Performance Appraisal

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Description of Performance Appraisal. Explanation.

Definition Performance Appraisal. Description.

A Performance Appraisal is a method and a process to identify, observe, measure, evaluate and develop individual employee performance, providing employee feedback, and (indirectly) to improve the effectiveness of the organization as a whole. An appraisal normally consists out of the assessment by a qualified person of the performance and of a discussion of the development and training needs of an employee. It is important to realize there are two sides to any appraisal:

1. Judgment (Historic). Actual performance is compared against performance targets and feedback (both positive and negative) is given. This may or may not include the determination of a pay increase. Generally, including pay in the Appraisal has the major disadvantages that honest and open communication becomes almost impossible, and the judgment part of the Appraisal becomes too dominant.

2. Development (Future-oriented). The needs of the employee are evaluated in terms of the training requirement to improve skills and knowledge in line with future performance objectives and the direction the employee wants to grow. Furthermore Employee Objectives (SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic/Relevant, Time-related) are agreed. Compare: Career Management.

Any Performance Appraisal should be:

3. Documented.

4. Delivered in a face-to-face meeting.

Any Appraisal should be well prepared for by both the manager and the employee. Although normally the line manager of the employee is best positioned to be the appraiser, in some organizations it can be a special Personnel Manager. The advantage can be that this specialized person has more experience, special skills and knowledge on doing employee reviews. An issue is that the Personnel Manager must be aware of how the employee is functioning in his work environment. This can be supported by Peer-Appraisals and/or by 360-Degree Feedback.

Steps in a Performance Appraisal. Process

Typically a an appraisal of performance is comprised of three main steps:

1. Definition of the expected duties and the job standards. By line manager, together with employee.
2. Conduct of the performance appraisal, comparing the actual performance of the employee with the performance standard that were previously defined.
3. Feedback and follow-up: line manager provides feedback to the employee and plans are made for future development.

Performance Appraisals Forum   How to Deal with Poor Performers and Non Performers? How does one manage poor performing employees and how do you deal with someone that comes to work that is not productive at all (being drunk, hangover)? They claim that they work for that matter. Do you send them home? Or do you keep such ...           Tips for Ensuring Performance Appraisals Hold Up in Court One inherent risk in the use of performance evaluations is that they may become the basis for or evidence in workplace discrimination or wrongful termination lawsuits. Based on an analysis of court proceedings in such lawsuits, researchers developed ...           Deloitte’s New Performance Management System Deloitte redesigned their employee performance management system. In Deloitte’s new system there are no cascading objectives, no once-a-year reviews, and no 360-degree-feedback tools. It is a very different and much simpler design for managing people...           How to Prepare for a Performance Appraisal as Appraiser It is wise to put yourself in the position of the recipient of the appraisal you are about to give to someone else. How would you receive the information if it was directed at you?           Performance Appraisals are not Fair I don't believe in performance appraisals. Because it is not fair system for employees due to it's such a very complicated system. Just look at how many common errors are made in performance apprai...           The Best Methods of Performance Appraisal System in Government Sector I am currently working on finding out the best methods to conduct performance appraisals in the government sector wherein the state government is running a livelihood program for uplifting the poor people within the state. Most of the employees...           Subjectivity in Performance Appraisals There is a general feeling that performance appraisals are subjective and that when managers rate their team members, a certain bit of bias seems to creep in. This thought process leads to un-nece...           The Meanings of Performance Evaluations The employee evaluations that I have had for the past 15+ years are for the most part reiterations of previous evaluations with slight improvements - even though I dramatically grew as a person, an employee, an engineer, a masters student and graduat...           Methods for Evaluation of Employees Let's collect methods and tools, old and new for the evaluation of personnel used by the management of human resources. If you can also give a short summary. Thank you....           Decentralized Performance Appraisals In my opinion, performance appraisal should be done at the small units (branches), especially in large corporations. In such organizations, employees are often required to perform many extra tasks which do not fall in their primary line of duties.           Bonuses.. what is Fair to All Within Large Corporations What is fair to all in a large corporation when bonus time rolls around, quarterly, and yearly. Should all employees be entitled to a bonus based on their position and time with the company, yearly, and should quarterly bonuses be only metrics...           New Performance Appraisal System for Teachers in the Philippines? What is the new performance appraisal for teachers being used here in the Philippines?...           Annual Confidential Report (ACR) Systems In performance appraisals, employees are evaluated over a certain time and given feedback for future development. I think 360 Degree Feedback is the best to evaluate employees without bias. But feedback should be given to employees in that time. ...           Difficulty of Conducting Performance Apprasals in an R&D Organisation The work of an R&D organisation cannot be defined precisely at the beginning of a year. This poses challenges for mid year and end of year assessments, especially if the work of organisation is on frontier technologies like at NASA. Further th...           Feedback Should be Like a Mirror: Neutral As we can see in various documents on feedback, it is often seen in terms of 'good' or 'bad'. However, feedback is neutral and should be given this way. One can not be upset about the face he/she sees one morning in the mirror, this is t...           Avoiding Biases in Performance Appraisals My experience indicates that while an employee is being appraised, there are certain cognitive biases which effect the performance appraisal. Is there any process or method to remove or decrease the ...           Appraising the What and the How In my organisation a semestral (semi-annual) appraisal of performance is held to all employees. We evaluate WHAT they did and did not accomplish. To do so, we use the semester plan and all indicators are hard. So, no bias there. But equally...           From Business Objectives > Department Deliverables > Employee Objectives > Performance Appraisal Each year, an organization determines business objectives and these objectives are cascaded into set of action items. Each department, based on its role to the organization sets these objectives into deliverables and applies thes...           Appraise the Past, Develop for the Future As described in the summary, performance management has a dual role: 1. Feedback on past performance, and achievement of agreed upon goals and measurable performance targets. The appraisal meeting is the conversation between the manager a...         See 20 more topics Begin a new topic

