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Appraisals can ruin an organisation; productivity slows, people panic and the bureaucrats take over causing major problems. It is essential to appraise, as the objective and honest stock-taking of how an individual is doing cannot be replaced with informal assessment on-the-job.
Then why are there so many ineffective and aimless appraisals? And why do so many appraisees find their appraisal invaluable and yet consider the exercise as highly unproductive?
Opportunities are missed and disastrous mistakes made, but positive improvement could be made if the basics were appropriately adopted. An example of an ineffective appraisal can be seen in the personnel records of an Operational Controller of a cellular telecoms firm; Personal Target: To attain self-motivation improvement and to deliver beyond the specific tasks within the core job description.
The art of appraising requires subtlety, great interpersonal skills and often more unusual steps to get it right. Although it may do more harm than good, bringing in HR can help the appraisee to see that the company wishes to help; they can lend a qualified and objective viewpoint to encourage and also check on the appraisers.
It is crucial that summaries are written in direct, clear and achievable ways; having read the summary once, an appraisee should know where they are aiming without having to refer to it a second time, which they would rarely chose to do anyway. Most definitely avoid hypothetical discussion which takes away the real impact.
It is vital to carry out the gentle questioning of people outside as well as inside the company with whom the subject interacts. This research must be revealed carefully to make the session more rounded, and if done properly, the individual will leave feeling that their role and contributions were effectively understood.
It is important to encourage appraisees to talk from the beginning so as to avoid the chance that they will alter their opinions having heard the boss’ verdict. In addition, you should divorce from the financial, even though financial reviews often coincide with appraisals. You must make it clear to the individual that the session concerns them and their role.
Appraise the appraisal system; if you are reading this and believe that your organisation's system is perfect then you don't know what is really going on. |
