Performance Appraisal Methods and Employee Development

Introduction: Organizational Performance Standards

An organization needs benchmarks or standards by which to measure its success. Management is responsible for establishing the means of determining whether objectives are attained. In business organizations, there has traditionally been a single measure that has held the primary position among standards. While this is certainly an important goal for business organizations to strive for, its precise measurement has been and continues to be difficult. Despite the difficulty of measurement, however, standards must continue to occupy an important place among organizations' measures of success.

When evaluating measures of accomplishment for an organization, particularly one in a changing and unpredictable environment, job satisfaction emerges as a valuable criterion. Beyond business organizations, many other types of organizations in our society must attempt to measure their success. All organizations must at some point determine how effectively they have used their resources to accomplish their goals or objectives—in other words, whether they accomplished what they undertook to accomplish. As Bierema (2014) notes, this is easier said than done for a number of reasons.

Supervisory and Peer Appraisal Systems

Supervisory ratings can be quite valuable for performance evaluation. However, some organizations have added peer appraisals to replace or supplement those given by the supervisor. Naturally, peers and supervisors each view an individual's performance from different perspectives. Supervisors usually possess greater information about job requirements and performance outcomes. Conversely, peers often see a different, more realistic view of the employee's job performance because people often behave differently when the boss is present.

Using peer ratings to supplement supervisory ratings may help develop a consensus about an individual's performance. It may also help eliminate biases and lead to greater employee acceptance of appraisal systems. One effective approach involves a Career Development Board, which reviews employee progress while also setting goals spanning education and work performance. For this process to succeed, the supervisor must keep personal bias in check and remain objective in their assessment, keeping the evaluation fair and honest.

Team-Based Assessment Approaches

Another effective method is to form a team of people to conduct the appraisal. Having more than one person ensures a variety of views, and the team can monitor its members, making sure that personal prejudice does not enter the job appraisal. The team should discuss and decide on criteria for assessment before the actual appraisal takes place. As a team, members should take into account expectations for each employee based on the employee's job description and instructions they have received.

The appraisal process itself should begin with a supervisor or senior manager sitting down with the employee to discuss job performance. A one-on-one conversation will not intimidate an employee in the same way as a group interview. During this meeting, compare the employee's job description to her specific goals, tasks, and expectations. Discuss together how well she has met those expectations. Open discussion gives the employee the chance to share her own views and challenge the evaluation if necessary.

It is important to show a positive, constructive attitude by presenting negative concerns as opportunities for growth or improvement rather than as failures. This approach makes the employee more open to criticism and reduces conflict. The resulting attitude reduces bias by encouraging openness, honesty, and cooperation. After this initial discussion, the team should review the results and the process itself, which can help identify bias and encourage even-handed conclusions.

Repeating the discussion process with the employee and another team member provides an alternative perspective and gives the second interviewer a chance to effectively monitor the first interviewer, filtering out individual bias. Following this second interview, the team should discuss the results and set specific goals for the employee. Having concrete, clearly established goals means future reviews can avoid bias by referring to objective expectations already agreed upon by both parties. Finally, share these goals with the employee to bring the appraisal process to a close.

Human Resources and Career Development

Human Resources' role is to provide career development options for employees to improve job satisfaction, retention rates, and employee loyalty. Issues impacting career development typically involve ensuring leadership succession planning. Human Resource professionals identify the skills, knowledge, and behavior required of all employees and define the levels of performance at entry and expert levels.

Assessing the skills of all employees usually involves conducting comprehensive reviews by gathering input from peers, superiors, and subordinates. This approach tends to be time consuming and costly, but it helps ensure fair and thorough assessments. This process makes it possible to promote qualified employees and ensures that the company has resources ready to perform at every level of the organization.

Human Resources should also include tests in courses to assess whether participants can demonstrate their knowledge. Additionally, professionals should observe participants back on the job later on to see if they are using their new skills. Furthermore, examining operational metrics can help ensure that training programs enable employees to improve business operations, such as sales, manufacturing, and customer service.