What is an Appraisal?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ww4KEnUhec
A formal and effective performance appraisal can greatly benefit both the employer and the employee. Unfortunately, they are increasingly undervalued and underutilized by both parties.
A recent survey from the Society for Human Resource Management found that 72% of organizations conduct formal appraisals only once a year.
In comparison, only 2% of employees gave their employer an ‘A grade’ for their performance assessment.
Employers must recognize that formal appraisals have a significant impact on how satisfied, motivated, and productive their employees feel.
An appraisal is a tool used to connect with an employee to assess and evaluate their effective performance, hear from them about how they are doing, and set measurable organizational goals and expectations for them.
This can be achieved in numerous ways, whether in person or virtually, but the principles remain the same. The performance appraisal process can be carried out within an individual review period.
Some companies perform regular reviews on an annual basis, whereas some find that time too long and prefer to have more frequent check-ins with their team members.
The goal is to align job expectations between the staff member and the organization, and create an employee development plan to move forward effectively. This includes ensuring employee satisfaction.
Here are some examples of how these appraisals can be structured:
- Casual appraisals: These happen on an ad-hoc basis when management wants to get closer to their staff members. Typically, they will take the form of an informal conversation around individual performance without an explicit agenda. This opens up lines of communication and leaves the structure open to wherever the conversation goes;
- Formal appraisals: These are more structured, and an agenda is set out in advance. The employee can prepare their thoughts, and the manager can spend time looking through their recent performance to make the most out of the meeting;
- Weekly, monthly, or quarterly recaps: These are somewhere in between formal and informal – and they happen regularly. Because they are set in the calendar, they form bookmarks on work periods and allow for tight performance feedback loops.
Some types of performance appraisals include:
- Traditional performance appraisals: A line manager conducts an evaluation based on an employee's work with evidence supporting how well they are doing;
- 360-degree review: Colleagues, supervisors, and the employee make an evaluation, allowing for regular feedback from all directions of the team;
- Self-appraisals: An employee reviews their performance, considering their accomplishments and mistakes;
- Employee-initiated review: An employee asks their manager for a review to determine how they are performing and to request to take on more projects or a higher position;
- Group performance appraisal: Managers review how the overall team in an organization is performing, sometimes opening the feedback for individual workers to review their peers;
- Upward appraisal: Staff members provide consistent feedback on how their team leaders are doing;
- Negotiated appraisal: A mediator helps a manager and employee discuss positive and poor job performance, usually starting with a review of the employee's positive performance before offering constructive criticism.
Preparation For Employee Performance Appraisal Is Key
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEmBt8CHP90
There is a big difference between effective appraisals and ineffective ones. When you get them wrong, they quickly become administrative exercises that actually don’t drive real business and personal success.
So, your processes must be set up in such a way that they actually deliver on what you’re trying to get out of them.
The most important thing to get right here is the preparation. You want to have all the relevant information at your fingertips to have a productive and informed conversation.
The more effort you put into good preparation, the better that appraisal will go.
Before The Appraisal Meeting
Preparing for an effective performance appraisal helps employees examine both their strong and poor performance attributes more objectively.
So, do not walk into the appraisal meeting without thinking about the review period.
Review the previous year’s performance appraisal process and career goals established for the current year. What organizational goals were met?
Then think about the performance you expect in terms of a SWOT Analysis.
- What are the employee’s strengths?
- What are the employee’s weaknesses?
- What opportunities do you see in regards to the employee’s performance?
- What threats do you see?
Make sure to also keep notes throughout the year to track accomplishments and company goals you have for the following year.
Also be clear on the timeframe the appraisal is measuring. In general, it should be the time between last year’s appraisal and this year’s appraisal.
During The Appraisal Meeting
Remember that a traditional performance appraisal is about effective communication between managers and employees. This can be obtained by:
- Having a practical approach and input towards improving employee performance management and setting developmental goals for the coming year;
- Suggesting ways to remove employee performance review barriers or ways to improve productivity;
- Talking about career development;
- Taking 360-degree feedback as a reflection of another person's perspective. It is an excellent opportunity to learn something about each other.
After The Appraisal Meeting
Generally, it is primarily the supervisor’s responsibility to ensure no surprises at appraisal time. Supervisors should discuss positive performance and areas for improvement throughout the year.
However, it is in the employee’s best interest to open up a discussion about performance during the year, even if the supervisor does not initiate it.
The sooner employees know where they are concerning performance, the sooner priorities can be shifted, or problems can be fixed. Communication is essentially a shared responsibility.
So, consider your appraisal as a learning opportunity where you should take away valuable information about yourself, your staff, or a new objective for the coming year.
Streamlining Your Appraisal Process
Here at flair, our internal communication tool is worth its weight, because it does a lot of the heavy lifting.
You can create custom questionnaires ahead of time that move towards your business goals.. You can then send those to employees in advance.
This helps to codify all of the essential information that will inform the discussion.
So, instead of spending the meeting discussing information, you can focus on higher-level analysis and planning that makes the most of your time together.
Once you have settled on that plan, it can be entered straight back into the tool to be tracked moving forward.
This is a great example of how technology can be leveraged to ensure both employees and employers leave each interaction happy and on the same page.