Performance Appraisal ( M12 ) Essay

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.

Formal employee appraisals provide a strong reinforcement of the corporate aims and values. It gives managers an opportunity to show employees how their individual roles contribute to the company goals and give feedback to the impact that the employee has on those goals. It also provides management with a solid forum for

Monitoring the employee work performance and giving effective and timely feedback will help keep the employees performance successful. The employee needs to know what they are doing right and what areas need improving. There are different ways to monitor an employee; managers observing their work, feedback from other employees, and talking with clients.

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.

Gary Juarez (2015), in the conversation mentioned, “Requesting the past three years appraise (formal observation) from our candidate, is a strong measure that would help us predict the job performance from our prospective candidates.” These help analyze the ability and knowledge of applicants, from deficient to accomplished (exceed expectations) from the past year. In addition, Juarez (2015) mentions, “by looking the appraisal matrix of each candidate we could track goals, professional development (training), involvement in the work environment, following and enforcing policies, job expectations, teamwork, and evaluation matrix.”

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.

Appraisals are carried out on an annual basis and actively involve employees understanding of what is expected of them. By setting agreed objectives with your line manager and then reviewing the results at an agreed later time, the staff member is made responsible for their own performance. Appraisal is an opportunity to review strengths and weaknesses, to take an overall assessment of work content, loads and volume and to look back on what has been achieved already and to set realistic goals and objectives for the following period.

1.     Before meeting with the employee, review his or her job description and work record for the review cycle. Review your observations, notes, and the previous performance appraisal.

Assessment is the on-going review by a line manager of the work an employee or a team has performed that is measured against expected outcomes. It is a two way communication channel that gives a shared understanding of what is to be achieved, it provides an opportunity to get employees to buy in to the process. It is a useful tool that can highlight development needs. It can highlight good practice, and bad practice and if there are deficiencies in the process, on either side. This means there is an opportunity to recognise achievement and where problems are identified, how these can be

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.

The execution performance management requires the participation of numerous players (Managers, supervisors, and subordinates). For the system to succeed and accepted, clear understanding about the system is needed for effective implementation. Supervision and explanation of performance appraisal system is very crucial element for performance. ‘‘Merely developing a model of the strategy does not ensure the strategy will be successful.’’ Othman (2008, p. 261). Clarifying goals and supervising regularly help to develop people, improve performance, and satisfaction. Therefore, Supervision and explanation is appropriate for all employees regardless of how well or poorly they perform.

Performance appraisals are a major component of human resource management systems used by organisations to measure and manage what is considered to be the most valuable resource available to them; human capital. This report aims to evaluate the effectiveness of performance appraisals and its application to both the employer and its employees, taking into consideration various rationales for its implementation. This will be achieved through an in depth review of the concept of performance appraisals, its evolution in corporate organisations and existing literature on the topic, and the effects (both positive and negative) to the organisation as a whole and to its employees. It will be argued that despite being of relative importance to

European Journal of Social Sciences – Volume 7, Number 3 (2009) 2.2.1. Absolute Standards One group of appraisal methods use absolute standard. This means that employees compare to a standard, and their evaluation is independent of any other employee in a week group (Dessler, 2000). Included in this group are the following methods: the essay appraisal, the critical incident appraisal, the checklist, the graphic rating scale, forced choice and behaviorally anchored rating scales. The essay appraisal: It is the simplest evaluating method in which evaluator writes an explanation about employee’s strength and weakness points, previous performance, positional and suggestion for his (her) improvement at the end of evaluation term. This kind of evaluations usually includes some parts of other systems to cause their flexibility. This method often combines with other methods. In essay appraisal, we attempt to focus on behaviors (Mondy, 2008). The critical incident appraisal: It focuses on key factors which make difference in performing a job efficiently. This method is more credible because it is more related to job and based on individual’s

Performance appraisal - this expansion worker duty and fulfillment since representatives are offered an opportunity to talk about their work execution. This, thus, will lead them to perform more prominent in inventive exercises. for bosses advantages of execution examination is that, in the surge and clamor of day by day working life, it offers an uncommon possibility for a director and subordinate to have "time out" for a one-on-one discourse of imperative work issues that may not generally be tended to (Performance-appraisal.com, 2016)