Hi,
I was just reading an article on Business Week Online June 28, 2005 edition, about Performance appraisals and came across this piece of article.
WHY PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS DON'T WORK?
Performance appraisals wonīt work unless upper management takes interest. Senior management needs to be closely aligned with human resource executives on company goals, employee evaluation methods and the importance of performance appraisals. A company needs to view its appraisal system as a core component of the business.
Another reason that appraisals fail is because managers donīt know how to assess employees and donīt receive adequate training on how to carry out a productive review. An untrained evaluator may:
Have difficulty gauging work that doesnīt produce measurable results.
Give glowing appraisals based on one outstanding employee skill rather than on total performance (the halo effect).
Tend to stick to safer middle-ground evaluations, rather than using the full range of a performance rating scale.
Rate behavior rather than work performance. An employee whoīs pleasant and always looks busy may cloud an appraiserīs perception.
Show bias toward employees that exhibit characteristics similar to their own.
Have difficulty accurately assessing the behavior of individuals by applying uniform standards of judgment.
It is told that if the PA does not work then it would do more harm than good. I surely agree with this. But there are some more points raised in my mind.
1. What is the HRs Role in PA? Is it only co-ordinating between the reviewer and the reviewee and setting up the meetings?
2. Where exactly does the HR pitch in to make it a fair deal?
3. Is it necessary that the HR also interact with the employee on his/her performance? If yes, then what do they talk?
4. What is the ideal way of recording or storing the info received from the PA?
It would be of a great help if anyone could clear my doubts. Also if you could refer me any books which gives a practical glimpse of the Performance Appraisal practises especially with in the IT field, or any site which would provide this info.
Regards,
Soumya Shankar
From India, Bangalore
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16I was just reading an article on Business Week Online June 28, 2005 edition, about Performance appraisals and came across this piece of article.
WHY PERFORMANCE APPRAISALS DON'T WORK?
Performance appraisals wonīt work unless upper management takes interest. Senior management needs to be closely aligned with human resource executives on company goals, employee evaluation methods and the importance of performance appraisals. A company needs to view its appraisal system as a core component of the business.
Another reason that appraisals fail is because managers donīt know how to assess employees and donīt receive adequate training on how to carry out a productive review. An untrained evaluator may:
Have difficulty gauging work that doesnīt produce measurable results.
Give glowing appraisals based on one outstanding employee skill rather than on total performance (the halo effect).
Tend to stick to safer middle-ground evaluations, rather than using the full range of a performance rating scale.
Rate behavior rather than work performance. An employee whoīs pleasant and always looks busy may cloud an appraiserīs perception.
Show bias toward employees that exhibit characteristics similar to their own.
Have difficulty accurately assessing the behavior of individuals by applying uniform standards of judgment.
It is told that if the PA does not work then it would do more harm than good. I surely agree with this. But there are some more points raised in my mind.
1. What is the HRs Role in PA? Is it only co-ordinating between the reviewer and the reviewee and setting up the meetings?
2. Where exactly does the HR pitch in to make it a fair deal?
3. Is it necessary that the HR also interact with the employee on his/her performance? If yes, then what do they talk?
4. What is the ideal way of recording or storing the info received from the PA?
It would be of a great help if anyone could clear my doubts. Also if you could refer me any books which gives a practical glimpse of the Performance Appraisal practises especially with in the IT field, or any site which would provide this info.
Regards,
Soumya Shankar
From India, Bangalore
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Dear all,
The basic reason why P.A. doesn't work is that there are very few methods to track human performance. Secondly, P.A. is also affected by current performance. For example, if you perform well two months before your P.A. review, you will have a good appraisal; if you perform poorly during that time, your P.A. would be bad. Managers need to understand this concept to eliminate all biases. What do you say?
Regards,
Vishal
From India, Mumbai
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The basic reason why P.A. doesn't work is that there are very few methods to track human performance. Secondly, P.A. is also affected by current performance. For example, if you perform well two months before your P.A. review, you will have a good appraisal; if you perform poorly during that time, your P.A. would be bad. Managers need to understand this concept to eliminate all biases. What do you say?
Regards,
Vishal
From India, Mumbai
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Hi Vishal,
I completely agree with you on that. I have come across this incident and unfortunately, despite being the HR, I could not do anything.
Also, the lack of knowledge for both the reviewer and the reviewee affects the PA process. What do you say? I wanted to implement the 360 degrees here at my office, but without the proper understanding of it, it would do more harm, so I had to drop the idea.
Regards,
Soumya Shankar
From India, Bangalore
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I completely agree with you on that. I have come across this incident and unfortunately, despite being the HR, I could not do anything.
Also, the lack of knowledge for both the reviewer and the reviewee affects the PA process. What do you say? I wanted to implement the 360 degrees here at my office, but without the proper understanding of it, it would do more harm, so I had to drop the idea.
Regards,
Soumya Shankar
From India, Bangalore
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Hi Soumya,
P.A. is a specialized tool; lack of knowledge on it does more harm than good. The problem is functional people think they know the best as they have real-time experience. It is at this point when they challenge the credibility of HR, though they don't understand that they are a key to it. So, they should respect it. What HR does is more of consolidation. What say?
