Deliver more effective performance appraisals and become the leader your employees can trust by applying these ten practical and proven tips.

1. Plan Meetings in Advance

Most organisations have an annual performance appraisal cycle so time block and book meetings well in advance. Schedule your one on ones with each employee and, if you don’t have an office, book meeting rooms at the same time. Even though your company may not require a formal progress review schedule time for at least one informal check as well.

2. Make Meeting a Priority

Tell employees that these meetings are a priority and rescheduling is non-negotiable (unless there’s an emergency of course). Actions speak louder than words so the same rule applies to you. Every time you postpone you send a message to your “most valuable asset” that someone else is more important.

3. Activate your Reminder System

Create a bring up at least two weeks prior to each round of meetings with a reminder to check that your meeting rooms are still available.

Remind employees that they need to begin their preparation too. The most effective approach is a personal one so use your regular team meeting to restate the purpose of performance appraisal and your expectation that people will arrive well prepared.

Record appraisal meetings on a highly visible wall planner too. It not only serves as a reminder but also quietly reinforces the message that you really do value your employees by taking their development seriously.

4. Create an Employee Portfolio

At the beginning of each cycle create a secure and confidential file for each employee. This file is for your eyes only and solely for the purpose of performance appraisal. It’s not a duplicate HR Personal File.

Keep your photocopy of the employee’s current performance appraisal and file notes on progress and achievements throughout the year. You can also use Email folders for each employee to quickly and easily file copies of relevant messages. And, if you use a hard copy dairy allocate a section to jot notes.

Use your discretion and common sense when gathering information. You’re not building an iron-clad case for the High Court. Your intention is to create a balanced picture of the employee’s performance, one that’s less subjective and backed up with practical examples.

5. Don’t Rely On Memory

A year is a long time, especially if you don’t include progress reviews, so it’s very easy to forget an employee’s earlier accomplishments. This contributes to the “recency effect” where reviewers evaluate and rate performance based on recent events only.

Prepare for your one on one meeting by reviewing each file and briefly summarising progress and achievements. This is much more effective than relying on memory, especially where you have several employees. Once the performance appraisal cycle is over purge the file and start afresh.

6. Involve Employee’s

Employee’s suffer from the recency effect too so encourage your people to maintain their own portfolio as well. After all it’s their career and their performance appraisal.

Some employees feel uncomfortable reviewing their own performance; a personal portfolio makes it much easier for these people to highlight achievements. It also helps them to explain and substantiate reasons for a lack of progress, particularly where factors were beyond their control.

8. Support the Soft with the Hard

The personal portfolio also helps with the notoriously difficult evaluation of “soft” objectives, such as individual contribution to teamwork. Incidents, comments and emails from customers and colleagues can be noted and copied for the file. It all helps to build a more reliable view of an employee’s interpersonal behaviours.

9. Communicate

Explain your system to employees so they understand what you’re doing and why. Compared to the manager who postpones meetings, makes broad generalisations and relies entirely on memory to determine a final rating, you’ll be seen as the leader employee’s trust

10. Keep Up to Date

Once you’ve set up your system keep it up to date. A small amount of thought and regular effort throughout the year will save you a great deal of time when it comes to all those one on one meetings. It won’t become the end of year administrative chore many managers’ dread. Most importantly, it helps you to give your employees a fair and more effective appraisal. If it were your appraisal would you expect anything less?

Sharon Feltham

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Performance appraisal forms are and should only ever be, a way of documenting the discussion that has already been had. Yes, performance review documents have been used as blunt instruments to bludgeon the other party into submission before an Industrial Tribunal, or to prove a point at promotion time. But, these cases are in the minority.

If you focus all of your time trying to ensure all your paperwork is legally bullet-proof, you miss the whole point of the process, which is to ensure both parties have a shared understanding of what needs to be accomplished, and to what standard.

