Performance Appraisal Process - Essay Example

Performance Appraisal Name Institution Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Literature Review 3 Uses of performance appraisals 3 Evaluation Methods 4 Steps for performance appraisal 5 Techniques for performance appraisal 6 Problems encountered during evaluation 7 Solutions to evaluation problems 8 Conclusion 9 References 9 Introduction Performance appraisal is the process of evaluating the conduct and performance of the workers in an organization. This is aimed at identifying their strengths and weaknesses to determine the change that is required in an organization. The results or the finding of the process is usually communicated back to the employees. The process is usually carried out by the management of the organization without any biases. The office of the Human resource manager in most organizations coordinates the process working closely with the team leaders. The paper critically looks at various factors taken into consideration during performance appraisal Literature Review Uses of performance appraisals According to Kleynhan and Markham (2009), performance appraisal is of great importance to an organization. This can be further classified into development use and administrative use. An administrative use is mainly for the making decisions concerning the employees. This may include promotion incase the employee is performing the duties assigned to him or her well. Incase of solving disputes or displinary cases the performance appraisal will also be important. According to Kleynhan & Markham (2009), these administrative decisions concerning individuals will require performance appraisal. It also ensures that the decisions made are fair to all the concerned people. In terms of development of the organization, performance appraisal also plays a major role. These roles will not only benefit the employees but also the organization. The process will identify all the strengths and weaknesses of the employees. This is important to the organization since it will ensure that solutions are obtained. This will increase the productivity of the organization. Solutions such as identifying the areas of change, developing careers through coaching and also organizing seminars and training programs can be recommended through performance appraisals survey (Kleynhan & Markham, 2009). Evaluation Methods The performance of employees can be evaluated through various means. This may include measuring the quantity of output of the employee. This entails determining the contributions of the employee’s performance towards attaining the goals and objectives of the enterprise. The quality of the output of the employee is also a method of evaluation. The quality of the output will determine whether the employee is serious with his performance or not. This will develop a basis for training and making changes. According to Caputo (2007), the time taken by the employee to complete any given task is important when evaluating the performance of the employee. The reasons for a particular employee delaying tasks will be required and solutions for the delays included in the appraisal report. The determination of whether the employee requires further training or is dismissed from the organization is agreed upon. A performing employee may be recommended for promotion or any other reward. If the employee does not report to work regularly, then a decision on how to deal with the employee will be made in the report. All these methods of appraisals are useful in order to come up with a significant report (Caputo, 2007). Steps for performance appraisal The following steps should be taken when evaluating the performance appraisals in order to fully accomplish the aims and objectives of the appraisal. The first step will always involve setting standards to be achieved for each of the available positions. These standards should be clearly set and should be in line with the organizations goals and objectives. The standards are to be achieved and maintained by the employee at all times. Policies aimed at establishing whether the standards are achieved or not should be the next step. These policies will guide the entire process of rating whether the standards are being achieved. A time frame should also be developed at this stage on when the process should be carried out. This includes determining who will participate in the survey and how they will conduct the survey to obtain the results required. The next step involves data and information of the employees. People involved in carrying out the survey should obtain all the professional data concerning the employees (Edwards, 2007). After collecting the data of the employees, the next step will be evaluating the performance of each employee. This will be done by the raters in coordination with the administrators. They will use the data to determine whether the performance of the employees is above or below the required standards. The next step after evaluating the performance of the employee is to discuss the report. The administrator will discuss the report personally with the employee regardless of the outcome of the report. This will be conducted in private and confidentiality of the report maintained. Only the concerned personnel will guide the employee through the discussion. The last step in performance appraisal will be to make decisions. This will be done by the authorities in coordination with the human resource officer. Based on the report and discussions with the employee a decision will be completed. If the worker is found to contravene with the standards set, then displinary action will be taken. However if the employee is performing well, rewards which may include promotions is recommended for the exemplary performance (Murphy & Cleveland, 1995). Techniques for performance appraisal During the appraisal process, various techniques may be used depending on the raters and urgency of the report. Use of a checklist is a simple method where the rater compares the performance of the employee with the se standards to determine the performance. Use of an essay is also a common method where the employee will be required to sit for a test and then handover the test for marking and awarding of marks. This method will however require the raters to explain all the procedures in details to the employee. The main disadvantage of this method is that the employee may be good in terms of writing tests but his or her performance may be generally poor. The behavior of the employee can also be observed carefully then ranked. This is particularly useful where displinary report is required. The employee in this case will be rated towards his or her attitude towards the other employees or towards the company. Complex techniques that involves use of graphs to rate an employee may also be applied by the raters. However this method could be quite involving and requires much expertise and time. These are the simplest techniques used by raters to evaluate a performance appraisal for most organizations (Grote, 1996). Other techniques used for evaluating performance appraisal include point allocation technique commonly known as PAT. This method involved awarding points to the errands being done by the employee. The points may be negative or positive depending on the performance. Critical incidences may also be used to evaluate the performance appraisal of the employee (Daley, 1992). This may include unique contributions made by the employee in the course of discharging duties. Innovative ideas may also be used in order to determine the performance appraisal. This is most useful in determining various decisions that needs to be undertaken and may include promotions or rewards. Use of ranking methods is also a useful technique in performance appraisal. This is most suitable where several employees are being evaluated. The best performer is usually ranked first while the worst performer is ranked the last. This method is useful when making changes