Performance Evaluation

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Performance Evaluation
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Definitions

• Performance Appraisal
• Systematic description of job relevant strengths
  and weaknesses within and between employees and
  groups.
• Performance appraisal should accurately describe
  job performance behavior (not effectiveness)

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Uses for PA Information

• Development
• Identifies training needs
• Helps employees do their jobs better
• Administrative
• Assigns people to the work they do best
• Maintains fairness in personnel decisions
• Research
• Appraisals can serve as criteria for test
  validation
• Appraisals can serve as predictors for promotion

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Types of Evaluation Data

• Objective (Quantitative) Production Information
• Dollar Volume of Sales
• Number of Passing Yards
• Personnel Data
• Absenteeism
• Turnover
• Accidents
• Subjective (Judgmental) Data
• Ratings of performance

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Errors in Performance Ratings

• Three types of error
• Halo errors
• Leniency errors
• negative - hard grader
• positive - easy grader
• Central tendency errors

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Legal Issues

• Properties of a legally sound appraisal system
• Barrett Kernan (1987)
• Based on job analysis
• Focuses on behaviors as opposed to traits
• Evaluators are trained to use the system
• Results are reviewed with employee
• Appeal mechanisms are available to employees
• Evaluations are documented
• Poor performers receive corrective guidance

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Performance Appraisal Methods

• Relative (employee) comparisons
• Order employees in terms of overall performance
• rank order
• alteration ranking
• paired comparisons
• forced distributions

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Forced Distributions

• The rater must normally distribute performance
  ratings across employees
• Controls leniency, severity, and central tendency
  biases
• Employees at bottom may not be bad performers

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Forced Distributions (Example)
Number of employees
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Utility of Relative Comparisons

• Advantages
• Helpful in making personnel decisions
• Effectively control
• leniency/severity and central tendency errors
• Disadvantages
• Employees compared on a global suitability
  criterion
• Halo error is obscured not eliminated
• Difficult to compare rankings across work groups

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Performance Appraisal Methods

• Using Absolute Standards
• Behavioral Checklists and Scales
• Critical Incidents
• Weighted Checklist
• Behavioral Observation Scale
• Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS)

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Exercise Evaluate Your Boss

• Think of your boss and the things he or she does
  at work
• On a blank piece of paper, choose one or two
  dimensions of work performance from the following
  list
• Training others
• Planning work for others
• Assigning tasks to others
• Scheduling people
• Observing others work

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Exercise Evaluate Your Boss

• Next, for each area/dimension you have chosen,
  write three sentences
• Sentence A Give an example of very poor
  performance in this area
• Sentence B Give an example of acceptable
  performance in this area
• Sentence C Give an example of excellent
  performance in this area
• Make a rating scale from 1 to 5, where 1
  corresponds to sentence A, 3 to sentence B, and 5
  to sentence C

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Example Scheduling People

• 1 - Often forgets to tell people when he has
  made changes to the shift schedule.
• 2 -
• 3 - Gives people a choice of shifts, whenever
  possible.
• 4 -
• 5 - Plans shifts so that no one person always
  ends up working the bad shift.

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Exercise Make your rating

• Using your example statements as a guide, make a
  rating of your boss on the scale you designed.
• In actual work settings, I/O psychologists would
  spend much time and effort with workers and
  supervisors to make sure that
• All of the performance areas made sense for the
  job being rated
• All of the example statements fit the areas
• All of the scale values were fair

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Rater Training

• Can minimize error
• leniency/severity and central tendency
• Can be used to calibrate ratings
• provide all raters with common points of reference

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Performance Feedback

• Identify tasks performed of the job
• Develop performance standards
• Train raters
• Communicate frequently
• Evaluate own performance first
• Encourage subordinate preparation/participation
• Evaluate performance (not personality)
• Provide specific, behavioral, constructive
  criticism
• Be an active listener
• Set mutually agreeable goals
• Make rewards contingent on performance

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Conclusions

• Performance evaluation is an important issue both
  for companies and for workers
• With careful design and appropriate use,
  performance evaluations can support productivity
  and fair allocation of rewards
• Industrial-organizational psychologists
  specialize in making sure that performance
  evaluations are designed correctly