Effective performance appraisal

I think at a macro-level, the aim of the performance appraisal from the company’s point of view cannot be to just determine increments or promotions. Yes, that is how it affects the individuals, but it cannot be the organisation’s aim. The organisation’s aim has to be to put in place a system that actually improves performance.

Steps must be taken to  understand clearly what is expected from each employee / position in the organisation. And this must be done well before appraisal time, even before the appraisal year starts, in fact.

I think ,it is useful if goals set can be quantified. For example, one goal for a brand manager could be that his brand must have at least X per cent awareness in the market. Making the goals quantitative in nature makes evaluation easier and less subjective; and therefore less susceptible to suspicions of “unfairness”.

However, it is not a good idea to get caught up in making all goals quantitative. It is a fact of life that not all things can be measured or quantified;Such non-quantifiable measures will involve a certain amount of subjectivity.

I think another crucial requirement is transparency. Too often, people are told something like “your performance has been good, but I wouldn’t say excellent” and that they need to try harder. Such feedback is little better than useless as it offers no direction whatsoever to the individual. The individual needs to know what scores he / she is being given and why.

One of the main reasons why transparency is a casualty in most appraisals is that most managers are not comfortable giving negative feedback.

Maybe it is a cultural issue, but pointing out problems or giving negative feedback in a one-on-one face-to-face setting and in a calm matter-of-fact manner is not something most managers are comfortable doing. For that matter, most individuals are not comfortable receiving this either.

I feel an effective performance appraisal can be brought in any Company provided the entire organisation is involved at the time of conceiving the PMS. In fact the Organisation should revisit the system once in three years so that novel methods can be brought in to improve or change the system.In fact what works in one organisation may not work in another company because of the culture of the organisation, age of the organisation, maturity of the employees and the vision of the Top Management. Whether it is BCS or Competency Based it does not matter provided the people feel that performance is important and it should be rewarded impartially.