and taking measures to improve the performance of the employees. For manager, the best method includes management by objectives. This is achieved by the performance of the managers in relation to the organizations objectives (Murphy & Cleveland, 1999). Problems encountered during evaluation Just like any other management process, problems are likely to occur and might affect the entire appraisal process. One of the major problems is dealing with the employees. This may involve suspicions which lead to lack of cooperation among the employees and the rates. To solve this problem, proper awareness should be created among all the employees they should be made to feel that they are part of the process in order for them to fully cooperate. Another major problem may be on the part of the raters (Lindsey, 1996). Some may be biased and fail to conduct the process with transparency. This will obviously work against other employees leading to misunderstandings and hence lack of trust. This problem can only be addressed by selecting professional and competent raters. The main issue however is the role of the entire process as viewed by the employees and the managers. Adequate resources should also be put in place. This is mainly to avoid the risk of the process being abandoned before its conclusion and therefore not yielding any results leading to waste of time and resources (Lindsey, 1996). Error may also occur in the process of evaluating the performance appraisal. The errors may occur due to some mistakes or misjudgments on the part of the raters. The impacts of such errors may be quite negative and may lead to the failure of the entire process. Most of these errors in most cases lead to poor ranking of the employees and thus creating a crisis. When, the employees for example are all ranked in the same position, it will be difficult to make any decisions regarding promotions or suspensions. Such kind of error ruins the credibility of the entire process leading to mistrust and competition among the employees (Nkomo, Fottler & McAfee, 2010). Solutions to evaluation problems In order for the process to work without any major problems, some factors should be considered. Every employee should be made part of the process so as to avoid any conflict and mistrust. Awareness of the process among all the employees should be carried out so that they understand the process even before it begins. This is particularly important so that the raters will gain support of the employees. The employees should be made to feel that the entire process will be free and fair without any biases and that the results or outcome will be used for gainful purpose acceptable to all the employees. The raters should also use the simplest method possible that will take the shortest time but effective. The results should also be used to benefit the organization and the employees. Conclusion In conclusion, it is worth noting performance appraisal report is useful in terms of decision making in an organization. The procedure involved in carrying out the exercise should be keenly observed to avoid negative outcomes. The problems encountered during the process are quite critical and the solutions provided should be put to use to enable an organization attain the targeted objectives. References Randhawa, G. (2007). Human Resource Management. Vishal: Atlantic Publishers & Dist. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=MmYiX5JxPY8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Human+Resource+Management+Randhawa,&hl=en&ei=lOcBT_77N5O68gPnj-nmAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CDMQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=Human%20Resource%20Management%20Randhawa%2C&f=false Kleynhan, R. & Markham, L. (2009). Human resource management: fresh. Johannesburg: Pearson South Africa. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=dbB3OOBY7qUC&pg=PP1&dq=Human+Resource+Management+Kleynhans+Markham&hl=en&ei=OegBT7y7Msfc8gOPu5WrAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CDkQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=Human%20Resource%20Management%20Kleynhans%20Markham&f=false Murphy, K. R. Cleveland, J. (1999). Performance appraisal: an organizational perspective. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=CnpuE09Vit0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Performance+appraisal:+an+organizational+perspective.+Murphy&hl=en&ei=4ugBT6OAC8rq8QPuiMWqAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=2&sqi=2&ved=0CDYQ6wEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Performance%20appraisal%3A%20an%20organizational%20perspective.%20Murphy&f=false Grote, R. C. (1996). The complete guide to performance appraisal. NY: MACOM Div American Mgmt Assn, http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=spAY7_nLHcwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+complete+guide+to+performance+appraisal+Grote&hl=en&ei=R-kBT_LDEJLA8QOw89SbAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CDAQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=The%20complete%20guide%20to%20performance%20appraisal%20Grote&f=false Murphy, K. R. & Cleveland J. (1995). Understanding performance appraisal: social, organizational, and goal-based perspectives. London: SAGE. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=CnpuE09Vit0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=understanding+performance+appraisal+social+organizational+and+goal-based+perspectives&hl=en&ei=RfgBT5DNDsir8AP7zIirAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CDEQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=understanding%20performance%20appraisal%20social%20organizational%20and%20goal-based%20perspectives&f=false Caputo, P. M. (2007). Determinants and outcomes of performance appraisal fairness: An investigation of self-appraisal and rating format and groups. ProQuest. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=ezm5G0OKjKgC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Determinants+and+outcomes+of+performance+appraisal+fairness:+An+%09investigation+of+self-appraisal+and+rating+format+and+groups&hl=en&ei=G_kBT6zeBYTe8APV8LCiAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CDEQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=Determinants%20and%20outcomes%20of%20performance%20appraisal%20fairness%3A%20An%20%09investigation%20of%20self-appraisal%20and%20rating%20format%20and%20groups&f=false Nkomo, S. M., Fottler, M. D. & McAfee R. B. (2010). Human Resource Management Applications. London: Cengage Learning. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=C1JMBecL5SMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Human+Resource+Management++Applications.+nkomo&hl=en&ei=0vkBT7XfJ4L_8gOwsdyvAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CDUQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=Human%20Resource%20Management%20%20Applications.%20nkomo&f=false Edwards, J. E. (2007). Evaluating human resources programs: a 6-phase approach for optimizing performance. NY: John Wiley & Sons. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=QyJMqZWGLZoC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Evaluating+human+resources+programs:+a+6-phase+approach+for+%09optimizing+performance&hl=en&ei=LvoBT9WRIoSr8APh8aTIAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CDUQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=Evaluating%20human%20resources%20programs%3A%20a%206-phase%20approach%20for%20%09optimizing%20performance&f=false Daley, D. M. (1992). Performance appraisal in the public sector: techniques and applications. ABC-CLIO. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=IVVLjE6TbM4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Performance+appraisal+in+the+public+sector:+techniques+and+applications&hl=en&ei=gPoBT87GEc-D8gOH-OyoAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&resnum=1&ved=0CDMQ6wEwAA#v=onepage&q=Performance%20appraisal%20in%20the%20public%20sector%3A%20techniques%20and%20applications&f=false Read More