Appraisals – Love ‘em or Loathe ‘em?

Why do we have appraisals?  Are they just a periodic chore that everyone dreads?  Well, generally the rationale for holding these regular sessions boils down to

• keeping track of how a person is performing
• progressing their career
• checking on how they are fulfilling the role they play within their project or the wider business
• looking at what training and development they might need. 

But it is easy to see why there is a general feeling of gloom in the lead up to appraisals if the scenario in your organisation is as follows…

HR sends a mail message, reminding managers they have X weeks to submit the annual reviews or appraisals for those in their charge. They spend a lot of time locating and distributing to Managers any filed paper copies of the previous review round appraisals – if they still exist.

The Managers, dealing with the pressures of delivering their day to day workload, leave the appraisals until the last minute and then, after reminder  Number 3 from HR,  they rush to quickly create a set of paper based appraisals for their direct reports. They burn the midnight oil and tear their hair out, wishing they had spent  more time noting down the high-spots and low-points for each of their charges over the last year. They grumble at the fact they have to start from scratch on these documents every time.

The Individuals meet with their managers and discuss the appraisals.  They may simply read the document and agree it.  Meeting over and done in 5 minutes.  Or they may feel a) disgruntlement when “the manager can’t remember all the good things I did  last winter” b) suspicious or resistant….  “Whatever I say, just gets changed to what the manager wants”. c) neutral…. “After all, what is the point to appraisals? Nothing really comes out of them.”

Meanwhile, HR are going frantic because pay review is imminent and the appraisal process is still dragging on.  Then, there’s all the arguments about leveling and benchmarking for pay awards across the company to contend with.

And the MD is wondering why productivity has taken a nose dive during the review period – again!

At the end of it all, the paper appraisals – or at least some of them – are  signed off,  filed and forgotten until next year…. when the whole process starts afresh.

So, how do you stop this important process becoming something that everyone merely pays lip service to – a burdonsome chore ? How do you ensure that the valuable time spent by everyone involved in the process is put to the best usage and will benefit

• the Individual
• the Team they work in
• the Managers who perform or have input to the appraisals
• the HR department
• the MD – and, yes, even the business as a whole

The answer is Joined-Up Performance Management. Read on to find out more about the concept.

Or, if the above scenario seems awfully familiar, and you’re convinced  it’s time to make some changes then give us a CALL.