If you need to, put the forms into a drawer while you focus on the discussion and only bring them out at the end, to be jointly filled in and filed. Yes, be cautious about what you put into writing. Yes, consider carefully the words you use. Yes, review your rating to minimise bias. But don’t use these as an excuse to focus fixedly on the forms, to the detriment of the discussion.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Freelance HR Writer

In previous articles on the topic of performance management and appraisal, we covered the ten stupid things managers do to screw up performance appraisal, and a similar article on ways human resource departments screw up the process. Now it’s time to turn our attention to employees!

Managers, feel free to share this with employees, and employees, feel free to share this with managers and/or colleagues. Please ensure proper credit is given and that the work911.com website address is included.

Generally, when performance appraisal goes awry, the primary cause has little to do with employees. For the most part, employees take their cues from management and human resources. However, when individual employees perceive the process in negative ways, they can create or damage even the best of appraisal processes.

Stupid Thing #1: Focusing On The Appraisal Forms

Performance appraisal isn’t about the forms (although, often managers and HR treat it as such). The ultimate purpose of performance appraisal is to allow employees and managers to improve continuously and to remove barriers to job success. In other words, to make everyone better. Forms don’t make people better, and are simply a way or recording basic information for later reference. If the focus is getting the forms “done”, without thought and effort, the whole process becomes at best a waste of time, and at worst, insulting.

Stupid Thing #2: Not Preparing Beforehand

Preparing for performance appraisal helps the employee focus on the key issue – performance improvement, and to examine his or her performance in a more objective way (see defensiveness below). Unfortunately, many employees walk into the appraisal meeting not having thought about the review period, and so are unprepared to present their points of view. Being unprepared means being a reactive participant, or being a passive participant. Neither are going to help manager or employee. Employees can prepare by reviewing their work beforehand, identifying any barriers they faced in doing their jobs, and refamiliarizing themselves with their job descriptions, job responsibilities, and any job performance expectations set with the manager.

Stupid Thing #3: Defensiveness

We tend to take our jobs seriously and personally, making it more difficult to hear others’ comments about our work, particularly when they are critical. Even constructive criticism is often hard to hear. If employees enter into the discussion with an attitude of “defending”, then it’s almost impossible to create the dialogue necessary for performance improvement. That doesn’t mean employees can’t present their own opinions and perceptions, but it does mean that they should be presented in a calm, factual manner, rather than a defensive, emotional way. Of course, if managers are inept in the appraisal process, it makes it very difficult to avoid this defensiveness.

Stupid Thing #4: Not Communicating During The Year

Employees need to know how they are doing all year round, not just at appraisal time. Generally it is primarily management’s responsibility to ensure that there are no surprises at appraisal time. Often managers discuss both positives and negatives of employee performance throughout the year, but this is unfortunately, not a universal practice. It’s in the employees interests to open up discussion about performance during the year, even if the manager does not initiate it. The sooner employees know where they are at, and what they need to change (or keep doing), the sooner problems can be fixed. In fact many problems can be prevented if they are caught early enough. Even if managers aren’t creating that communication, employees can and should. It’s a shared responsibility.

Stupid Thing #5: Not Clarifying Enough

Life would be much easier if managers were perfect, but they aren’t. Some communicate and explain well. Some don’t. Some are aggravating and some not. At times employees won’t be clear about their managers’ reasoning or comments, or what a manager is suggesting. That could be because the manager isn’t clear him/herself, or simply isn’t good at explaining. However, unless employees clarify when they aren’t sure about the reasoning or explanations, they won’t know what they need to do to improve their future job performance. It’s important to leave the appraisal meeting having a good understanding of what’s been said. If that’s not possible clarification can occur after the meeting, or down the road, if that’s more appropriate.

Stupid Thing #6: Allowing One-Sidedness

Performance appraisals work best when both participants are active, and expressing their positions and ideas. Some employees are uncomfortable doing that, and while managers should be creating a climate where employees are comfortable, some managers aren’t good at it. Performance appraisal time is an excellent time for employees to make suggestions about things that could be changed to improve performance, about how to remove barriers to job success, and ways to increase productivity. Remember also that managers can’t read minds. The better managers will work with employees to help them do their jobs more effectively, but they can’t know how they can help unless employees provide them with good, factual information, or, even better, concrete ideas.

