Employee Performance Evaluation
Performance evaluation is a process of systematic assessment of individual performance. It applies as a development tool for the advancement of employee and organization (Reynolds and Scott, 2009). Performance is measured by using factors such as job knowledge, quality and quantity of output, initiative, leadership, administration, dependability. These factors must pre-defined when setting objectives and evaluation should be limited to past and implied performance. (Wermers and Fischer, 2012).
Employee performance assessment can be divided into two main categories as systematic and non-systematic assessment. Within the non-systematic assessment, an employee will be asset continuously by a superior throughout the work process (Alain, 2013). Systematic assessment is a set organizational method carried with a formal basis on employee presumed expectation, and actual performance (Lifflander and Pratt, 2015).
The objective of Performance Appraisals Methods
As discussed by Tan and Falcone (2013), the objective of this performance assessment is to encourage employees to develop and enhance the overall efficiency of our organization by:
• Identify particular areas of accomplishment.
• Encourage to improve performance.
• Well-defined the goals and objectives of the organization, that they are often tailored to our employees’ specific areas of responsibility.
• Developing reciprocally established, employee-focused goals and objectives.
• Recognize areas of most excellent, effectiveness and extra improvement.
• Development interaction between employers and employee.
Criteria for assessing the performance
Bernardin and Russell (1998) has recognized the following seven principles for evaluating the performance of an employee.
1. Quality - The value of the commitment done by the individual, team. This can incorporate the quality, interaction, and deliverables of task completion.
2. Quantity – Work quantity handled by the Employee in the origination. This can be defined and undefined work.
3. Timeliness – Assess Employee Have completed their objectives within a period of time defined.
4. Interpersonal Impact - The quality and ways that a person uses to interact correctly with others. In the business world, the term refers to the ability of employees to work with others while performing their work.
5. Cost-Effectiveness - Cost-benefit analysis is a form of economic analysis that compares the relative costs and outcomes of different action plans. This gives financial value to the measurement of effectiveness.
6. Need for Supervision – How an employee can be worked without any interaction of senior person and the amount of supervision needed for work.
7. Community Service – How Employee will interact with helping others in the work environment. This can more volunteer work.
Traditional and modern performance appraisal methods
Organizations collaboratively use different performance assessment methods to accomplish their aligned set of objectives, it has advantages and disadvantages (Patrick Alain,2013).
According to Sayles and Strauss (1977), performance review methods are dividing into two categories: Traditional methods and modern methods. Considering some methods of performance assessment are complex and call for sufficient knowledge of important techniques. As a result, various organizations practised the traditional method while evaluating their employee's job performance. Some situation traditional method will lead to discontented decisions.
Table 1.0: Performance Appraisal Methods
Performance Appraisal Methods
| |
Traditional
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Modern
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Ranking method
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Management by Objective (MBO)
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Paired Comparison
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360-Degree Feedback
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Grading Scale
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Assessment Center Method.
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Checklist method.
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Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS)
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Easy evaluation method
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Psychological Appraisals.
|
Source: (Sayles and Strauss, 1977)
Negative results of Performance Evaluation
As identified Holpp (2011), Some employees may feel discouraged, impassioned, and unsympathetic about negative assessments, especially if they disagree with the content of the criticism and believe they are doing a proper job. In this case, employees may have no reason to change their future behaviour and believe that the current level of performance is acceptable. This can lead to poor performance and cause a dissatisfied employee who may be less concerned about his future performance levels. If an individual shows a persistent negative attitude towards the company, then this type of employee has the potential to affect morale and the productivity of colleagues.
Conclusion
By selecting a proper evaluation method, we can deliver the most distinguished judgement of an employees work performance. Better to use multiple techniques for evaluation purpose, it will provide a broader understanding of the areas in which employees need to improve and the steps to support employee growth.
Using an Evaluation Method will Standardize the review system of an organisation. The employees will get motivated and experience the expression that organisations carried out a fair evaluation for all the coworkers.
References
- Alain, P., 2013. The Quick and Easy Performance Appraisal Phrase Book. 1st ed. USA: Career Press.
- Bernardin, J. and Russell, J., 1998. Human Resources Management: An Experiential Approach. 2nd ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill Education.
- Holpp, L., 2011. Win-Win Performance Appraisals: What to Do Before, During, and After the Review to Get the Best Results for Yourself and Your Employees: What to Do Before, During and After the Review. 1st ed. USA: McGraw-Hill.
- Lifflander, J. and Pratt, S., 2015. Analyzing Complex Appraisals for Business Professionals. 1st ed. United States: McGraw-Hill.
- Manasa, K., & Reddy, N. (2009). Role of Training in Improving Performance. The IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 3, 72-80
- Reynolds, D. and Scott, J., 2009. Handbook of Workplace Assessment: Evidence-Based Practices for Selecting and Developing Organizational Talent. 1st ed. USA: Pfeiffer.
- Sayles, L. and Strauss, G., 1977. Managing Human Resources. 1st ed. California: Prentice-Hall.
- Tan, W. and Falcone, P., 2013. The Performance Appraisal Tool Kit. 1st ed. United States: AMACOM.
- Wermers, R. and Fischer, B., 2012. Performance Evaluation and Attribution of Security Portfolios. 1st ed. USA: Academic Press.
