Performance Appraisal Problems and Effective Appraisal
INTRODUCTION
Organizations depend on the proficiency of their human resource to scale their growth and development goals. Acquiring a good team of working professionals requires an organization to dedicate its human resource management department to recruit, select, induct, provide orientation, and appraise their performance. According to experts, the functions of a human resource department is the most critical in any organization because it determines the pace of growth and development of an organization. Every organization craves for skilled and motivated employees. To achieve this, the human resource department must be akin to conducting regular appraisals, which allows both the employees and the organization to evaluate the standing of the organization and the skill set level of each employee.
Performance appraisal is among the effective ways to evaluate the performance of employees to advance growth and development, both for the organization and the employees. Unfortunately, performance appraisal’s popularity is diminishing by the day, few companies are undertaking the procedure today and those that are committed are not following the recommended guidelines, with the most flouted one being the inability to stick to undertake the process as a continuous process all year round. Performance appraisal is among the most dreaded processes in human resource management (Thurston & McNall, 2010). Employees do not like receiving them because they see them as a managerial weapon that managers use for imposing disciplinary action or when they want to retrench workers. On the other hand, managers on their part do not like giving them because they see it as a waste of time and a process that only paint a bad picture of the company to its employees. However, experts argue that such skewed attitude towards such an important human resource management process surfaces due to underlying company problems such as poor managerial culture, incompetency among the employees, hence the fear for the appraisal process or lack of proper appraisal goals, objectives and guidelines, which according to experts should be very clear to all the employees expected to undergo the process so that it becomes clear to everyone what is expected of them. If undertaken properly, performed. the appraisal gives employees clear feedback on where they stand in terms of skill set and the areas that they need to improve. On the other hand, companies receive feedback on areas that need further training, identifying areas that need to be improved, improve the morale of workers, and general information that can lead to improved performance and profitability.
Therefore, performance appraisal is a positive HRM process that has its main objectives rooted in the growth and development of both companies and their employees. Managers who are not familiar with effective methods of conducting performance appraisal need to acquaint themselves with the necessary skills and procedures required. Generally, an effective performance appraisal requires the managers to prepare the process ahead of time in terms of alerting the employees. Then during the process, managers should approach the process without fear of confrontation. This means if an employee is at fault, the manager will face it head-on. HRM experts, however, caution that this should be done conversationally because the main objective is to motivate the employees not to reprimand them. Finally, managers should provide takeaway. This means that soon after the process, the managers should ensure that employees have something to learn from. Although performance appraisal, is one of the most effective ways that both the company and employees can get feedback, the process is not without problems.
PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
Performance appraisal is among those processes that must be undertaken systematically if the organization’s objective is set at obtaining desirable results. Most managers fail to consider how poorly conducted performance appraisal may negatively impact both the workers and the company itself. Today, a larger percentage of the companies that undertake the process find themselves dragged in court by their employees for flouting one labor and public safety laws or the other. Understanding the shortcomings beforehand is an effective way of ensuring that the company conducts an effective performance appraisal process that benefits both the employees and the organization.
Lack of effectiveness metrics
any evaluation process must be gauged by a number of metrics. Such metrics include the independence of the process from both the management or fellow employees. This means the process should be based on set standards that are to be stipulated beforehand, which means evaluators will be free of conflict of interest. Also, the process should reflect impartiality, be timely, and observe ethics in terms of all the professional ethics on the part of the evaluators. lack of such effectiveness metrics means that the process will miss out on some of the most critical objectives that the process is supposed to achieve such as recognizing results, availing feedback to improve the weak areas, identifying areas that require training and pinpointing areas that are poorly performed. Process owners, that is the company or the evaluators need to measure or put to test their evaluation process to identify whether it has the capability of attaining its set goals and objectives. The results can be evaluated in terms of percentage. If the process does not attain a certain percentage, it should be retracted and further improvement on the metrics be conducted before implementing it.
Lack of accountability
Performance appraisal is among the processes in Human Resource Management that demand that the management process highest level of integrity, otherwise it may turn out to be the greatest demotivation for the company. Managers do not undergo any form of accountability measure to gauge whether the feedback provided during the performance appraisal is accurate. This leaves a huge room that incompetent managers may exploit. It is common for managers to awards good scores to incompetent employees during the performance appraisal process simply because they like them or because they possess personal qualities that the manager admires. Such practices can compromise the quality of work that such a worker performance because the process becomes of no benefit to them. Additionally, other employees may feel that the process is only intended to underscore their contribution to the company while awarding undue recognition to incompetent or undeserving employees.
