Ch. 17: Appraising Performance

Performance Appraisal

• Formal feedback on how well employee is doing their job

• Lets them know what is good and what needs improvement

• Motivates employees

• Part of ongoing control process

• Records for org.

• Can be linked to pay reviews

Appraisal Process

• Establish and communicate process for performance

• Set action plans from management

• Communicate standards

• Observe and measure individual performance against standards

• Reinforce performance or provide remedies

Possible Causes for Poor Performance

• Inadequate skills

• Lack of effort

• Shortcoming of the process

• External conditions

• Personal problems v

What to Measure in an Appraisal

• Focus on behaviour and results

• Specific actions or patterns

• Base conclusions on observations about behaviour and results Specific

  • With evidence

Qualities of Effective Performance Appraisal Measures

• Objective

• Job-related

• Based on behaviour

• Within employee’s control

• Related to specific tasks

• Communicated to employee

Equal Employement Opportunity Commission

• EEOC

• Govt. agency charged with enforcing federal laws against discrimination

• The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures

  • Measurements must be based on the job and not personal behaviours

  • Should not be discriminatory

Types of Appraisals

• Graphic rating scale

• Paired-comparison approach

• Forced-choice approach

• Essay appraisal

• Behaviorally anchored rating scales

• Checklist appraisal

• Critical-incident appraisal

• Work-standards approach

• Management by objectives

• 360-degree feedback

• Peer reviews

Graphic Rating Scales

• Rate the degree to which an employee has achieved various characters, such as job knowledge

• Easy to use

• Allow to see if they have improved in various areaS

• Subjective

Paired Comparison Approach

• Relative performance of employees in a group

• Needs to find one outstanding employee

• Can harm morale and teamwork

Forced-Choice Approach

• Presents an appraiser with sets of statements describing employee behaviour

• Must choose which is most accurate

• Used when supervisor describes employees too high

Essay Appraisal

• Supervisors to write description of employee’s performance

• Used with other types

• Quality depends on writing skills of supervisor

Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scales

• Employee is rated on scales containing statements describing performance

• Advantages:

  • Tailors to org. Objectives

  • Less subjective

• Drawbacks

  • Time-consuming

  • Expensive

Checklist Appraisal

• Contains series of questions about employee’s performance

• Record

• HR department

• Can be difficult to prep and has to adjust results based on circumstances

Critical Incident Appraisal

• Keeps a record of positive and negative actions of employee

• Given a chance of offer views

• Time consuming

• Supervisors tend to record only negative

Work Standards Approach

• Compares employee’s performance with objective measures of what they should do

• Largely to production workers but principle can be applied

Management by Objectives

• Compare accomplishments to objective

• Uses this when org. Uses as planning tool

• Employees know what is to be expected, focusing on results

360-Degree Feedback

• Several sources

• Combine from other peers, customers, superiors

• Anonymous

Peers Reviews

• By coworkers

• Provide more effectively to make org. More competitive

• Give greater voice

Harshness Bias

Rating employees more severely than their performances merit

Leniency Bias

Rating employees more favourable than their performance merit

Central Tendency

To select employee ratings in the middle of a scale

Proximity Bias

To assign similar scores to items that are near each other on a questionnaire

Random Choices

Randomly choosing an option when specific questions need to be answered

Similarity Bias

To judge other more positively when they are like yourself

Recency Syndrome

To place most weight on events that have occurred most recently

Halo Effect and Horn Effect

To generalize one positive or negative aspect of a person to the person’s entire performance

Prejudice

Performance appraisals can be unfairly influenced by prejudices against a certain group of people

Performance Appraisal Interview

• Communicate info. About an employee’s performance

• Appraisal form

• Proper meeting

Process of Conducting an Appraisal Interview

1. Put employee at ease

2. Review rating ad basis for ratings

3. Request and listen to employees feedback

4. Decide together how to solve problems

5. Sign appraisal form Proper meeting

6. Close on positive note

Follow-Up

• Cont. appraising performance even after the interview

• Need to follow on any actions planned during the interview

• Always ongoing