On a Scale of 1 to 10, How Would You Rate Your Performance Appraisal?

I met an old colleague, James who is now working for a FMCG company in Sales department. Being a hard worker and a passionate problem solver, I always knew that James would have a good career wherever he goes. A short conversation with him revealed that he wasn’t satisfied with his job and was planning to quit.

On asking, what made him decide this, he narrated, “Last year, I was almost done with the self-evaluation process and was confident to discuss my year-round performance with the manager. I had been waiting and preparing for my appraisal and performance review from a long time. It was my first performance appraisal in this organization. Little did I know that this company had a different approach for employees’ performance evaluation.”

He continued, “My manager called me to his cabin and handed over a document with my appraisal ratings written on it. This is what he called ‘Employee Appraisal’. The appraisal letter had good scores and ratings, but I wasn’t satisfied as there was no discussion about my performance and I had no idea on which parameters he evaluated my behaviour and work. I was clueless. It’s been almost a year since the appraisal day, till now my manager has never initiated a conversation to discuss my challenges in work, appreciate my performance, provide me feedback or help me identify my areas of improvement. I tried to make a conversation with my manager, but he seems to be busy all the time. I do not see career growth in this organization, and hence want to quit.”

Well, all I have learnt from this conversation was, if a company does not value its employees, refrain from managing performance management process well – then employees do not hesitate from quitting the job or finding a better opportunity.

To improve employee experience and retain top talent, it is significant to improve performance appraisal process leading to no loop holes.

Where Do Employee Appraisals Go Wrong?

• Making a one-way appraisal conversation in a top to down approach where managers dominate the performance discussion and judge employees, without hearing their side of story. Each employee has their own challenges and accomplishments in the job, these things can’t go unnoticed.

Let employees discuss their weaknesses and challenges for fair employee evaluation.

• Discussing salary raise and development needs simultaneously in an appraisal meeting. Compensation and skill development are equally important. But when they are discussed in the same session, employees tend to feel distracted and the focus completely shifts to the compensation. However, focusing on employees’ performance improvement results in continuous learning, improved team productivity and skill development.

Conduct a separate session for salary discussion, such that employees can completely focus on the coaching and areas of improvement.

• Handing over an appraisal letter at the end of the year without performance discussions. Make an effort to discuss employees’ development needs, identify their areas of improvement, appreciate good performance and strengths. Keep in touch with subordinates throughout the year to know their interests and work approach. Continuously mentor and coach employees to develop skills and enhance knowledge to support their career growth.

• Underestimating the need to see employees’ past performance data. Collecting and analysing historical appraisal data for new or first-time managers is extremely important. Review employee performance history to build a fair foundation for evaluation and feedback. This helps in understanding patterns in an employee’s performance and ratings over the years.
• Assigning appraisal scores vaguely. Employees feel disappointed when managers arbitrarily assign appraisal scores or provide vague feedback to subordinates. This makes the performance evaluation process meaningless.
  An appraisal process should be well-documented with achievements and failures of each individual, based on observations taken throughout the year. Taking feedback on one’s performance in a self-evaluation process is also important. Using an online HR tool to document year-round performance is a good idea.

• Continuing with annual appraisals in 2018 and the coming years. Many Fortune 500 companies have abolished once-a-year appraisal completely. Annual appraisals are painful for employees and managers alike. Conduct performance reviews at regular intervals to keep employees focused and productive at all times.

• Providing negative feedback without a purpose. Harsh and negative feedback does more harm than good. Find a way to provide constructive feedback to employees, to help them develop skills and improve performance.

Note the above-mentioned points and take steps towards making your company’s appraisal process more meaningful. After all you don’t want employees to feel disheartened and sad, like James, after an appraisal.

Follow these suggestions and get a 10 on 10 rating from your employees for your company’s performance appraisal process. Make sure that your complex employee appraisal process does not drive away top talent. Put efforts to attract and retain top talent. Start with implementing right practices and automating review process for fair, holistic evaluation!