The process is disconnected from rewards
Apart from conducting performance appraisal to improve the organization’s performance and its profitability, the process is meant to guide the organization in decision making on who deserves promotion, bonuses, or merit raise. However, many organizations’ criteria for making decisions on the above-mentioned rewards are rarely based on the feedbacks obtained from the performance appraisal process. In many organizations, promotions, bonuses, and merit raise are conducted without following any set guidelines. Mostly, such rewards are apportioned to workers who are favorites of the management. This means hardworking employees who portray professionalism in their work and therefore may miss the chance of making friends with the management may miss out on such rewards despite the fact that they are qualified for the same. Such inappropriate conduct by the management renders the performance appraisal process useless.
This shines a light on why many employees and managers as well do not like undertaking performance appraisal, simply because its results will make little to no impact in the career development of the employees nor growth and development on the part of the company. Inadvertently, the process is used as a weapon by incompetent managers to target workers whom they dislike and demote them, deny them any rewards, or retrench them. If an organization decides to undertake the process, all the standard procedures should be put in place to ensure that the managers or those who are tasked with the responsibility of executing the process do not exploit it in any way other than what is stipulated in the guidelines. This will see both employees and the organization derive immense benefits from the process.
Not assessing actual performance
A study review conducted on the performance appraisal process conducted by various companies indicated a rather alarming trend. Most of the assessments completed by most of these company managers focus on “the person” which shows a complete misunderstanding of the essence nor the objectives of the process. The study indicated that most assessments focus on the knowledge of an employee in terms of whether they can do what they were employed to do and how well they can perform such a task. Additionally, the study indicated that assessments focus on an employees’ behavior, their character traits and commitment to their work in terms of how early they arrive in the morning whether they remain in their posts until the stipulated time and whether they relate well with their co-workers (Gupta & Kumar, 2013).
Though evaluating these factors may contribute greatly to performance, they are nevertheless a measure of the actual employee’s output, which is what performance appraisal essentially requires. Rather, a performance appraisal should measure an individual worker’s job performance and output in relation to certain pre-determined standard criteria and company objectives. Generally, such criteria may include output quality, responsiveness, output volume, and finally dollar value. The trend of not assessing actual performance demotivates employees who are striving to make positive contributions to the company. Since most organizational managers do not assess the actual performance, such employees who are striving to achieve the required company objectives find the process rather discouraging since the managers may not find anything on their assessment worth recognition or compliment. If such skewed form of performance appraisal assessment is not rectified, it is likely for such employees to start losing interest in the process, become demotivated in striving towards achieving the company objectives and eventually result in a slack employee. Consequently, the company will not achieve its goals because the employees’ output will be highly curtailed.
The Halo effects
This generally where an individual’s positive or negative feelings towards an employee influence the person supervising the evaluation process. Undoubtedly, we are all human beings, be it the company owner or the manager. This means we are all subjected to human nature which among other things contains feelings, attitudes, and opinions which we express to fellow human beings. an evaluator who is supervising the appraisal process may happen to have a negative attitude towards a certain employee, probably due to something unpleasant that they did that is work-related or otherwise. Also, they might have an outside the work environment relationship that never faired well and ended up in one of the parties hurting the other or breaking the expectations of the other. Such are some of the factors that make us all subjects of human nature. Very few individuals have the capability of rising above their differences with a certain employee and execute their duty as required.
In most cases, the halo effect is experienced when carrying out performance appraisal. Unfortunately, there exist little or no criteria standards of gauging whether the evaluation supervising person was under the halo effect or not. To add to this, there exists no performance evaluation for the management to gauge their effectiveness in undertaking such a process. This lives the process under the mercies of individuals who are prone to bias due to our human nature. However, despite the lack of evaluation criteria or standards on their part, managers can evaluate themselves when undertaking the process. For instance, if a manager realizes that most of their remarks are reflecting extremely positive reviews or negative reviews, one should take a break and check themselves for the halo effect. Although certain employees’ performance appraisal evaluation results may genuinely reflect majority positive or negative reviews, it’s always advisable that the evaluator check themselves to ensure they are not under the halo effect.
Recency effect
Performance appraisal is a process that should be undertaken all year round. However, many managers consider the recent past, just immediately before the appraisal process was carried out. Apart from failing to observe the required guidelines for undertaking the process, this practice may be unfair to some employees because one might have performed exemplary all through but unfortunately, post poor performance just before the appraisal process. gauging such an employee using such skewed criteria means may discourage such a client to maintain good performance other than the period just before the evaluation process. equally, a poorly performing client might have posted positive performance just a few days to the evaluation process, such employees might receive all the credit which in reality they do not deserve. Such a performance evaluation process might never reveal the actual reality which means employees’ skills will never be harnessed nor improved as would have been the case if the evaluation process was conducted continuously throughout the year.
