The Performance Appraisal System

A performance appraisal is one of the most important factors in any organization and can be one of the greatest tools used to record employee production. Every organization has to have goals and objectives established and the employee has to be involved in this process. By conducting performance appraisal will improve productivity and also the morale of the employees.

Development of a performance appraisal system that is effective in a human service organization is of benefit for the organization and the employees. For a performance appraisal system to be effective, the system has to be strategic, designed to fit the specific needs of the organization, non-discriminatory, non-bias, with correct implementation and administration. Many different components, must to be incorporated to make this type of system beneficial for all who use it, and all who are evaluated by the system.

Performance appraisal is an important issue in human resource management and has a significant effect in the performance of an organisation. It is the system of evaluating the performance of employees regarding the accomplishment of their responsibilities and determining their potential to grow and develop. Bias in the evaluation process can affect the accuracy and appropriateness of the performance appraisal. Bias is a serious issue because it affects the ability to make appropriate decisions about the promotion of employees. A performance appraisal system that works to the disadvantage of members of a group can also pose legal issues.

On the other hand, poor performance, or mediocre performance may lead to negative appraisals and consequences, including job termination or withholding of bonuses, awards, and promotions. Performance appraisals are a systemic means of ensuring quality of work performance, and thus achieving the strategic objectives and advancing the goals of the organization. These performance appraisals, in order to be effective, must be applied in a uniform, objective, fair and consistent manner over time. In addition, the expectations of the performance appraisal must be clearly understood and agreed upon by the supervisor and the employee. Objectivity and fairness in the appraisal system build trust in the organization as well as high morale among employees.

Performance appraisals are used to facilitate improvement in employee performance, provide formal official feedback to employees concerning performance, provide information for decisions concerning compensation and other personnel transactions. One of the challenges that Systems Made Simple faces is with Performance Appraisals and how they are perceived by the employee and manager. Some managers and employees do not take the process seriously and we need to find a resolution so that the performance appraisal process is important to all involved. There are a few reasons why this is so challenging for us; first of all some managers have so many employees that that they need to conduct appraisals on that they feel overwhelmed and do not give the employee’s evaluation the time it deserves. We often see that the manager will copy and paste comments from employee to employee. This is not fair, each employee is different from one another and the comments should reflect that individual’s performance over the course of the year. The managers feel disconnected from the procedure, they

Performance appraisals are a tool that most companies use when assessing their employees. A well prepared and well delivered performance appraisal can be beneficial to both the employee and the company. The company benefits in many different ways when they deliver this type of performance appraisal. The performance appraisal process

shown marked improvement or progress. Lack of personal performance growth would result in consequences for the employee including a probationary period or dismissal. Personal conflicts between manager and employee should not be reflected in the appraisal process. Manager accountability would be reflected by the performance of the employee; hence, an ineffective manager could as easily be discovered through the process as an ineffective employee could be. The process would actually be a system of checks and balances. Ideally, this would promote team players and identify any weak links. The goal of performance appraisals is utilizing the employee’s performance and their behavior or attitude. With correct implementation, the attitude and behavior will not be the issue or focus of the manager. “For any performance improvement to take place, both parties must agree that improvement is necessary, that a plan for improving performance has been jointly formulated, and that periodic progress improvement sessions will take place, as needed. Thus, improvements in employee performance and attitudes can truly be enhanced.” (Peggy Anderson, 1998)

Performance appraisals are an essential element of the general performance management procedure. A performance management structure involves having an appraisal technique or method, substantiated by job types, colloquial and continuous feedback, leadership training, performance expectations, punitive policies, as well as employee productivity and acknowledgement. In addition, both positive and negative feedback are elements that are instrumental in the arena of performance management. However, the paramount cause of performance appraisal efficiency as well as effectiveness is how well each of these elements correlates with one another.

According to Zweig (1991), performance appraisal instruments are tools that are used to measure the performance of employees in the workplace. They are used to put employees up against one another or a predetermined standard, and the appraiser is required to give an evaluation. Practical and effective performance appraisal instruments are drafted when the company has already clarified its philosophy and performance management system. It is also imperative that the performance appraisal instruments are calculated accurately, and that the supervisors are empowered to produce

However, performance appraisal is the process by which a manager compares the present standards and the employee’s work behavior. The reason is

According to Nigro, Nigro and Kellough, (2014), performance appraisal refers to the systematic performance appraisal of employees in order to measure their skills and talent for the purpose of further personnel growth and development. Performance appraisal is mostly carried out in the private sector where the performance of employees is crucial as the organizations are focused on profits. However, the difference between the aims of private organizations and the public organizations introduces a problem when it comes to measuring the performance of civil servants. Thus most civil servants may not be overly enthusiastic about implementation of performance appraisal in their organization because of some inherent flaws of most of the techniques used, for example, ranking is prone to biasness of the appraiser which may in turn affect the morale or even employment status of a civil servant. This paper will thus seek to address the issues that affect implementation of performance appraisal systems in public organizations as well as providing possible solutions that can be implemented in the public organizations.

An organizational goals can be attained only when people put their greatest efforts. So the organization has to ascertain whether an employee has contributed his or her best performance. Performance appraisal is an objective assessment of an individual’s performance against well-defined benchmarks. The other terms used for performance appraisal are: performance rating, employee assessment, employee performance review, personnel appraisal, performance evaluation, employee evaluation and merit rating. The performance being measured against such factors as job knowledge, quality and quantity of output , initiative, leadership abilities, supervision, dependability, co-operation, judgement, versatility, health, and the like. Assessment

Furthermore, a performance appraisal policy could be implemented for fair and adequate allocation of compensation. For this case study the 360 degree appraisal system could be selected to evaluate performance of the workforce. In a 360 degree appraisal system, feedback is drawn out from multiple sources of key performance areas of the workforce which are competencies, behaviour and mind-set, work life balance, major achievements and areas of improvements.

Performance appraisal is useful and should be done. Employers perspective include that individual differences in performance can make a difference to company performance, documentation of apria may be needed for legal defense and appraisal provided a rational basis for constructing a bonus or merit system. Employee perspective include improvement in performance requires assessment, fairness requires that differences in performance levels

Performance appraisal is a method which is increasingly used to evaluate employees to determine the degree to which they are performing effectively and encourage them to direct their energies towards organizational performance. Although the appraisal is being practiced, there are criticisms made against the system which generally arise from within the Orthodox and radical management frame work.