Stupid Thing #7: Focusing On Appraisal As A Way Of Getting More Money

Unfortunately, many organizations tie employee pay to appraisal results, which puts employee and manager on opposite sides. Employees in such systems tend to focus too much on the money component, although that focus is certainly understandable. It’s also understandable when employees in such systems become hesitant to reveal shortcomings or mistakes. But it’s still dumb. If employees main purpose is to squeeze as much of an increase out of the company, and the managers try to keep increases as small as possible, it becomes totally impossible to focus on what ultimately matters over the long term, which is continuous performance improvement and success for everyone.

Pay IS important, but it is not the only issue related to the appraisal focus. If employees enter into the process willing to defend their own positions in factual and fair ways, and to work with managers, the process can become much more pleasant. If not, it can become a war.

Conclusion:

The major responsibilities for setting performance appraisal tone and climate rest with managers and the human resources department. However, even when managers and human resources do their jobs well, employees who come at the process with a negative or defensive approach are not likely to gain from the process or to prosper over the long term. The constant key is for employees to participate actively and assertively, but to keep a problem-solving mindset, and keep focused on how things can be improved in the future. No matter who initiates it, performance appraisal is about positive open communication between employee and manager.

Robert Bacal

(c) 2005, Robert Bacal, Bacal & Associates. You are welcome to “reprint” this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end) all links are made live, and this copyright notice and indication of authorship are included.

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Think of managing performance in the same way you think of food. Having one massive meal once a year just doesn’t cut it. To be healthy you need regular small amounts of high quality food. Your food needs to be fresh, balanced and contain nutrients that you can use.

Feedback also is best when it is fresh and near the event. Feedback also needs to be balanced – people are neither all good nor all poor performers. Balance your feedback highlighting what went well as well as what could be done differently.

Finally, feedback needs to contain information that can be used. You need to include information that people can do something with – not just listen to. Platitudes don’t cut it. Nor do general fluff and guff. Give specific, relevant information and ideas on how to improve, and as a result, your feedback to your team members will move from junk food to nourishing.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Freelance HR Writer

In numerous programs I’ve conducted on performance appraisals, with Human Resource people (who are responsible for developing and implementing programs) and with line managers (who actually conduct the reviews) are often foggy about performance appraisal procedures. Here are some frequently asked questions.

Questions asked by HRD Professionals:

1. What are the essential ingredients of an effective performance appraisal program?

A successful program must meet the following requirements:

• It fits the organization, rather than ‘one size fits all’.
• It must be communicated to all involved.
• It must be sold to those who will conduct the appraisals.
• It provides training and ongoing resources to managers.
• It establishes controls and rewards to reinforce implementation.

2. Can I use other’s forms and procedures or must I develop a whole new program?

You certainly can see what other organizations are doing in relation to performance appraisals. However, I say adapt appropriately not adopt totally. What works for a large financial institution may not work in a family owned business. Use other programs as a guide, not a boilerplate. Get input from your line managers as well as employees regarding forms and procedures – they are the ones who ultimately will be the users.

3. Why do managers generally dislike performance appraisal programs?

Many managers are not convinced that the program is a good one or that positive results will be gained. Also, they are not properly trained to conduct the reviews. They hesitate to e honest for fear that subordinates will resent them and believe the review will be an unpleasant experience that might cause more harm than good. (This may be right if the program has not been properly planned and implemented.)

4 How much training is required and how should it be done?

Training must include three factors: basic HR information, performance appraisal skills and motivation to implement the program. Ideally it should be done in multiple sessions spread out over a period of time with small groups for proper discussion and practice. Some of the key topics could be how to clarify what’s expected; how to conduct an effective review; how to rate fairly, etc.

Questions asked by Line Managers:

1. Why do most subordinates dislike performance appraisals?

Because it is often an unpleasant experience! Some common problems cited are:

• Expectations and outcomes are not clear.
• Fear to disagree with the boss and that it will be held against them.
• Criticism is used more often than praise.
• Bosses are defensive when challenged by subordinates.
• Bosses aren’t prepared.