Although the process might be cumbersome and time-consuming, which is among the reasons why corporate organizations prefer undertaking it at intervals, the results of the process, however, are worth it. This means despite the company spending a lot in terms of human resources and financial resources to conduct the process. it stands to have a well-motivated team of employees who are executing their duties in their respective posts at full capacity. Additionally, the business’ performance and profitability will be improved which is a perfect way to edge out the competition by optimizing the production capability of the business.
Being too lenient or severe in the evaluation process
It is common to observe a certain trend in the distribution of points warded to employees during the appraisal evaluation process. this trend might speak a lot about the evaluator. Whether they are fair, too lenient, or below average. Typically, a standard evaluation process should indicate employees with very high points, others with average points, and of cause those with very low points. However, in a scenario where all the workers fall under a certain category, it means the evaluator did not follow all the procedures stipulated in the guidelines or followed them but ignored others.
In such a situation, the organization may consider the option of seeking the help of another evaluator who will be independent of conflict of interest. The results obtained from the second evaluator should be measured against the first report to identify whether there is any correlation or not. In case the two reports show no correlation, the entire appraisal performance measures used by the organization should be reevaluated to ensure that the process maintains its authenticity and fulfills its intended objectives. Otherwise, employees will note the severity or leniency trend and develop a negative towards the process since it does not represent the true performance appraisal of the employees.
EFFECTIVE APPRAISAL
Although performance appraisal is known among the human resource undertakings that are less enjoyable both to the evaluator and the employees being evaluated. However, despite the attitudes, associated with this process, it is one of the most critical undertakings that any business, be it well established or a start-up, cannot afford to ignore. Although very few businesses can be accredited for observing all the guidelines required when undertaking performance appraisal, many are still struggling to ensure that they conduct continuous performance appraisal and implement the feedbacks obtained from the process. A perfect performance appraisal should address among the following issues stipulated below.
Preparing for the process ahead of time.
To obtain standard and credible performance appraisal feedback, it is always advisable to prepare the before undertaking the process well ahead of time. Keeping in mind that the proficiency of the process depends on whether an organization can undertake the process continues throughout the year, the preparation should reflect various things and put into consideration various factors. For instance, the evaluator needs to understand an employee’s nature of work, the requirements associated with that particular kind of work, and how an employee’s performance measures against the laid-out benchmarking performance.
Also, the evaluator needs to test all the criteria laid out to ensure that they reflect the goals and objectives that an ideal performance appraisal should address. Doing so will ensure that no hiccups will be experienced when undertaking the process. additionally, employees will gain faith in the process and therefore will support the feedbacks that will be obtained from the process even if they won’t be in their favor. Such a scenario presents an environment where workers are fully motivated and satisfied with their job. The company, on the other hand, gets continuous feedback that indicates areas that the company needs to address to improve performance and profitability (Brown et al., 2010).
Focus on the progress
It is very easy for the evaluator to deviate from the performance appraisal objectives and focus on the negative performance of a particular employee especially if that employee had been posting negative performance for some time. However, human resource management experts argue that doing so will divert the objective of the performance from improving performance for both the company and the employee into a rather agree reprimanding session that may diminish the moral of that particular employee, hence discouraging them from striving to improve their performance.
Rather than focusing on the negative, a performance appraisal should focus on how much growth and development the company and every individual employee in the company has achieved and the potential that every employee has for improvement if they keep putting more effort into their respective posts. In addition, evaluators should take the opportunity to provide employees with the required help or recommend any help if they are experiencing difficulties in their work. Employees should feel that the evaluation process is designed to identify and dress their weaknesses positively rather than in a way that demotivates them.
Provide Takeaways for both the business and the employees
The main objective for conducting performance appraisal is to see both the business and its employees improve in terms of productivity. Therefore, ensuring that the feedback provided is credible is among the critical purposes of the process. when presenting the feedback, evaluators should ensure that they provide positive criticism. This is part of ensuring that employees understand what are the shortcomings that the evaluator found in their overall performance. Additionally, the evaluator needs to provide the employees with information on how they can address their shortcomings. If for instance, an employee is finding it difficult to operate certain machinery which slows down their output, further training should be provided in that specific area to ensure that the work can operate at optimum capacity. Failure to do so means that the evaluation process has not achieved its objectives which is to enhance growth and development.
