PERFOMANCE APPRAISAL – SESSION NINE

Evaluating employees’ behaviour in the workplace

A function of the HRD• It may also be called performance review or

employee evaluation

• A critical process in maintaining a motivated workforce by giving feed back to employees on their performance.

• PA is the ultimate measure of HRM/D’s success

A ROLE OF THE HRD• The HRD/M designs the process but- PA is usually carried out by the

immediate supervisor- who knows the workers performance.

• To be useful, PA should-be job-related (The late Kibirige was rated a productive minister despite his alcoholism), practical, have standards, and use dependable measures!

• Direct and indirect methods of observation could be used!

• Standards are usually developed as part of the Job analysis process and these are then used in PA.

• Appraisal methods are the commonest source of employee recognition

• The goal of PA is to develop an accurate picture of employee’s behaviour on the job

• PA (formal or informal gives employees an opportunity to discuss mistakes and successes and learn lessons from them

BENEFITS OF PA • Merit salary raises• Performance results/feedback/job Conselling• Promotion• Termination or layoffs• Performance potential• Succession planning• Career planning• Transfer• Manpower planning• Bonuses• Development and evaluation of training programmes• Criteria for selection procedure validation• Expense control

Characteristics of effective performance appraisal system• Validity (relevancy) – e.g is it relevant to use employee

intelligence? People come with a certain level of intelligence to the job – so measure what is important!

• Reliability (consistency)• Did employees have input into its development?• Are its standards acceptable to employees?• Are its goals acceptable to employees?• Are its standards under the control of employees?• How frequent is the feed back?• Have raters been trained?• Have ratees been trained?• Do employees have input into the appraisal interviews?• Do the appraisals have consequences?• Are different sources (raters) utilized?• NOTE: Use of criteria irrelevant to the job is illegal!!

PA rater biases• These are caused by subjective measures and

they include:i) Halo effect (using one characteristic to make

an overall impression)ii) Error of central tendencyiii) Lenience or strictnessiv) Personal prejudicev) Recency effect• Any the above can distort the actual picture

PA rater biases

• PA should allow for two-way communication and it should be designed such that the employee is not threatened! Otherwise it will not be beneficial!

• The feedback should be constructive and credit should be given where it is due!

Methods of PA• 360O Degree performance appraisal – Where a combination of self, peers,

supervisor and subordinates – participates in PA. It is also called all round appraisal.

• Rating Scales:-Rates employees according to defined factors. The factors chosen for evaluation are typically of two types: job related and personal characteristics.

• Critical Incidents:-Requires written records be kept of highly favorable and highly unfavorable work actions.

• Essay:-The rater simply writes a brief narrative describing the employee’s performance. This method tends to focus on extreme behavior in the employee’s work rather than routine day-to-day performance.

• Work Standards:-Compares each employee’s performance to a predetermined standard, or expected level of output.

• Ranking:-The rater simply places all employees in a given group in rank order on the basis of their overall performance. Paired comparison is a variation of the ranking method that involves comparing the performance of each employee with every other employee in the group.

Methods of PA• Forced Distribution:-An appraisal approach where the

rater is required to assign individuals in the work group to a limited number of categories similar to a normal frequency distribution.

• Forced-Choice And Weighted Checklist Performance Reports:-The forced choice performance report is a technique in which the appraiser is given a series of statements about an individual and the rater indicates which items are most or least descriptive of the employee. The weighted checklist performance report is a technique whereby the rater completes a form similar to the forced-choice performance report, but the various responses have been assigned different weights.

PA Methods• . Results-Based Systems:-In a result-based system the

superior and thesubordinate jointly agree on objectives for the next appraisal period.

• Assessment Centers:-Recognizing the differences in purposes, and the difficulty that a PA system will have in achieving both aims, some firms opt to use an assessment center as an adjunct to their appraisal system

• Management by objectives (MBO) :-It is a goal-oriented performance appraisal method, requires that supervisors and employees determine objectives for

employees to meet during the rating period, and the employees appraise how well they have achieved their objectives

The Appraisal Interview The appraisal interview is the Achilles’ heel of the entire evaluation process.

• Scheduling the Interview—Supervisors usually conduct a formal appraisal interview at the end of an employee’s appraisal period.• Interview Structure—A successful appraisal interview should be

structured in a way that allows both the supervisor and the subordinate to view it as a problem solving rather than a faultfinding session.• Use of Praise and Criticism—Praise should be provided when warranted, but it can have only limited value if not clearly deserved. Criticism, even if warranted, is especially difficult to give.• Employees’ Role—Two weeks or so before the review, they should go through their diary or files and make a note of every project worked on,

regardless of whether they were successful or not.• Use of Software—Computer software is available for recording the appraisal data.• Concluding the Interview—Ideally, employees will leave the interview with positive feelings about management, the company, the job, and themselves.

Assignment

You have so far attended ten lectures in HRM beginning with introduction to HRM.In a group of four, give a brief background (not more

than half a page) of an organisation with which all of you are familiar. Describe the human resource practices in that organisation. State what is being done according to the lectures received so far and what is done differently. State four practical improvements you could suggest to your HRM. Do not exceed three pages.