Performance Appraisals

1
Performance Appraisals

• The periodic, formal evaluation of employee
  performance
• Applications
• Pay raises
• Promotions
• Who gets fired?
• Increase efficiency
• Validate selection techniques
• Training requirements

2
Who Dares Oppose?

• Labor Unions
• Employees who likes to be judged or to receive
  negative feedback?
• Managers Want to avoid extra work and conflict

3
Objective Methods

• Quantity and quality of output environ. factors,
  job difficulty
• Good for assembly line type jobs
• Electronic Performance Monitoring
• ½ of workers are currently monitored continuously

• Is it used to improve work quality?
• Many believe that it makes evaluations more
  objective
• 80 still find it stressful!
• Job Related Personal Data Absenteeism,
  accidents, tardiness

4
Judgmental Appraisal Methods

• Written Narrative Appraisals may be ambiguous or
  misleading
• Ratings Scales
• Ranking Techniques workers are all ranked from
  best to worst
• Doesnt work for large s of employees
• Less information than ratings
• What if they are all horrible (or all good!)

5
More Methods

• Forced Distribution Technique Rate employees on
  curve
• What if all workers deserve good ratings?
• Forced Choice Scales Must choose from equally
  favorable/unfavorable statements (only one of
  which is correlated with job performance)

6
Methods with Initials

• BARS (Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales)
  evaluate performance in terms of critical
  employee behaviors
• BOS (Behavioral Observation Scales) rate the
  frequency of critical employee behaviors
• MBO (Management by Objective) Mutually agreed
  upon goals
• Often become unrealistic over time

7
Revenge! Appraisal of Managers

• Assessment Center simulated job activities
• Evaluation by Superiors
• Peer Ratings Good predictors of promotion
• Self-Evaluation Leniency is a concern
• Evaluation by Sub-ordinates upward feedback.
  Good predictor of managerial success. Must be
  anonymous
• 360 Degree Feedback Combines evaluations from a
  number of sources.

8
Potential Biases in Evaluation

• Halo Effect
• Systematic Bias
• Most-Recent Performance Error
• Inadequate Information Error
• Central Tendency Effect
• Fundamental Attribution Error

9
Can We Improve Performance Appraisals?

• Training
• What to look for
• Objectivity
• Normal Curve
• Provide Feedback to Raters

10
Post Appraisal Interview

• Usually hated by all involved
• Suggestions for improvement
• Active participation of employees in the whole
  process
• Interviewer should adopt a positive and
  supportive attitude
• Interviewer should focus on specific job issues,
  not personality characteristics
• Should try to establish joint and specific goals

11
Suggestions Part Two

• Employee should have right to question,
  challenge, and rebut evaluation without fear of
  retribution
• Discussion of salary and rank changes should be
  linked directly to performance appraisal criteria