The management should receive feedback from the performance appraisal process and implement its recommendation without failing. This will pass a strong message to the employees about the importance of the process and will, therefore, strive to improve their performance. If the feedback recommends that certain employees be awarded merit raises, bonuses, or promotions, the management should implement these recommendations as stipulated. Also, if there are workers that the feedback recommends be retrenched or any other unwelcome disciplinary measure, the management should ensure that such recommendations are fully implemented. Although few workers may take such a move with a negative reaction, it would serve both as a warning and a promise that if one adheres to the performance appraisal feedback, their efforts will be duly recognized. Only then will the performance appraisal process gain relevance in any business.
Be ready to confront
Performance appraisal provides an ample opportunity for the employer o understand the capability of employees, their weaknesses, and their talents. Such knowledge can be used to the advantage of the firm in terms of recommending training for those who display weakness or incompetency in certain areas. The process presents an opportunity where employers can provide positive reinforcement that can help workers to improve in their weak areas (Bernardin & Wiatrowski, 2013). However, for those employees who are performing poorly on the evaluation, they may not agree with the evaluation score and therefore not ready to follow the recommendations outlined in the feedback. In such a scenario, the management should be ready to enforce such recommendations irrespective of the employee’s opinion towards the process. this will ensure that the employee does not drag the business behind by not operating at optimum capacity which is one of the ultimate goals of the performance appraisal.
CONCLUSION
Performance appraisal is a useful management tool that is useful to both employees and managers. To the employees, performance appraisal provides a critical objective evaluation that informs the employee of the proficiency of his/her skill set when evaluated according to requirements of a certain field of activity. The evaluation gives critical feedback that may award scores that determines whether an employee’s performance is according to the expectation or below average. In addition, the feedback provides critical information that employees can use to improve their performance. On the part of management, performance appraisal provides critical information about the organization’s performance in terms of employee development, its success rate on recruitment and induction practices (Bouskila-Yam et al., 2011). In addition, the process helps the management in making an unbiased decision about promotions, transfers, salary increment, bonus awards, and other rewards. A credible performance appraisal process ensures that all the employees recognize their feedback and are ready to abide by the recommendations.
However, the performance appraisal process can be accompanied by various problems that can cripple the effectiveness of the process. such problems include lack of accountability on the management part, the inability of the evaluator to assess the actual employee performance but instead resort to assessing employee’s character traits, their behavior, and commitment. Loss of connection between the appraisal performance evaluation process and the rewards, the halo effect, and leniency or severity in the evaluation process. these problems affect the performance of employees in their respective posts and consequently the overall growth and development of the business. Despite the shortcoming, performance appraisal’s importance should not be underrated and therefore should be carried out throughout the year as recommended. Both well-established businesses and startups stand a greater chance of improving their performance and achieving their set goals.
There are various measures that business entities can implement to facilitate the undertaking of an effective performance appraisal process. such measures include preparing for the evaluation process in advance. This means raising awareness among the employees in terms of what is expected of them during the process. the preparation also includes the evaluator learning what an employee’s work entails and what is the criterion used to gauge performance based on that particular post. Other measures include focusing the evaluation process on progress, providing credible takeaways for both the business and the employees, and preparation on the part of management to confront the employees in case the evaluation process recommends that disciplinary action be taken against a particular employee.
Although the performance evaluation process is not admired by either the management or the employees, it is an evaluation process that yields good results to both parties. Employees can gauge their skills and how well they are suited in the posts that they are working in. in a scenario where an employee feels that their current post limits their potential capabilities, the evaluation process provides an opportunity for such an individual to find an area that best suits their skills and talents. Such an environment enables both the employees and the company to experience exponential growth that would have been difficult without a standard evaluation tool such as performance appraisal.
References
Bernardin, H. J., & Wiatrowski, M. (2013). Performance appraisal. Psychology and Policing, 257.
Brown, M., Hyatt, D., & Benson, J. (2010). Consequences of the performance appraisal experience. Personnel Review.
Thurston, P. W., & McNall, L. (2010). Justice perceptions of performance appraisal practices. Journal of Managerial Psychology.
Bouskila-Yam, O., & Kluger, A. N. (2011). Strength-based performance appraisal and goal setting. Human Resource Management Review, 21(2), 137-147.
Gupta, V., & Kumar, S. (2013). Impact of performance appraisal justice on employee engagement: a study of Indian professionals. Employee Relations.