Performance appraisal is one of the tedious HR processes. It requires employees to be benchmarked to certain criteria and then receive ratings on them. The reason why it is tedious is that different employees have different objectives and styles of working. If the firm is big, employees may make their professional decisions in different environments and circumstances. Therefore, to view all employees in the same manner or on the same rating scale is an uphill task. However, HR people somehow manage to do it everywhere.
However complicated it may be, here are five simple tips to improve your performance appraisal process.
- Plan your goals
How efficiently and effectively an employee reaches their goals has a huge bearing on their performance appraisal. You need to be careful about two things while evaluating those goals— first, make sure that the goals you set are clear and objective. This means you need to bring transparency to your metrics to improve your performance appraisal process. An employee should understand how he can improve on those metrics to get a better performance appraisal. Second, your goals should be parallel to your firm’s business strategy. Make sure that the goals or the metrics you set while evaluating your employees are directly correlated to the company’s strategic objectives.
- Embrace continuous feedback
Your communication with your employees plays a crucial role. Generally, performance reviews are conducted annually. This creates a communication gap between employees and the people entrusted with the task of rating them. This is why you need to create a strong feedback process so that employees are never caught off guard when a performance review hits them.
A constant feedback mechanism with the employees ensures that they can course-correct if needed. The other benefit of such a feedback process is that the HR people and the management can plan better for their employees. When you understand the needs and wants of your employees, their barriers, and goals, you have a fair idea of what you could do to help the company.
For example, your employees may find you a better way of reaching your firm’s objective or telling you about all the barriers the firm may face trying to reach its goals. Either way, you will be in a better place to tackle your challenges.
- Use peer review
The results of performance appraisals can be different from different vantage points. An employee may be seen in a different light by his or her friends in the office, juniors, and seniors. Therefore, including peer reviews in the performance appraisal process helps you explore the different vantage points. Employers are bound to a few quantitative metrics when evaluating an employee, but co-workers aren’t. They may have a very ambiguous way of describing their co-worker’s performance. Adding qualitative data to your reviews (provided by the co-workers) gives a better shape to the entire process and makes the process a bit more well-rounded.
The other aspect of peer review is a section called ‘self-review’. It is very important to understand and measure what employees think of themselves, their approach, and whether they see themselves fulfilling the company’s objectives, as well as their targets.
- Keep it simple, stupid!
The KISS (keep it simple, stupid!) approach is well known in business circles. The biggest damage you can do to the performance appraisal process is making it complicated. It cannot be stressed enough that the best and most effective performance appraisals are the ones kept simple. You need to remember a few things while designing your performance review.
- Your metrics should be easy to understand.
- Your parameters for evaluation should be as few as possible.
- Your performance appraisal process should be as less time-consuming as possible.
Just by abiding by these three simple things, you can make the process less tedious and more effective.
- Document effectively
Since appraisals are an annual business, it is very important to examine and document carefully. Each data parameter should be carefully recorded, and it should be compared with previous years for better evaluation. Data recording is an art, and only a few master it. You need to be aware of the parameters the employee has been evaluated on before and create your parameters accordingly. If possible, try to make a comparative study of your employee over several years to identify patterns. This will not only help you understand your employee better but also his or her future course of action. Remember, when you can predict behavior, you are in a better position to control it.
Wrapping it up
The roles of HR are diverse, and performance appraisals can be tricky. HR people generally have to integrate various performance reports and make certain key decisions that may affect the overall functioning of the firm. From talent acquisition to talent management, the challenge is huge. With Darwinbox, you can now easily manage your employee database, get help with recruitment, manage payroll and attendance, and much more. Click [here] to simplify your needs and make your HR hassles go away.
Performance appraisal processes are no rocket science. They are simply a report card for your employees. They identify employee strengths and help them eliminate weaknesses. As mentioned in the tips above, you can make the best out of your appraisal process with better planning. Who knows? You may just find your new star employee.
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