Part I
When Itâs Time to Appraise Your Employees
In this part . . .
Performance appraisals play a remarkably wide range of roles. Instead of being an isolated annual event, appraisals are but one component in the overall process of performance management. Within this framework, a state-of-the-art performance appraisal system generates a vast array of positive and productive outcomes.
The chapters in this part show you how appraisals motivate your employees, build their self-insights, and set the groundwork for training and developmental programs, all the while enhancing individual and departmental performance.
You also find a snapshot of the wide range of appraisal systems, techniques, processes, and forms, along with insights into their strengths and weaknesses. Looked at in a slightly different way, these chapters conduct a performance appraisal of the various performance appraisal systems.
Chapter 1
Building Success with Performance Appraisals
In This Chapter
Facilitating the performance appraisal process from start to finish
Generating great results with state-of-the-art performance appraisals
Using performance appraisals to build your employees and their productivity
Many managers see the performance appraisal process as an administrative rite that consumes a lot of time, while producing little more than frustration, confrontation, and piles of paperwork. This reaction is totally understandable if your company is relying on a performance appraisal system that has fallen woefully out of date.
However, as I explain in this book, the performance appraisal process can play a remarkably powerful role in building your employees, as well as their performance and productivity â when itâs done right.
Part of the problem with the appraisal process is that managers often see it as an isolated annual set of steps that are separate from all other managerial responsibilities. In actuality, todayâs performance appraisals are integrated into your ongoing managerial functions, year-round.
As a manager, a key part of your role is to maintain strong contact with your employees and provide them with ongoing coaching, guidance, and feedback. These steps are called performance management. As part of the performance management process, there is a specific time â typically once a year â when managers gather all the performance data on their employees, analyze it, document it, and then provide employees with specific feedback. This piece of the performance management process is performance appraisal.
Laying the Foundation
In order to take full advantage of the wide range of measurable benefits associated with state-of-the-art performance appraisals, you need to start with a few foundational steps.
Recognizing the roles of performance appraisal
Managers who view performance appraisal as an isolated annual event tend to regard documentation as its sole and primary purpose. Although documentation has a place in the process, it sits beside numerous equally important functions:
Motivating employees
Educating employees
Clarifying performance expectations
Increasing self-awareness
Building your managerial skills
Communicating and reinforcing company values
Establishing performance goals and developmental goals
Establishing training and reviewing its effectiveness
Setting the bases for promotions, transfers, and raises
Preventing legal problems
I discuss all these functions in greater detail in Chapter 2.
Seeking additional sources of feedback
Most people think that the only source of feedback during the appraisal process is the manager herself. Although the managerâs role in the process is central and essential, the quality and effectiveness of the entire process is significantly upgraded when two additional sources are included.
These two primary additional sources â self-evaluations and 360-degree feedback â provide insights that lead to the continuation of excellent performance and improvement of sub-par performance.
Turn to Chapter 3 for more on these types of feedback.
Strengthening your role
As your employeesâ manager, you play the central role in the performance appraisal process, because youâre still the primary source of feedback.
In order to effectively carry out this responsibility, one of the most important foundational steps is to have a clear understanding of the different types of performance appraisal systems that are available, along with the pros and cons of each. This information helps you understand, enhance, and succeed with any system that you may be using.
Here are your options for performance appraisals (all of which I cover in greater detail in Chapter 3):
Essays
Graphic rating scales
Checklists
Forced choice methods
Employee ranking
Critical incidents
Behavioral checklists
Management by objectives
Successfully Navigating through the Appraisal Process
With the foundation in place, you can take some specific preparatory steps that help set the stage for highly effective and productive performance appraisals.
Generating the right mindset and the right plans
As I explain in Chapter 4, an essential step in the appraisal process is to establish a performance appraisal mindset in which you:
Truly see yourself as the leader.
Set positive expectations regarding the entire process.
Take productive steps to identify and overcome any fear or reluctance you may be experiencing regarding the appraisal process.
By applying specific strategies to build your self-awareness and empathy, youâll greatly enhance your understanding of your employees as well as your skills to appraise them. When you combine these steps with some advance planning, anticipation of the kinds of questions you may encounter, and preparation of the kinds of answers that you can provide, you reduce your personal reluctance and increase your confidence.
Accumulating and examining performance data
In order for your feedback to have relevance and a lasting impact, you must base it on specific examples of employee performance. You canât glean this information from quick visits with your employees, nor is it accessible at the last minute.
As I explain in Chapter 5, accurate appraisals require a real understanding of your employeesâ performance throughout the evaluation period. The only way to effectively reach that high level of understanding is by sharpening your observational skills, continuously managing by wandering around, and using all your senses in the process.
In addition to carefully monitoring your employeesâ performance, you can enhance the quality, reliability, accuracy, and acceptance of your performance appraisals by familiarizing yourself upfront with other important pieces of data as well (such as job descriptions, last yearâs appraisal, performance objectives, notes youâve been taking, employee files, and previous performance evaluations).
Marginal data gathering leads to useless feedback, which leads to employee resistance.
Preparing evaluations
After youâve reviewed all the performance data from a variety of sources, the next step is to complete the evaluation form. These forms vary from one company to another, but some overarching principles will help you handle this step more easily and effectively. Some of these steps include evaluating your best employees first, entering your written comments before the numerical ratings, and considering how your employees will feel when they read your comments.
Your comments will generate resistance if theyâre invalid, unsubstantiated, or focused on personality instead of performance.
Conducting highly effective appraisal sessions
After youâve completed evaluation forms with ratings that are based on direct observat...