Performance Appraisals Special Interest Group Special Interest Group

Best Practices - Performance Appraisals Premium   Three Types of Performance Appraisals In employee performance management, performance appraisals are an important method to detect the strengths and weaknesses of employees and improve those through the right trainings and practices. In fact, we can distinguish 3 types of perform...           How to Give Constructive Feedback? Models and Tips I would like to gather methods and best practices on giving constructive feedback... Perhaps you are using a particular feedback model, or do you have other tips? Thanks!...           How to React When You are Undervalued? How can you succeed when your tumultuous efforts are not recognized by your superiors and your performance is rated on personal grudge?...           How to Deal with Average Performers? Managing Average Performers They did deliver, if only a mediocre, standard performance. So they can not be dismissed on a non-performance basis. They are the majority within most organisations. How to purge some of them out of t...           Checklist of Common Errors in Performance Appraisals I was asked to make a list of common mistakes by managers in performance appraisals. G.T. Milkovich and J.M. Newman report the following ones (Compensation, 2002): 1. Halo Effect: a favorable rating for all job duties based on perfor...

Expert Tips - Performance Appraisals Premium   3 Suggested Changes to Improve the Performance Review Process Performance reviews are used in organizations to find out who to hire or to promote and to improve employees’ performance. Unfortunately, performance ... Usage (application): Improving Performance Appraisal Process, Improving Performance Reviews, Best Practices       The Focus of Improving Appraisal Systems Research on improvements in performance appraisals often reveals that touch initiatives often emphasize increasing the accuracy of such systems. They ... Usage (application): Improving Performance Appraisal Process, Improving Performance Reviews, Improving Appraisal Systems, Best Practices       Fairness of Managers and Leaders: are Fair Leaders More Effective? In many studies the relationship between fairness and effective leadership is studied. Managers and leaders are often responsible for decisions direct... Usage (application): Management, Leadership, HR, Performance Appraisals       Solutions for Top 50 Problems Faced in Performance Appraisals Find out solutions to top 50 problems faced in performance appraisals. Dr. John Sullivan has described the top 50 problems people face with performanc... Usage (application): Improvement of Performance Appraisals

Resources - Performance Appraisals Premium How to Give Successful Feedback to Employees This presentation can be used as a guidance for giving feedback to your employees. The presentation includes the following sections: 1. Introduct... Usage (application): Giving Feedback, Conducting a Performance Review, Performance Appraisal   Effective Employee Performance Appraisals: Purposes, Characteristics, Sources and Methods Concise but good presentation about Performance Appraisals. The presentation includes the following sections: - Purposes of performance appraisal... Usage (application): Performance Appraisal   Employee Performance Management and Performance Appraisals (In depth) In depth presentation about Performance Management and Performance Appraisal. The presentation clearly explains both concepts, but then focuses on Per... Usage (application): Performance Appraisals, Performance Management, Employee Performance   10 Common Mistakes in Giving People Feedback Giving proper feedback to other people is important, but hard. In this micro-learning video 10 common mistakes are explained: The feedbac... Usage (application): Performance Feedback, Performance Appraisal, Giving Feedback, Feedback to Employees   The Role of Supervisor | Skills of Supervisors This presentation elaborates on the skills that supervisors need in order to be successful in their business/organization. The presentation includes t... Usage (application): Skills of a Supervisor, Supervisor Role, Supervisor Behavior   You Cause Poor Employee Performance Following recent forum discussions on preparing performance appraisals as a manager<... Usage (application): Employee Appraisal, Performance Appraisal, Performance Review, Employee Performance   The High Performance Development Model Presentation about the High Performance Development Model. The presentation contains a brief description of many employee performance management terms... Usage (application): Employee Performance Management, Employee Development, Career Management   Multitasking and Ways to Avoid It This presentation is about Multitasking. It includes some interesting multitasking experiments and ends with seven solutions to multitasking. 1. ... Usage (application): Multitasking Behavior, Peeformance Management   Bullying: Workplace Performance and Preventive Strategies This presentation is about bullying in the workplace, its impacts and management strategies that can help to address bullying. The presentation is div... Usage (application): Organizational Management, Strategy   Guide Toward Coaching your Employees Presentation that provides information about the ways to effectively coach employees. The presentation includes the following sections: 1. Introd... Usage (application): Coaching Employees, Performance Reviews, Giving Effective Feedback   How to Get a Raise. 5 Negotiation Secrets In this video Donald Dell gives advice on how to get a raise. 1. Never make the first offer: listen and learn first 2. Learn how to read you... Usage (application): Salary Negotiations, Negotiating a Raise   Introduction to Performance Appraisal of Employees In this short video some key elements of Performance Appraisal are defined: 1. Objective: to improve performance. 2. Awareness: employees sh... Usage (application): Initial Understanding of Performance Appraisal, Start of Workshop   Work-Family Conflicts and Work-Life Policies This presentation is about Work-Family Conflicts and Employee Performance. The presentation includes the following sections: 1. Learning Objectiv... Usage (application): Performance Management, Work-Life Balance, HR, Programs     News Performance Appraisals         Videos Performance Appraisals         Presentations Performance Appraisals         More Performance Appraisals

Compare with: Self-Appraisal  |  Peer-Appraisal  |  Behavioral Observation Scales  |  Competency-based Approach  |  Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales  |  360-Degree Feedback  |  Management by Objectives  |  CSFs and KPIs  |  Result Oriented Management  |  Pre-Employment Screening

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This ends our Performance Appraisal summary and forum.