Performance Appraisal Management System (PA system)| Why it often leads to dissatisfaction among the good performers?

Performance Appraisal Management System (PA system)| Why it often leads to dissatisfaction among the good performers?

Changes or the dissatisfactions occurred post Performance Appraisal is not an easy task to handle but the tools that, I am going to discuss today is going to sharpen your management skills and evaluation. To do it, you should be willing to challenge yourself and address:

• Your willingness to give up comfortable, familiar, but ineffective ways of thinking and behaving about performance management.
• Your willingness to take the time to read about and practice new techniques for performance management.

Annual performance Appraisals have been criticized - as giving feedback too irregularly to be useful, and some critics claim performance reviews in general do more damage than good.

Do's and don'ts of Performance Appraisal Management System

Great managers always Excel at giving right feedback while doing appraisals, without hurting employee morale simultaneously keeping his image intact. It absolutely doesn’t matter whatever their style, whatever their tools of choice, they are all trying to do the same thing to just provide an effective feedback so that the employee has a chance to realize a little more about who he is, how he works, and the impression he lives on the world.

To-Do List

• Be prepared with self-appraisal papers submitted by the employees beforehand. Read it thoroughly and prepare your discussion points for the appraisal meeting so that you look absolutely on it.
• Give your employees enough confidence and reassure them by building on strengths
• While discussing performance be specific about both strengths and weaknesses
• Pull employees out by asking through inciting, open-minded questions. Then listen with warmth and sincere attention.Repeat or rephrase the employees’ statements to make sure you understand.
• Be attentive; retain the focus off the discussion on track at all the time during the conversion
• Talk about job results
• Close the review properly: recap, plan for improvement and changes, and write down the plans and agreements between you and the employee.

Not to-do list

• Avoid using negative words or too many negative criticisms
• Do not Convey a “you vs. me” or a condescending attitude.
• Do not give insincere or excessive praise
• Do not use generalities that cannot be backed up by specific examples.
•  Do not dominate the conversation; employee should talk for about 60% of the meeting time
• Avoid appearing hurriedly. Be sure to plan the time and avoid interruptions.

5 trademarks of effective Performance Appraisal Management System

Active employee participation: encourage the employee to describe issues and his or her feelings and concerns during the review period. ‘Appraisee’ should speak more than the ‘appraiser’

Positive attitude: Start with an optimistic tone that will make the employee want to participate. If hazardous performance issues are discussed be helpful and constructive in suggesting how to improve.

Mutual problem solving: you and the employee work together to find solutions

Mutual goal -setting: collaborate with the employee to set objectives for him or her to achieve in the next review period; aim for goals with measurable results.

Clear examples: Demonstrate or describe the behaviours and results that illustrate your ratings and assessments.

Photo by Snapwire from Pixels

Rating errors of Performance Appraisal Management System

Rating errors arise from techniques that mislead or blind supervisors as they undertake performance appraisals. Everyone who conducts appraisals must guard against these pitfalls, which distort objective reality- favourably or unfavourably. Errors made by raters are a main cause of problems in performance appraisal. There is no common or simple way to completely eliminate these errors, but making raters aware of them through training is helpful. These errors are generally based on the feelings and it has consequences at the time of appraisal

Here are nine of the more common rating errors:

• Centralizing (or central tendency)- Grouping everyone in the middle or average -performance- rating categories. It's a stress-free way adopted by the managers to avoid extreme rankings, either good or bad, but it's wrong.
• Favouritism- Overlooking the flaws or exaggerating the achievements of favoured employees, especially popular ones. 
• Grouping- Forgiving substandard performance or behaviour because it is widespread. (“Everyone does it.”)
• The Halo Effect - When a manager rates an employee high on all items because of one characteristic that he or she likes.
• The Horns effect- This is the opposite of the ‘halo effect’ and ‘horns effect’ occurs when a manager rates an employee low on all items because of one characteristic that he or she dislikes.
• Guilt by Association (or Contrast) - Rating someone based on the company (people relative to other people) he or she keeps rather than on his or her work.
• Holding a grudge - Be conscious of your personal feelings about an employee and put them firmly aside. Never make an employee pay for the past behaviour- it might land you in court.
• Raters Bias - Whether legally prohibited (race, national origin, sex, religion, age, veteran status, disability) or not (hair colour, weight, height, intelligence, grooming), bias is prejudice and has no place in assessing job performance. Guard against letting your personal attitudes intrude on the process.
• Shortening time (or Sampling) – When the rater evaluates the performance of an employee relying only on a small percentage of the amount of work done; don’t focus on only recent performance.
• The sunflower effect (or Leniency) - Rating everyone high, regardless of performance, to make you look good or give more compensation.

Keep Performance Appraisal Management System legal to prevent Lawsuit

Managing and evaluating employees inappropriately can quickly push a manager into legal trouble. Potential legal pitfalls surround every discussion about performance. Among their causes:

• Unclear Communication.
• Lack of concrete, specific goals.
• Improper or incomplete record-keeping.
• Inaccurate performance ratings.
• Failure to follow up on commitments.

Remember that what you write on a performance appraisal form could be tested in court. Protect your organization and yourself by making sure that you clearly communicate expectations of job performance and maintain accurate written records. Always base your evaluation on specific, job-related behaviours only.

How to improve or prevent probable Performance Appraisal Management System errors

Even though PA system can be biased, yet it can be improved or errors can be reduced through the following:

•  Training: By conducting proper training (how to conduct PA) of the reviewers /appraisers on potential bias or rating errors may reduce probable risk
•  Reviewing the reviewer: Trained managers or HR can review the Appraisals done by other managers of their subordinates.  
•  Subordinate Participation: allowing subordinates’ participation will increase trust for the entire PA system and can enhance job satisfaction & employee motivation. 

Remember that every performance appraisal that fails to motivate is a lost opportunity for both the manager and the employee. A poorly handled one will decrease productivity, lower morale, and be counterproductive.

The performance appraisal is the best management tool you have to improve the employee’s performance.

Photo by Tim Gouw from Pixels

Message for managers for effective Performance Appraisal Management System

Performance appraisals aren't in every case simple or fun, yet every performance discussion that fails to motivate (or worse) is a lost opportunity for both the manager and the employee. An ineffectively handled review will diminish efficiency and lower spirit; it can even be counterproductive to building great associations with your workers.

Whenever directed appropriately, performance appraisals can be constructive, productive, fortify the organization, and increase the value of you and your employees.

How to enhance the effectiveness of Performance Appraisal Management System (PA system)

To conclude, Leadership development coach Jack Zenger urges companies to find alternatives to annual performance reviews, and says that research supports the following:

• Frequent discussions with employees are better than annual reviews
• Talking about future goals is more productive than past performance, especially with clear targets, deadlines, and the participation of the employee
• Negative feedback can cause defensiveness and worsen productivity
• Positive feedback does little to improve productivity, though does improve the interpersonal relationship with the person giving the feedback
• Neither managers nor employees like performance reviews
• Higher-level employees receive performance reviews less frequently
• Annual reviews are often justified on the grounds they are needed for salary changes, but they are not actually necessary, and empirically they would make little difference for most employees

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