Performance Appraisals

Performance Appraisals: The Good and the Bad

Performance appraisals have been around in some form or fashion for quite a while now. Dating mainly back until the time of the second world war, they have been a distinct and formal management procedure used to evaluate work performance. A scholar named Dulewicz (1989) said "...there is a basic human tendency to make judgments about those one is working with, as well as about oneself." (Introduction to Performance Appraisal)

With these natural tendencies to judge and evaluate the ones that we work with, it can also create serious motivational, ethical, and legal problems in the workplace. Without an organized, consistent appraisal system, there is little chance of ensuring that if taken to court, a judgment over the termination of a under average worker will be lawful or fair.

Performance appraisal systems began first-off to be a simple method of income justification, meaning it really was put in use to decide whether or not the salary or wage of an individual employee was justified. The process definitely linked to material outcomes. A cut in pay would follow if an employee's performance was found to be less than ideal.

As does everything else, appraisals have evolved greatly. They are considered a periodic interview, in which the work performance of the employee is graded, and discussed, with a view on weaknesses and strengths as well as great opportunities and skills development.

There are many people who are against performance appraisals. For example, there are many people who would gladly admit their problems at work, if they knew their next pay raise was riding on an appraisal result. With something like this, management has to watch out for employees downplaying their weaknesses. In recent studies, even though flawed, employers have been greatly accepting the appraisal process more than in the past.

Although performance appraisals are an incredible way to evaluate, they have to be kept consistent among all employees, and fair as well. In the past, there has been a rising problem with managers giving employers inflated appraisals. This is not a good thing when used. Poor employees are given a title of marginally competent, marginal employees get satisfactory, and satisfactory employees get an above standard rating. All these are not good for a business to do, mainly for legal reasons. It gives the employers a false sense of security and hinders performance improvement. Employees that have been discharged but have good evaluations also have grounds and evidence to sue for unlawful discharge.

As stated earlier, consistency in evaluations is crucial. If one of your good employees does something good, and is recognized, then one of your worse employees should be able to get the same praise for the same instance. No favorites can be played. If so, legal problems follow. There are quite a few ways to ensure evaluation accuracy. It's advised that evaluations are done on a calendar basis, not on the anniversary of employment. Important comparisons cannot be made that need to be in this situation. It's always a good idea to hold regular meetings with supervisors to discuss problems in the organization, whether it be a problem with an employee and his supervisor, or anything job related. This will help reinforce things that might seem to be obvious, but aren't.

Not surprisingly, most companies are dissatisfied with their performance appraisal system. William M. Mercer recently did a survey that showed that more than half (51%) of the 218 companies surveyed that "their employee evaluation process offered little or no value to the organization." (Improved Performance appraisals: Process of elimination) Also, 64% spoke of plans to redesign their process.

Also, New York-based Mercer Human Resource Consulting found that 1/3 of responding workers even had a formal performance appraisal in the previous 12 months. Also, only 29% believe they receive some type of reward when they do their job well. Sadly, only 61% understand how their performance is evaluated. (Performance Appraisals: Some Improvement Needed)

For some businesses, performance appraisals are a thing of the past. In the Houston, Texas area, a company called Lyondell Petrochemical was unhappy with its performance management system. They abolished performance ratings altogether. They also separated their performance evaluation apart from its pay system. The employees seemed to like it.

No performance appraisal is perfect, but there are tons of ways to make them even better. They offer so many legal and other benefits that employers should long for. One of the worst types of criticism on performance appraisals is their way of making teamwork look unimportant. The whole idea of performance appraisals is to make the employee look at themselves, and to make sure that everything is correct. This throws the whole teamwork situation out the window. There is a fix for this though. If teamwork is essential from a group, make teamwork/collaboration a criterion in the evaluation.

Another good way of improving consistency is the hiring of good supervisors. When the supervisor gives two different employees a reward plaque, and there's 6 people in the payroll that deserve it too, this is definitely a dilemma. Favoritism is definitely a distraction, but can get a business in legal problems quick.

Performance appraisals can really cause some emotional problems for the employee. Gun shy from a past performance appraisal, they will be in a state that will make them think that they have been cut down. There's always a way of coming across as being scornful, but this is not the goal of these appraisals. Appraisals should never be avoided out of fear that some employees may not like what they hear. Employees should be motivated to strive for excellence, not to sway them into being content with mediocrity.

Critics of performance appraisals make good points, but the points are always about the systems that have failed time and time again in the field. When a manager does not take the time to update their performance appraisal system for content and consistency, problems will definitely arrive, and adverse effects of what was originally desired will occur.

Sometimes each type of organization needs its own type of performance appraisal. In a lot of technological and other industrial jobs, employees have to struggle to attract and retain talent. This has to be done by the continuous motivating of their employees. Unfortunately, the opposite of this is usually the aftermath of flawed performance appraisals. Star performers are rewarded by good performance appraisals, but they fail to be fair, accurate, or timely,