Regards,
Vishal
From India, Mumbai
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P.A. is a specialized tool; lack of knowledge on it does more harm than good. The problem is functional people think they know the best as they have real-time experience. It is at this point when they challenge the credibility of HR, though they don't understand that they are a key to it. So, they should respect it. What HR does is more of consolidation. What say?
Regards,
Vishal
From India, Mumbai
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Hi, How can we calculate the productivity index of a company, as in how can we calculate the productivity of a company in total.
From India, Ludhiana
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From India, Ludhiana
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hi everyone good articel dint know about this whatt can be done to improve? communication??
From India, Mumbai
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From India, Mumbai
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One of the reasons that we faced is that we have an online company intranet for Performance Appraisal forms. These are regularly filled out every quarter. However, all you get is a generic hike in your pay. When you negotiate with the functional heads, the hike that an individual receives can be double his salary.
What actually happened was that the performance appraisal showed extraordinary performance, but the senior management did not react correctly to it and did not provide a hike proportionate to the appraisal result. This makes the employee think that the performance appraisal is just a formality; to some extent, it has become just that in our company. The best way to get a hike is to negotiate with the functional head frequently on the salary front.
The solution to this issue could only be one: that the senior management takes the evaluation, the results, and the follow-up steps seriously and efficiently so that the appraisal system can truly be implemented and accepted in the true spirit.
From India, Ahmadabad
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What actually happened was that the performance appraisal showed extraordinary performance, but the senior management did not react correctly to it and did not provide a hike proportionate to the appraisal result. This makes the employee think that the performance appraisal is just a formality; to some extent, it has become just that in our company. The best way to get a hike is to negotiate with the functional head frequently on the salary front.
The solution to this issue could only be one: that the senior management takes the evaluation, the results, and the follow-up steps seriously and efficiently so that the appraisal system can truly be implemented and accepted in the true spirit.
From India, Ahmadabad
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Hi,
I do agree with Ajmal that upon negotiating the hike might be raised, but that would be a total bias, and the employees may not have trust in the HR department. Also, in our company, we have the percentage of hike linked to the points scored. There is a minimum points threshold that you need to score; beyond that, every point counts. This would minimize bias.
However, no matter how cautious one may be, there are loopholes in every system and process. What do you say?
Regards,
Soumya Shankar
From India, Bangalore
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I do agree with Ajmal that upon negotiating the hike might be raised, but that would be a total bias, and the employees may not have trust in the HR department. Also, in our company, we have the percentage of hike linked to the points scored. There is a minimum points threshold that you need to score; beyond that, every point counts. This would minimize bias.
However, no matter how cautious one may be, there are loopholes in every system and process. What do you say?
Regards,
Soumya Shankar
From India, Bangalore
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Solution for this could only be one: that the senior management takes the evaluation, the result, and the follow-up steps seriously and efficiently so that the appraisal system can really be implemented and accepted in the true spirit.
As I mentioned in the last post, there is no fault in the system, but the implementation of the system is not done according to the norms. There are various reasons for this, some of which can be listed as follows:
1. The company does not want to give a hike in pay.
2. The HR personnel are busy.
3. The employees have not received training in handling the appraisal system.
4. The senior management is not confident about the appraisal results.
The list could be much longer, for example, an HR manager may want to keep the cost to the company of an employee low, so they might not give a raise to everybody and wait until someone comes to negotiate. That way, they would be able to save some months' pay hike. Not a good idea, but many HR people/companies adopt it.
From India, Ahmadabad
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As I mentioned in the last post, there is no fault in the system, but the implementation of the system is not done according to the norms. There are various reasons for this, some of which can be listed as follows:
1. The company does not want to give a hike in pay.
2. The HR personnel are busy.
3. The employees have not received training in handling the appraisal system.
4. The senior management is not confident about the appraisal results.
The list could be much longer, for example, an HR manager may want to keep the cost to the company of an employee low, so they might not give a raise to everybody and wait until someone comes to negotiate. That way, they would be able to save some months' pay hike. Not a good idea, but many HR people/companies adopt it.
From India, Ahmadabad
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Hi Ajmal,
You are absolutely right. When we here at the forum keep discussing the right procedures and ethics, there is another part of the corporate world that does not believe in all these. For them, they want to make money by hook or by crook. My previous employer was one such as you just mentioned. According to me, there are two possibilities for change: 1. They understand that people are what make an organization and not profits. 2. There is an HR Revolution. What do you say?
Regards,
Soumya Shankar
From India, Bangalore
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You are absolutely right. When we here at the forum keep discussing the right procedures and ethics, there is another part of the corporate world that does not believe in all these. For them, they want to make money by hook or by crook. My previous employer was one such as you just mentioned. According to me, there are two possibilities for change: 1. They understand that people are what make an organization and not profits. 2. There is an HR Revolution. What do you say?
Regards,
Soumya Shankar
From India, Bangalore
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