9/26/2019

Traditional and Modern Performance Appraisal Methods


Traditional Appraisal Methods

Traditional performance appraisal methods are comparatively old. These methods are all approaches to the past, concentrating only on past performance (Dessler, 2015).

Ranking method - Identity of the most manageable techniques of performance evaluation. This approach will be sorted employees from best to worst in a group. The simplicity of this approach is masked by the negative impact of assigning “worst” and “best” ratings to employees. This kind of differentiation can lead to negative emotions within the group and negatively affect performance (Dessler and Gray, 2011).

Paired Comparison – Method follows a role model of pairs, employee to employee values are compared with each other. The formula is used to calculate the number of comparisons (N x (N-1) / 2). When you have different options that are prominently separated, it is often challenging to determine the best option (Venclova, Salková and Kolackova, 2013).

Grading Scale – This strategy surveys the level of specific characteristics required for the activity, for example, unwavering quality and steadfastness. The degree is usually reliability and dependability. The degree is normally estimated on a scale (Excellent, Good, Average, Poor). An employee will be evaluated according to these grades and assigned to the level that best describes their performance (Cardy, Balkin, Gómez-Mejía, 2014).

Checklist method - This is the most straightforward strategies for assessing employee performance. Under this, a checklist is prepared by the HR manager and delivered to the scorer. Checklist will include a rundown of inquiries (describes the employee's behaviour and performance) and the rater needs to answer them in just 'YES' or 'NO' structure (Rothwell, 2012).

Easy evaluation method - The method requires to write a detailed description of the article's approach to the performance of the employee's immediate Manager. This article focuses on the various strengths, weaknesses, attitudes, and behaviours of individuals concerning job responsibilities (Shaout and Yousif,2012).

Modern Appraisal Methods 

Modern methods are developed to improve traditional methods. It attempts to reinforce the shortcomings of the old methods, such as fundamentality and subjectivity. The following describes typical modern methods (Goel, 2012).

Management by Objective (MBO) - MBO Identified as a less time consuming and cost-effective method. Objectives have been set to an employee by the manager by agreeing with each other. This method helps employees to perform better as they understand their goals well and know the quality and amount need to deliver.  This rate as a fair assessment because employees know the likelihood of measured (Pathak, 2010).

360-Degree Feedback – This approach involves getting feedback about employees from everyone who interacts with him during business hours to understand his views on himself and his responsibilities in the workplace (Griffith and Lucia, 2009). This is very beneficial for start-ups because it is the most reliable way to assess the overall performance of employees and understand their best practices in behaviour, personality and attitude. Although it is a bit time consuming, it is cost-effective and accurate. It avoids prejudice due to various viewpoints, so comments are not affected by one's preference (Harvard Business School Press, 2009).

Assessment Center Method – This method was first used by the United States and the United Kingdom in 1943. The assessment center is a central location where managers can be brought together, and trained observers assess their participation in work-related activities (Darling and Adamson, 2014). It focuses on situational exercises like planning organization ability, self-confidence, stress resistance, energy level, decision-making ability. It provides the employer with an insight into the personality of the employee (Certo and Certo, 2014).

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS) - Smith and Kendall introduced the method of BARS in 1963 to the consideration of researchers concerned for reliability and validity of performance evaluations. This method is more informative than simplistic characters. Scale points are defined by demanding (effective or ineffective) behaviors of the employee. The person rate employee will appear as an observer rather than a judge (Mathis and Jackson, 2011).

Psychological Appraisals - Method focused on employees expected performance than past performance. Analyzation carries out through comprehensive Interviews, psychological tests and investigation of other evaluations. It gives higher consideration to employee’s emotions, intelligence, motivation and other personal characteristics that influence performance. IT will encourage smart younger employees who may have considerable potential, though the method is slow and expensive. Quality of assessments will depend on the psychologist skillset (Holpp, 2011).

The organization which I work is a multinational organization and a pioneer in education. The organization used a mixed appraisal methodology to appraise the employee and it will maintain continuous communication with team leaders and managers. Once employees meet their expectation they were recognized and motivated through a rewarding process carried out once every quarter of a year.

The employee will evaluate under multi-rater feedback as Self-appraisal, managers appraisal and peer appraisal.

An employee will have full transparency of the evaluation process and can disagree on any rating that has received. Once disagreed, the reevaluation process will start. This process will carry out until both parties are satisfied with the outcome.

