Appraisal Management system

TimeMerlin - Appraisal Process

For any organization to have a successful performance management system in place, the key is to have an appropriate level of employee engagement in place. It should not be something that management “does” and employees “react”. “Doing” and “reacting” leads to more employee disengagement and draws cynicism towards the whole system which in turn leads to the failure of the system. For performance management to be effective we need to have a paradigm shift in that mentality of “doing” and “reacting”. We need to be more proactive. Researches have found that filling out the self appraisals have an excellent benefit because getting the employees to complete their self-appraisals, before their managers write their appraisals is a great way to involve them in the process and in their performance. It's a way to give them an active role and a voice in the process. Even for managers or team leads who work very closely with their employees, it's hard to get the full picture, and understand all the factors that affect their employees' performance. Employee self-appraisals help fill that knowledge gap and avoid surprises. But more importantly, they give the employee an active role in the process.

While many organizations view the performance appraisal process as beginning after 6 or 12 months of employment and view it as a review of how the employee has performed for the previous period, a successful performance management process should begin during the hiring process. It continues as an ongoing cycle from recruitment, through hiring, orientation, and goal setting and on to performance appraisal and evaluation.

In the initial stages, all employees must identify the short-term and long-term goals for the year ahead. They must sit with their mentor or supervisors and try to match the expectations of the organization with their skill sets. The byproduct of this process will be also self-recognition of the limitations or the weaknesses. This process should hence be identified as a collaborative tool to bridge the gap between employee role and profile as against his capabilities. Appropriate induction and orientation will also guide them to focus their energies and identification of the core values of their job profiles.

Once the goals are set down the employees must also be asked to chart out their own development plan, elaborately list down the training or the exposures they think are necessary for them to achieve that goal. It's also a great way to uncover hidden talents, abilities or interests you might not know about the employees otherwise. It can help start a conversation about the employee's roles and responsibilities, and ways to expand them, or even focus them. Also if they list their own development plan, they stay focused to achieve the laid down targets. They are committed because they had initiated it.

TimeMerlin - Employee management process

Next they should be given access to the organization goals and development plans. The key deliverable here is to ensure that the employees recognize their development plan in sync with the organization development plan.

Employee management has to be managed throughout the year and not just once a year. Something that is done once a year usually is filled with dust rest of the year. So to avoid this, it has to be a continuous process. To make it a continuous process, a very simple and “little management over head task” is to get the daily status reports. These reports should be consciously filled with everyday’s achievements and failures. This kind of recording encourages reflection, which can foster learning and growth. Sharing this regular progress reporting with the manager can open up another forum for dialogue and keep the manager in the loop with what's going on in the employee's work life.

Though I have read that quarterly reviews are also a good way of making the employee performance management task a continuous process but I have to still confirm that it is not becoming too much of a “overhead task” and thus losing its charm and importance. Instead, semi-annual performance measures seem more appropriate. These small semi-annual reviews make everyone stop, take notice of where things are at, make any needed adjustments to goals and development plans, and address any performance challenges before they become big issues. And they just get managers and employees formally talking about performance on a more frequent basis – which is always a good thing.

TimeMerlin - Appraisal Management

So to summarize, the performance or appraisal management can be done in two steps. First, an employee completes a self assessment and then the secondly their mentor/manager/supervisor completes the performance appraisal form. Once this process is over both the parties involved should compare the assessment forms. The baseline in these assessment forms should be the first assessment form filled by the employee. All the short-term and long-term goals identified by the employee at the time of joining should be reviewed together by the employee and the manager.

The appraisal form, used by the employee and the manager, consists of performance standards and criteria that are used to judge and evaluate employee's performance. The items comprising of employee's job description are usually the performance standards that are used in their annual appraisal.

Better Engagement Means Better Performance. The more engaged the employees are with the performance management process, the more the organization will reap its benefits. The management should not just go through the motions of rating performance, setting goals and identifying development plans, rather consider it an investment opportunity. When done well, employee performance appraisals can be an invaluable tool for driving employee engagement.