2. How can I be sure I’m making a fair appraisal?

First of all, ask for input from others who are in a position to evaluate the performance of the person. Next, be sure that neither the ‘halo effect’ (a positive opinion of the individual) not the ‘horns effect’ (a negative opinion of the person) influences the appraisal. Also be sure that the appraisal is not based just on the most recent events.

3. How can I get the person involved so I’m not doing all the talking?

To encourage dialogue during the review, you can ask such questions as: What went well this past year? What problems did you encounter? What are some key goals for the coming year? What areas do you want to improve or develop? How can I best help you to achieve these goals?

4. How should I end the review particularly if the person is not doing a good job?

Always end on a positive note. First, thank the person for some specific good work done the past year. By recognizing achievements you create the motivation to achieve even more. Then move on to the area that needs improvement. Say something like, “I’m glad we had a chance to talk about your performance and how we can work together to improve it. I’m sure that together we can achieve positive results.”

Don’t just appraise but raise performance.

Marcia Zidle

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Performance Appraisals, if handled correctly, can give you invaluable feedback about the reasons why people stay in your organisation. When conducting reviews, make sure you include some questions about:

• The best thing about working in this team. Why?
• The best thing about working for this company. Why?
• The most enjoyable projects the person has worked on and what made them enjoyable
• What frustrates the person most about the job?
• What disappoints the person most about the job?
• What would make the person look for another job?
• If they won lotto tomorrow, what would make them come back into work rather than resigning?

Sure, not every person will be 100% honest with their answers – particularly in a team with a culture of blame. Very few employees will come out and say that they hate you are and are actively looking for another job – but every insight is useful. In many cases, you will get some fantastic information that you wouldn’t have normally received in regular conversation.

Use the performance review opportunity to find out more about why people stay, and see if you can build more of that into the role or team. After all, turnover is a major cost and has negative impact on your team. Why not look at ways to boost retention, rather than finding out things you could have fixed when people are leaving.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Freelance HR Writer

Just as you would prepare for a job interview, preparation is key for ensuring that your performance appraisal process goes well. Your performance review becomes a permanent record in your employee file, both in terms of how you rate yourself as well as your managers’ evaluation of whether you’ve achieved the agreed business objectives or goals for the period under review.

Performance Appraisal Form

Most companies have a performance management form or template that is used as a tool to facilitate the performance review discussions. Key sections usually include the agreed goals, your execution plans and the results achieved. Take time to think through what you want to include in the performance feedback form. Especially if your role involves numerous small projects throughout the year, you need some time to list down these projects and quantify your successes.

Go through your document or email archive folders systematically to help jog your memory. For each project or business objective, list down your key achievements in that area. Include both quantitative and qualitative results, and highlight any major challenges that you had overcome. When you start writing your performance appraisal, use phrases that have a strong positive impact, such as:

“Successfully executed…”
“Successfully developed…”
“Successfully launched…”
“Implemented an effective work-flow process…”
“Built strong relationships with…”

Performance Appraisal Interview

While your performance feedback form can include details of all your projects and key achievements, you may not be able to go through each and every item during the performance appraisal interview itself. So to prepare for the interview, pick out just one or two specific examples to describe your achievements that correspond to your business goals. Be sure to also think through any areas that you would improve if you were to execute the specific projects again.

Listen attentively to any feedback that your manager gives, especially criticisms. Seek clarifications or ask questions if you don’t agree with the feedback, instead of arguing. Avoid justifying, giving excuses or putting blame on others.

Prepare also to discuss some areas of improvement, and more importantly, take the opportunity to request for additional coaching or training to help you enhance your job performance. How you perform during the performance appraisal interview is a reflection of your professionalism, very much like a job interview. The only difference is that, you’re already in the job and your goal is to convince your boss you’re the best man/woman for this job, or deserve that long awaited promotion.

David A Russell

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You need to:

• Discuss what is to be delivered by when.
• Have clearly defined project briefs and hold people accountable to them.
• Start with a small challenging test project to see if the person has the skills, experience, and attitude that you need for your project (and the communication skills to ask clarifying questions and the willingness to keep you informed of progress and roadblocks).
• And make 100% clear which are the non-negotiable performance bits – the bits for which the contract will be terminated if they fail to deliver on.

