Rationale for Performance Appraisals December 4, 2006
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Nobody seems to like performance appraisals—neither the managers doing the evaluating, nor the employees being evaluated. Clearly, evaluations are front-runners for being the most maligned of corporate processes. And yet they should be a good thing. After all, doesn’t everyone need—and deserve—to know where they stand? In theory, yes, but bring theory to ground and it’s quite a different story, often one with a sour aftertaste if not a bad ending.
We know there is something wrong with the performance evaluation-process, which is why we’re always trying to fix it—360-degree feedback and forced ranking are two of the more prominent recent fixes. But none of the fixes seems to satisfy everybody.
To start, I’ll fess up to an obvious fact: Most managers hate conducting performance reviews. If they thought they could get away with it, they’d probably skip the whole annoyance completely. In too many places, performance evaluations are sloppily done and not taken very seriously. A lot of supervisors would rather endure a root canal than write and deliver a performance review, particularly if there are some hard, cold truths that they can’t avoid discussing.
But in spite of all the problems and resistance, I‘m a solid believer in performance appraisal. I think performance appraisal is critically important for any organization that’s more sophisticated than a mom-and-pop store—or that wants to be.
As hard as performance appraisal may be—and done right, it is hard—I’m convinced that we do it because it’s an ethical obligation of leadership. Every person on the team wants the answers to two questions. First: What do you expect of me? Second: How am I doing at meeting your expectations? The performance-evaluation process answers those two questions. So why do we do performance appraisal? Because as leaders we have a moral obligation to do so.
And we also have an obligation to put the time into performance appraisal that it deserves. Goodness gracious! Managers don’t spend a tenth as many hours assessing and developing and appraising people as they spend in the restroom. But they’ve got the gall to whine about appraisal taking too much time. That’s nonsense.
About the Author
Dick Grote is one of America’s most successful and best-known authors, consultants, and business keynote speakers on performance management. He is the Chairman and CEO of Grote Consulting Corporation – http://www.groteconsulting.com
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Performance appraisal facilitates layoff or downsizing decisions November 20, 2006
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If promotions are what everybody—or almost everybody—wants, layoffs are what everyone wishes to avoid. But when economic realities force an organization to downsize, performance appraisal helps make sure that the most talented individuals are retained and that only the organization’s marginal performers are cut loose.
Without a solid and trustworthy performance appraisal system in place, real companies are going to be reduced to the level of government bureaucracies when the time comes to reduce headcount. They’ll avoid making tough decisions by using the last in/first out approach, rewarding seniority and tenure rather than talent and ability.
But aren’t talent and tenure correlated? Many times they are. But only a good performance appraisal system can tell you for sure.
About the Author
Dick Grote is one of America’s most successful and best-known authors, consultants, and speakers on performance management. He is the Chairman and CEO of Grote Consulting Corporation – http://www.groteconsulting.com
tags: Grote Consulting, Dick Grote, Performance Appraisal System
Performance appraisal helps decide who gets promoted (and who doesn’t) November 6, 2006
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At lunch today I happened to talk with a young man who’s making a couple extra bucks working in a Halloween store. 18 years old, he told me that he had never worked before and had no knowledge of the business world other than reading Dilbert cartoons. Then he asked me to explain exactly what it was that I did as a management consultant.
“How many people are there who work in your Halloween store?” I asked him.
“About 11 or 12.”
“Who’s the best worker—the one who does the best job?”
“Stanley.”
“Who’s the worst—the one you’d fire first if you had to let somebody go?”
“Elaine.”
“How do you know? What criteria do you use to evaluate them? Would everybody agree that Stanley’s the best? Does he know that people think he’s the best? And does Elaine know that she’s the worst? And what should be done to either shape her up or ship her out? That’s what I do—I help companies set up systems to answer the questions that I just asked you.”
These are the questions—Who’s the best? Who’s the worst?—that a performance appraisal system can answer. Almost everyone in an organization wants to get ahead—even in a Halloween store. How should the company decide who the brass rings will be awarded to? Performance appraisal makes it easier for the organization to make good decisions about making sure that the most important positions are filled by the most capable individuals. (And it also makes clear who should be appropriately overlooked when promotion opportunities pop up.)
About the Author
Dick Grote is one of America’s most successful and best-known authors, consultants, and speakers on performance management. He is the Chairman and CEO of Grote Consulting Corporation – http://www.groteconsulting.com
tags: Grote Consulting, Dick Grote, Management Consultant, employee promotion
Performance appraisal provides feedback October 26, 2006
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Why do companies go to the bother of setting up a performance appraisal system? The most common reason is to give employees feedback on how they’re doing. If a company has a performance appraisal process, then the individual learns exactly how well her boss feels she did during the previous twelve months. Whether she agrees or disagrees with the evaluation (and remember—a performance appraisal is a formal record of a supervisor’s opinion of the quality of an employee’s work) she can then use that information to improve her performance in the future. And there’s something else here, too.
Performance appraisal serves another vital purpose by putting pressure on the boss to clearly communicate his performance expectations. How can you hold someone accountable for doing a good job if you haven’t told them what it is that you expect them to do and how their performance will be evaluated?
About the Author
Dick Grote is one of America’s most successful and best-known authors, consultants, and speakers on performance management. He is the Chairman and CEO of Grote Consulting Corporation – http://www.groteconsulting.com
Is performance management all that important? October 9, 2006
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Is there any management process that is as mocked, as resented, as disparaged as performance appraisal? Scott Adams might have to retire his Dilbert cartoon if he didn’t have performance appraisal to lampoon.
And the way that performance appraisals are done in too many companies makes it easy for the scoffers to scoff and for Scott Adams to find a wealth of material to satirize.
But let me be blunt. Performance appraisal, mocked as it may be, is genuinely important. Lets look at all of the different organizational purposes a performance appraisal system serves. And then, in the entries to come, I’ll explore each one and why it’s important. Performance appraisal:
- Provides feedback to employees about their performance
- Helps determine who gets promoted
- Facilitates layoff or downsizing decisions
- Encourages performance improvement
- Motivates superior performance
- Helps set and measure goals
- Identifies poor performers for correction or termination
- Helps determine compensation changes
- Encourages coaching and mentoring
- Supports manpower planning or succession planning
- Determines individual training and development needs
- Determines organizational training and development needs
- Confirms that good hiring decisions are being made
- Provides legal defensibility for personnel decisions
- And finally, if it’s done right — improves overall organizational performance
About the Author
Dick Grote is one of America’s most successful and best-known authors, consultants, and speakers on performance management. He is the Chairman and CEO of Grote Consulting – http://www.groteconsulting.com
What is a Performance Appraisal? September 26, 2006
Posted by Admin in Performance Appraisal, Performance Management.add a comment
Probably the biggest misunderstanding about performance appraisal arises because people don’t understand what a performance appraisal actually is. Let’s make it clear: A performance appraisal is a formal record of a supervisor’s opinion about the quality of an employee’s work.
The operant word here is opinion. That’s what supervisors are hired to do — to render their opinions about how good a job each of their people is doing. Sure, that opinion needs to be objective. Sure, it needs to be backed up with facts and examples. But the company trusts the opinions of its supervisors—if they didn’t think you could render accurate opinions, they wouldn’t have given you the job. So if the employee doesn’t agree with your opinion of the quality of his work, tough. You’re the boss, and in the area of performance appraisal, it’s only your opinion that counts.
About the Author
Dick Grote is one of America’s most successful and best-known authors, consultants, and speakers on performance management. He is the Chairman and CEO of Grote Consulting Corporation – http://www.groteconsulting.com