References 

  • Dessler, G., 2015. Fundamentals of Human Resource Management. 5th ed. New York: Pearson. 
  • Dessler and Gary, 2011.Human Resource Management,13th ed, Prentice-Hall. 
  • Venclova, K., salková, A. and Kolackova, G.,2013. Identification of Employee Performance Appraisal Methods in Agricultural Organizations. In: 2013. [Online]. Available at: DOI:10.7441/joc.2013.02.02. 
  • Mathis, L. R., & Jackson, H. J. ,2012. Human Resource Management: Essential Perspectives.1st ed.USA: South-Western Cengage Learning. 
  • Beatty, J. R., & Haas, R. W.,1996. Using peer evaluations to assess individual performances in group class projects. Journal of Marketing Education, 18(2), 17-28. 
  • Rothwell,J. ,2012. Encyclopedia of human resource management set-3 volumes. 1st ed. New York: Wiley. 
  • Shaout, A. and Yousif., 2012. M. K. Performance Evaluation – Methods and Techniques Survey. 
  • Goel, D., 2012. Performance Appraisal and Compensation Management. 2nd ed. New Delhi: PHI Learning Ltd. 
  • Pathak, H., 2010. Organisational Change. 1st ed. India: Pearson India. 
  • Griffith, R. and Lucia, A., 2009. The Art and Science of 360-Degree Feedback. 2nd ed. SAN Francisco: Pfeiffer. 
  • Holpp, W., 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.
  • Cardy, R., Balkin, D. and Gómez-Mejía, L., 2014. Managing Human Resources. 8th ed. USA: Pearson.
  • Harvard Business School Press, 2009. Performance Appraisal: Expert Solutions to Everyday Challenges. 1st ed. United States: Harvard Business Review Press.
  • Certo, S. and Certo, T., 2014. Modern Management: concepts and skills. 14th ed. USA: Pearson.
  • Darling-Hammond, L. and Adamson, F., 2014. Beyond the Bubble Test: How Performance Assessments Support 21st Century Learning. 1st ed. USA: Jossey-Bass.

15 comments:

  1. In the modern Appraisal Methods, Humans Resource Accounting method also is a very important method. The concept of human resource accounting was first developed by Sir William Petty in 1691.But research into true human resource accounting began in the 1960 by Rensis Likert. Prof. Flamholtz defines human resource accounting for people as an organizational resource. The main theory underlying the HRA is: The people are valuable resources of an organization or enterprise, information on investment and value of human resource is useful for decision making in the organization.. Another method of human resource accounting is human resource value accounting (HRVA).

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    1. Adding more to the comment,The purpose of Human Resources (HR) accounting is to assign a dollar value to individual employees of the company or employees throughout the company, because trained and productive employees are valuable to an organization, sometimes referred to as human capital.Since there is no definitive way to calculate employee value, HR accounting uses several different approaches. Each method has its advantages and limitations(Flamholtz, 2012).

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  2. There are many other techniques such as 90 degree,180 degree,270 degree, balanced score card, mixed standard scale, paired comparison, forced distribution method, behavioral observation scale, mixed standard scale, electronic performance monitoring, confidential reports are also used for performance appraisal.

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    1. Agreed,there are various techniques more As discussed by Aggarawal and Thakur (2013) It is very difficult to say that which technique is better than other technique because it depends upon the type and size of organization. Each technique has its own pros and cons.

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  3. Another point is that, as Drogomyretska(2014), has argued that the traditional appraisal methods have the element of bias and has the likelihood not to be 100% impartial, while the modern appraisal methods are more systematic, transparent and non-biased.

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    1. As time and technology evolved, workplaces have undergone tremendous changes, requiring better assessment methods than traditional performance assessment methods. The study found that the traditional performance appraisal method pays more attention to the evaluation of individual personality characteristics, while the modern performance appraisal method pays more attention to the evaluation of work performance, which is more objective and more valuable (Fleisher and Bensoussan, 2015).

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  4. Hi,Sahan
    when it comes to 360 degree apprasal system.There are,serious concerns. A respondent's question of not having the credentials to reliably determine competences is amplified. Coworkers have less awareness of other people's jobs than they do.For example, in the case of subordinates assessing managers, the subordinates may never have had any managerial experience or training and therefore have no real basis for the assessment(Mukhopadhyay,2006).

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    1. Hi Moreaes, Understand the concern. The company i worked use a combination of several methods to conduct appraisals, this will help to overcome the limitations as successful organizations understand the importance of incorporating performance appraisals into their performance management process and strategy.

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  5. As discussed by Arbaiy and Suradi (2007), the appraisers often bring their own biases when evaluating employees hence causing irregularities. Specially when the team size under his/her purview is large, an appraiser may use quick judgement to rate an employee (to complete the evaluations on time) and provide an incorrect rating. To minimize this, Arbaiy and Suradi (2007) proposes an approach based on fuzzy logic which would act as a secondary check.

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    1. Aguinis,(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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  6. Agree with you, Traditional performance assessment methods such as annual performance reviews suffer from major constraints as they focus more on past performance measurement rather than future work improvement. But on the opposite, modern methods of performance analysis help to clearly define priorities, provide real-time input, improve employee performance, spot training and development needs, and provide insights into counter-productive tasks. This will also result in increased employee engagement and recruitment; align individual performance with business objectives and a strategic advantage for the workforce (Williams, 2017)

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    1. Each performance evaluation method has its advantages and disadvantages and may or may not be suitable for one organization. As a result, no single assessment method is accepted and used by all organizations to measure employee performance (Silverstein, 2019).

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  7. Dear Sahan, while agreeing to your post, I would like to share my view. As Payne et al (2009) mentions, traditional performance appraisals have a quality of their own but modern systems such as online appraisal systems do not possess that quality and also with the development of technology, online systems might not be as reliable since one can hack into the system and change the content accordingly.

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    1. Hi Shan, Thanks for sharing your view.Most of the systems have its advantages and disadvantages.If we concern about the security there are various methods to secure your data like data encryption, multi factor Authentication(Dotson, 2019).As my point of view online appraisal systems have more advantages than disadvantages.

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  8. According to Aggarawal and Thakur (2013) the best matching way of modern appraisal depend on the organization & its features. The supervisors need to identify carefully the perfect method since the outcome directly effects to the employee motivation & finally to the goals & objectives of the organization.

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