The biggest problem with freelancers and subcontractors are not delivering on deadlines and failing to read the brief, which means they miss key elements or do them incorrectly. Make sure a discussion of these problems forms a key part of your performance discussion, highlight that these are grounds for termination of the contract and put in place ways of tracking performance.

These can then form a simple one-page summary of discussion. The bottom line is everyone’s performance should be up for discussion – even freelancers and subcontractors.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Freelance HR Writer

There are legal risks and potential liabilities involved with using 360 degree feedback, although you can reduce your risk by using 360 feedback correctly. The risk of a law suit associated with 360 increases when you use it for determining promotions, bonuses, pay raises and the like. It’s much less when the ONLY purpose you use 360 for is to improve performance. In other words, use 360 as a replacement for traditional performance appraisals, and you have the potential for legal problems.

For the most part, the risks associated with performance appraisal in general, and 360 specifically have to do with whether the information used is valid, job related, accurately measures employee performance, and is not discriminatory against any protected classes. The major issue has to do with the potential for someone from a designated minority group who has been passed over for promotion, to accuse the company of discrimination. If 360 is used to determine who was promoted, AND, the company cannot demonstrate the validity, or relevance of the 360 process, that’s where problems lie.

The employee can take the company to court, or to the EEOC or other human rights complaints boards.

In practice, most 360 systems use rating systems that are vague, and the raters themselves are given no training to ensure their ratings are valid or reliable. In practice, most 360 systems rely on ANONYMOUS feedback — that is that the feedback given is not linked to any specific person. and the recipient does not know who rated what at what level.

The latter point puts 360 in a completely different light, as compared to other rating systems that have an identifiable manager as the source of the feedback. How can you prove that the feedback and information used to determine who got a promotion, is valid, relevant and non-discriminatory, when you can’t even identify WHO provided that information?

Of course, with legal issues, you never know what the courts will decide in any specific case, even if there is some precedent going one way or another. It is safe to say that if you use 360 degree feedback to replace traditional performance appraisal, your risk of being sued, and the risk of losing the law suit increase. However, there’s an alternate opinion.

Susan Heathfield, who writes about HR issues (but is also not a lawyer), suggests the following:

When feedback comes from a number of individuals in various job functions, discrimination because of race, age, gender, and so on, is reduced. The “horns and halo” effect, in which a supervisor rates performance based on her most recent interactions with the employee, is also minimized.

Perhaps, as with any legal issues, consultation with a qualified attorney is warranted, remembering that legal problems occur as a result of HOW something is applied, so the details are important.

Robert Bacal

(c) 2007, Robert Bacal, Bacal & Associates. You are welcome to “reprint” this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end) all links are made live, and this copyright notice and indication of authorship are included.

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There are lots of creative ways of doing this ranking. They can simply put people on a list and write down a number next to their name. They can compare two people at a time, to work out if Mary is better than Sue, and then if Mary is better than Ben, and then if Mary is better than John. They can even get a few managers to rank individuals in their order of performance, and then take an average of their marks.

The problem with all ranking approaches is they are fundamentally flawed. No two people have 100% identical jobs. Each person generally has different roles, responsibilities, and accountabilities that create variation in their performance.

Another challenge is that ranking does not show how much better or worse one person is from another. The differences may only be miniscule, but they can have major effects on morale.

Ranking also doesn’t take into account the actual results achieved. All of your team may be poor performers and not delivering, yet if you rank them they perceive that the top of the list are high performers worthy of promotion.

When you put someone in a rank order, you generally don’t have an in depth discussion with them about what is working and what needs improvement. You simply boil everything down to a number, which tends to close off discussion.

Finally, rater bias is alive and well with rankings. Rankings tend to be made on the basis more of personality and less on performance.

So, if you want to build the performance of your team, bin the ranking approach and head back towards a discussion. You will get much more effective results.

Until next time

Ingrid Cliff

We put your business into words

Freelance HR Writer