Whenever a manager over heard mere “Performance appraisal”, you will be able to hear their groan out of
stress. Many managers see Performance appraisal as nothing more than an empty,
bureaucratic exercise forced on them by
HR. even for appraisee (a subordinate) when he gets a meeting request from his
boss for performance review discussion, he feels just yesterday he has written
his goals which is promptly forgotten too and this discussion becomes more of a
bajate raho discussion for him.
More than 80% of staff feels that performance reviews are
unnecessary and is a waste of time because of lack of efforts put in by
managers in to the process. Lackadaisical attitude of management results in
Employee apathy.
The sanctity of performance management system is to keep a
tap on the achievement viza viz goals set and to design competency development
plan based on the performance review analysis. Regret to mention than this
appraisal tool is just being used to identify A,B and C category and decide
increment percentage which is too mostly influenced by key business drivers.
The annual performance review discussions, if so happens, are not aligned with
need assessments, thus barely adds value to them.
Here, we need to change the approach rather than the system.
There are four ways I perceive, if adopted, the Trust in performance appraisal
system will be restored and employees will find it more effective and generate
the desired outcome.
First is to Keep
it Simple, many managers dislike complexity of modus operandi of
performance appraisal system and bureaucratic forms. Design a format which is
simple to decipher & captures relevant data and focus on structural part of
conducting review discussions with reduced stress element.
Second, Frequent
Connect between Manager and his subordinate. It is no longer effective
to meet your subordinate once or twice a year to discuss on performance
appraisal. Frequent appraisal meetings will help to monitor on goals achievements
and to keep check on relationship needs, growth needs, motivational needs &
learning needs of your subordinate. Meeting once in a quarter or sometimes more
frequent will save you from future peril of non achievements of targets and
give a pat on a back for achievement & study the shortfalls when they are
fresh in memory and a employee can also
express his feeling on his performance. Once or twice a year performance review
meeting will force you to drop your criticism at him at once like a bomb,
rather zor ka jatka dheere se
approach will be easier to swallow and leads to constructive conversation.
Third,
Conversations focused on future. Annual appraisals often becomes ‘poker game’
where employees are being asked to lay their cards on the table first, so that
managers can identify weaknesses and focus on actions require to improve those
weaknesses. To conduct effective performance appraisal discussion, adopt
‘sandwitch technique’ whereby, you open conversations highlighting notable
achievements in recent times, followed by critical assessments and interactive
discussion on areas of improvement and conclude the discussion with landing a
hand to him to unleash hidden potentials and tips for learning and development.
Fourth, Self
monitoring of performance & learning. Nowadays, modern Performance
Appraisal tools track self performance ratings which has been perceived by most
of the staff as a data gathering tool for counter arguments by managers. Hence
they rate themselves high so that after negotiation they will be rated
somewhere in mid range. Whereby, essence is to provide a honest rating for
their own performance. By asking employees to keep a track on own performance
and learning, write down their goals and keep a check on success and
discoveries, the data generated out of it is not being used by managers to
critically evaluate but to help each employees to take responsibility of their own
performance.
In era of automation, we sometimes get caught in
terminologies and having an online PMS module which runs once or twice a year
is not at all an issue but this system will only help to capture data, it can
not motivate, inspire and develop people. Hence, frequent feedback sessions on
performance & creating self organized learning environment where people learn
from this feedback meetings which takes place in corridor, lifts or across the
coffee.
Author Bio:
Paras Khatri
Paras, born & brought up in city of dreams. A human Resource pro and a believer that having an active presence on social media will not only align you with professionals across industry & domain experts but also a platform to share your thoughts with them, which influenced me to become a blogger. A traveler, who wants to explore world, meet people and walk over no mans land. You can follow him on twitter @paraskhatri .
Paras, born & brought up in city of dreams. A human Resource pro and a believer that having an active presence on social media will not only align you with professionals across industry & domain experts but also a platform to share your thoughts with them, which influenced me to become a blogger. A traveler, who wants to explore world, meet people and walk over no mans land. You can follow him on twitter @paraskhatri .