There are critics against the performance evaluation as well. According to (Oberg, 1972), the system demand too much from supervisors, standards and rating sometime done unfairly, personal value and bias can overcome organizational standards, employees do not know how they are evaluated due to lack of communication and negative feedback can demotivate employees.
ReplyDeleteHi Chandran, I have discussed this in separate post on my blog,any how adding to your comment Mejias and Jana (2018) discussed more on Bias as one of the regular obstacles that occur in performance appraisal for managers. Everyone is biased against someone or something, irrespective how we characterize them. In Point of a manager, we need to handle the performance assessment process by not letting biases to frustrate the parties
DeleteAs per Khan(2013), the performance appraisal should not be viewed only as a conclusion for the employee's work tasks during the associated timeframe. It should be a broader analysis of linking following,
ReplyDelete1. An assessment of the degree that the employee is aligned to make the organizational goals a success
2. Focused plan ton personal development
3. Clear communication of rewards and incentives
Agreed on above comment.Harvard Business Review, (2011) describe Performance appraisals basic three functions as well.
Delete(1) To provide adequate feedback to each person on his or her performance.
(2) To serve as a basis for modifying or changing behavior toward more effective working habits
(3) To provide data to managers with which they may judge future job assignments and compensation.
The concept of performance appraisal is the core of effective management. It has done a lot of hard and imaginative work in developing and improving it. There is a lot of evidence to show how useful and effective performance appraisal is.
Agreed on the above, feedback plays a major role in each and every employee.This motivates a person to work better and drive towards the right track. According to (Swan,2012) it is through proper performance appraisal that feedback is shared based on their past performance and future improvements. Even if the feedback is below an employees expectation, ways of improvement is shown by introducing a plan before the next appraisal and this would help in better performance (Cardy & Leonard, 2011).
DeleteOne of the other modern performance appraisal methods is Human-Resource (Cost) Accounting Method. Human Resource Accounting is the process of assigning, budgeting, and reporting on an organization's human resource costs, that includes wages, wages, and training expenses. Further, it’s basically the activity of knowing the costs invested for employees in their recruitment, training, payment of wages and other benefits paid and knowing in return their contribution to their profitability to the organization (Kumar and Awasthi, 2018).
ReplyDeleteHi Anjula, Thank you for the add on to the post.When evaluating employee performance based on cost accounting methods, factors such as average unit service value, quality, management costs, and interpersonal relationships are considered. Its high dependence on cost-benefit analysis and the memory ability of elevators are the shortcomings of human resource accounting methods(Gordon, 2012).
DeleteHi Sahan, I agree with your point about the negative impact of performance evaluation. I would also like to add the fact that these evaluations do not always provide an accurate representation of an employee's performance (Lawrence, 2017). For example, gaps in time, especially if the reviews are done only annually, can call into question the memory of each participant. In addition, some employees are likely to work harder than usual leading up to the evaluation in order to 'pad their stats'. The reverse is also true- a particularly good employee might have a poor week in terms of performance, and this would be reflected in a negative way in his evaluation (Lawrence, 2017).
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment Saduk,By selecting a proper evaluation method or use several, we can deliver the most distinguished judgement of employees work performance. We can use feedback from both parties to minimize the accuracy gaps(Holpp, 2011).
DeleteAgreed with the article,as you mentioned performance appraisal methods can be categorize under two methods, Traditional and Modern methods.Tradition method is a older method while including Raking method, Graphic Rating Scales, Critical incident methods and Narrative methods. whereas Modern methods of performance appraisal are Management by objective, Rating system, Humans resource accounting, Assessment center, 360 Degree and 760 Degree (Aggarwal and Thakur,2013).Sahan you have to add 760 Degree method also since dissatisfied of 360 Degree system may use 760 Degree where it focus on customer and investors perception.
ReplyDeleteHi Nayani, Thanks for the recommendation. All performance appraisal methods have advantages and disadvantages. Most of the organisation used combinations of appraisal methods to overcome the gaps(Holpp, 2011).
DeleteDear Sahan, very important topic. As you mentioned that management should deliver the most distinguished judgement of an employees work performance. One of the most difficult requirements of an effective performance appraisal system is that it is as free as possible from bias. Raters as a human being cannot deny the involvement of bias in their decision making on performance of the rating. The only thing that the raters can do is to minimize the level of unfairness as possible. Because work professionalism plays an important role for the reliability of the assessment process (Ahmad and Bujang, 2013)
ReplyDeleteAguinis,(2019) have discussed, To overcome central bias, performance assessments should be based on specific capabilities. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Maybe one of your employees is not a powerful speaker, but they are a good writer. Instead of focusing on public speaking, push them to improve their writing skills, assign them preparation, and build them there. The most valuable information employees can get from the review process is insights into their strengths and areas that need improvement. Managers are encouraged to really emphasize these two aspects in the evaluation of each employee so that they can later develop an effective development plan.
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ReplyDeleteHi Sahan, you successfully described the key method of Employee Performance Evaluation. The company I work in is using “360-Degree Feedback” method to evaluate the employees which is modern technique and most effective way. In addition to that, thank you for stating the negative side of the Performance Evaluation as per Holpp (2011).
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