Essay about Comparing Several Performance Appraisal Methods

An appraisal is one of the most commonly used methods of formal assessment and is used to evaluate and assess the performance of an employee against agreed targets and objectives, with the aim of improving employee performance. Where an employee has been able to achieve their targets, the appraisal can be used to recognise successes. This often helps to increase an employee’s confidence and motivation and can lead to better organisational performance. Many organisations will use the outcomes of an appraisal to identify potential candidates for promotions or even an increase in pay. At the same time, an appraisal meeting may include discussions on underperformance, identifying why this has occurred and how this can be avoided in the future.

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.

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.

Performance Appraisals will help to monitor standards, objectives, expectations, responsibilities, tasks, training needs and career succession planning. Also the employee appraisals are used for the evaluation of annual pay and grading reviews, which also coincides with the next year business planning.

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.

The purpose of a performance appraisal is to be used to improve employee performance. It should be used as a guide for recognizing outstanding behavior that is in line with departmental policies and work objectives, but should also be used as a tool for feedback to improve observed employee deficiencies. Performance appraisals should never be a surprise when it is presented to the employee. It is important for subordinates to understand what they are being evaluated on and what it takes to be successful.

In an organization employees are the important asset and play a significant role in the progress of an organization. Nowadays firms usually focus on the human capital in the form of the employees by giving them training, assisting them in career development and also work on performance management in order to keep the employees motivated and dedicated by giving them feedback through performance appraisals. Through these performance appraisals the employees are informed about their strengths that they can enhance and about their weaknesses that they can improve in the future.

The best rating and evaluation system cannot be chosen without first understanding the problems of the old and current systems. The introduction described the four primary reasons why a new rating system may be required. Indeed, all four of the reasons existed in the Air Force and warranted leadership to take a look at implementing a new system. The old system utilized a graphic rating scale, it included a list of traits and raters would judge how an Airman performed according to those traits (Brown 2016). Some of the dissatisfaction with the old system comes from approximately 90% of the enlisted members of the Air Force received the highest possible work performance ratings year after year or as the performance

It can be observed that major focus of assessment is on personality traits and many of the methods suffer from lack of clarity for employee with respect to expectations and targets. Table 4 shows description, advantages and disadvantages of modern appraisal methods. These methods focus more on employee development, setting achievable goals beforehand and leadership development.

Performance appraisal is important to any organisation as this is the optimum way of achieving goals and set objectives by the business. The organisation will have constant supervision of employees and how they are performing, this creates a relationship which can have a positive influence rather than a negative one as the employees will see firsthand what they are doing wrong and will strive to improve. In the organisation these appraisals can be used to determine the weaker and stronger employees, successful organisations today have strong performance appraisals as this allows them to recruit, develop and maintain their employees and keep them at a high standard which allows the organisation to grow.

“Performance appraisal can be viewed as the process of assessing and recording staff performance for the purpose of making judgments about staff that lead to decisions. Performance appraisal should also be viewed as a system of highly interactive processes which involve personnel at all levels in differing degrees in determining job expectations, writing job descriptions, selecting relevant appraisal criteria, developing assessment tools and procedures, and collecting interpreting, and reporting results.”( The University of Georgia, & VirginiaTech, 2008)

Primary data is collected by issuing questionnaires to the employees regarding the effectiveness of the appraisal. Structured and non-disguised form ofquestionnaire was used and consisted of multiple choice questions.

The three most important elements of the appraisal instrument include performance descriptors, numerical ratings, and the results section. The descriptors are vital because they are used by the evaluators to indicate the performance of the employee. The numerical ratings are used to subjectively rate performance in a way that can help in their computation and final ranking. The results section in the appraisal instrument contains the evaluator’s opinion, based on the calculation of the numerical ratings, regarding the employee’s overall performance.

As stated earlier, performance appraisals are an important part of performance management. By itself, it’s not performance management but one of the tools used in managing performance. Common anecdotes tend to state that organisations that conduct performance appraisals have performance management systems which are false. Performance management is broad in the sense that it is a congruence of activities which involve the management of individuals and groups to achieve high levels of organisational performance. Performance appraisals on the other hand are operational activities concerned with the individual and their performance and development. Feedback and data received from performance appraisal activities feed into other elements of performance management to develop a consistent performance language and a high performance culture, but in itself can never be performance management (Risher, 2003).

Today, performance appraisal is used for developmental and motivational purposes in the organization. It is not a stand still evaluation activity, but a dynamic process which should be viewed as follows- planning the employee’s performance and evaluation, and improving the performance of employees. The process brings the new concept Performance Management. Performance Management is essential for today’s organization to integrate the management goals and employees performance. It is a system for integrating the management of organization and employee performance in order to support and improve organization’s overall business goals.