener and to pick up on your employee’s verbal and nonverbal cues.
Reviews should be done proactively with the purpose of improving employee morale and productivity.
Don’t be confrontational enough, and do not criticize the employee in general.
Sometimes fear of the unknown is the worst fear of all
Tell the employee that you're initiating a scheduled performance review. Remind them of what's involved in the process. Schedule a meeting about two weeks out.
Any performance issues should have been addressed as soon as those issues occurred. So nothing should be a surprise to the employee later on in the actual performance appraisal meeting.
Prerequisites for effective performance reviews:
1. The employee trusts the person giving the review and sees them as both accurate and fair.
2. The employee has the emotional resilience to listen to, absorb and profit from feedback.
3. Adequate data has been tracked throughout the review period to ensure the review will be fact based.
4. The result of the performance review actually adds significant value to the work process and outcomes in less than one month.
5. Both participants are committed to the value of improving performance as the primary reason for a review, instead of using them just because they’re widely accepted, or for negotiating a raise, or avoiding a layoff.
Performance appraisals rarely focus on developing the employee’s skills and abilities with commitments from the organization about how they will be encouraged to develop their skills in areas of interest to the employee.
Performance appraisals are usually connected with the amount of pay raise an employee will receive. Don’t ever expect an honest discussion about improving performance if the outcome is the employee’s income.
Employee appraisal is a method by which the job performance of an employee is evaluated typically by the corresponding manager or supervisor. 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. Avoiding performance issues ultimately decreases morale, decreases credibility of management, decreases the organization's overall effectiveness and wastes more of management's time to do what isn't being done proper. Managers cite performance appraisals or annual reviews as one of their most disliked tasks. Performance management eliminates the performance appraisal or annual review and evaluation as the focus and concentrates instead on the entire spectrum of performance management and improvement strategies. These include employee performance improvement, performance development, training, cross-training, challenging assignments, 360 degree feedback and regular performance feedback.
To make your performance reviews as productive and as painless as possible,
Be prepared. Make sure you are fully prepared before sitting down with the employee.
Plan both what & how you're going to say.
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.
Be consistent.
Make sure to handle performance reviews in a consistent manner. Top performers should hear affirmations from you regarding their exemplary efforts; weak performers need to hear that their performance requires improvement.
Evaluate work based on quantity and quality relative to the job requirements.
Secondary considerations might be employee attitude, willingness to help other personnel with their work when appropriate, and the ability to get along with others.
Make it a two-way conversation.
The review should also be a forum for employees to voice their concerns.
Since job satisfaction is the most important factor affecting an employee’s attitude, an effective review should delve into areas that include issues most important to that employee.
The performance review is a good opportunity to show your concern for the employee’s work/life balance, and to jointly discuss solutions to improve that balance.
It’s also a good time to create a plan for the employee’s career advancement and discuss what future opportunities might exist for him or her.
Be a good listener. Remember to be an active listener and to pick up on your employee’s verbal and nonverbal cues.
Reviews should be done proactively with the purpose of improving employee morale and productivity.
Don’t be confrontational enough, and do not criticize the employee in general.
Sometimes fear of the unknown is the worst fear of all
Tell the employee that you're initiating a scheduled performance review. Remind them of what's involved in the process. Schedule a meeting about two weeks out.
Any performance issues should have been addressed as soon as those issues occurred. So nothing should be a surprise to the employee later on in the actual performance appraisal meeting.
Prerequisites for effective performance reviews:
1. The employee trusts the person giving the review and sees them as both accurate and fair.
2. The employee has the emotional resilience to listen to, absorb and profit from feedback.
3. Adequate data has been tracked throughout the review period to ensure the review will be fact based.
4. The result of the performance review actually adds significant value to the work process and outcomes in less than one month.
5. Both participants are committed to the value of improving performance as the primary reason for a review, instead of using them just because they’re widely accepted, or for negotiating a raise, or avoiding a layoff.
Performance appraisals rarely focus on developing the employee’s skills and abilities with commitments from the organization about how they will be encouraged to develop their skills in areas of interest to the employee.
Performance appraisals are usually connected with the amount of pay raise an employee will receive. Don’t ever expect an honest discussion about improving performance if the outcome is the employee’s income.