Performance Appraisals

Performance Appraisal Survey Results

Many company regularly administers performance appraisals to evaluate an employee's current or past performance relative to his or her performance standards. This process involves an employer (1) setting work standards; (2) assessing the employee's actual performance relative to these standards; and (3) providing feedback to the employee with the aim of motivating that person to eliminate performance deficiencies or to continue to perform above par. (Dessler, 1999). If the appraisals are conducted fairly and constructively, the technique can be very beneficial in helping an employee grow in skills and become more promotable. Unfortunately, many performance appraisal rating come to a surprise to an employee due to the lack of communication from their supervisors. This is what stood out in my survey, when asked fellow employees how they felt about the performance appraisal procedure.

My company issues a Performance Measurement Plan (PMP) at the beginning of each year to set the expectations for the organization as a whole as well as personal objectives and standards for the individual. This is also called Management By Objectives (MBO). The organization expectations are usually quantified in total sales, reduction of overall costs and bottom line profit. The employees know that indirectly they can affect these areas by their sales goals and expenditures.

The personal objectives are more micro managed, and unless reviewed periodically can be overlooked or, as in the case of my survey, mistakenly felt their objectives are being met satisfactorily. One employee felt she was meeting all of her objectives and when it came time for the semi-annual review, she realized one of her objectives had a deadline, which was missed. She had missed the deadline because of another urgent priority given to her by her supervisor. But she failed to bring up the performance objectives to her superior and inquire as to whether or not she could have her deadline extended. Her supervisor was not keeping track and therefore was unaware that this new project could jeopardize the timeline on the PMP project. The employee felt she was unjustly penalized on her review for the uncompleted project. One of the steps in the performance measurement tool is the employee's responsibility to set up time with his or her supervisor to periodically. This is usually called a "feedback session" and during this type of meeting the subordinate's performance and progress are discussed and plans are made for any development or changes required.

One performance appraisal issue I have run into is when I changed positions and gained a different Manager. My previous Manager always rated me highly even when I felt I performed only satisfactory. Therefore, I found myself becoming a bit lax in my efforts. Then I was promoted and my new Manager had higher expectations and I received my first average score. Deep down I knew I deserved the lower score but I became accustomed to my previous manager's way of rating me.

All three of my surveyed individuals agree that the performance appraisal system should and is used in determining their merit increases for the next year. They felt that this was a fair way of determining their increase and that they had control of the personal goals, which were given them to fulfill. The only complaint from them was the weighting of the organizational goals in determining their increase. In example, if the company did badly in the foods division, we