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Doctor,
What are the hallmarks of a good workplace appraisal system?
Signed,
The Appraiser
Dear
Appraiser:
Your question has been grist for year-long studies and reports. The reports often after many reviews and debates ended up in the wastebasket. Performance appraisal too often has been management's prerogative. And subordinates complain that they-don't-really-know-what-I-do.. Some advise that subordinates should keep a log of what they do right because their bosses will keep a record of what they do wrong.
My feeling is that 99% of performance appraisals should be ditched and instead work groups should appraise each other in the sense that if someone does not carry her/his load that they should recommend to management that this individual should be transferred or retrained. Individual performance appraisal that is linked to effort and achievement, which is the traditional criteria, tends to be divisive and all too often gives bonuses to those who are already overpaid and underpays those who work hard at lower levels.
The 360 degree appraisal, although more fair than for the manager alone to evaluate performance, is cumbersome and also too often like an inquisition if done rigorously. My advice for an organization is to scrap performance appraisals of individuals and rather appraise and reward exceptional performance based on accomplishments of work groups. This means a total overhaul of the divisive pay system in place in most work places.
This has happened in a few workplaces to the extent of only three or so levels of pay. In others the pay is connected to overall production which may mean increases or decreases.
If individual performance appraisal is necessary, I think it should be a matter of manager-managed review of goals and their accomplishment and of co-worker working relationships. Persons who provoke rather than co-operate should not be rewarded even if they are high performers. Today the basic unit of work should be the work group, the team, rather than the individual.
So please let me know your reaction to my suggestions.
WEGO is rigorous but should not create a climate of fear of performance appraisal.
--Bill Gorden, The Workplace Doctor
Dear Workplace Doctor:
Thank you for your prompt attention to my question,'what are the hallmarks of a good workplace appraisal system'? I appreciate that you don't have much time for individual appraisals, I think I agree with you. I've been a bit sneaky, I'm a social work student and that was a question I need to answer for an assignment! I hoped for some tips to make a start on. I am doing a unit called Organizational Administration in a Social Work Context.
It seems to me that there is always a climate of fear around appraisals, its as if they herald change, and we all hate change. Considering you prefer group appraisal, what would be a guideline for a good one? In this country it is hard to sack a poor worker, i.e., those who provoke. Appraisals may draw them into line but I don't believe appraisals should be held over workers' heads as a threat.
Thanks again for your input.
The Appraiser
Hello Again
Appraiser:
Sneaky is not a word to describe your deeper agenda underlying your original question. So with the greater detail to your need to know what to do, let me suggest that there are standards for individuals who do much of their work solo. These criteria should be a way of self-appraisal as well as appraisal by superiors and co-workers who are on the organizational team.
Fear should be dirven out, as I mentioned earlier, if the workplace is to center its engergies on delivery of excellent service. That's why I hesitate to talk about individual measures, especially productivity in terms of numbers. In your case the quality of service is a measure that is more difficult to assess. The quality of service hinges on the difficulty of assignment as well as the number of clients served by the individuals alone and by the social work unit.
Fear is a demotivator when superiors rate and rank subordinates. It is then that subordiantes hide mistakes and seek to please the boss more than seek quality improvement. So with this said again, are there individual measures? And how should they be taken?
Let's suppose that you pay for dance lessons. There are ways of measuring the quality of your instruction:
These questions, of course, illustrate the job-specific nature of a performance appraisal. They focus on the satisfaction of the client/customer. The feedback from clients/customers is a concern of the dance instructor and of the organization which employs its instructors.
Measures of satisfaction will tell if quality instruction is being delivered. The dance organization will not make money if it keeps intructors who don't know how to teach and/or lack the necessary skills and/or lack motivation. If the employees work as a team and review the feedback for ways of improving their customer instruction and widening clientele, they will confront the instructors who fail to deliver, and in some cases will dismiss them.
Please let me know what you learn in your search for performance appraisal. Do some informational interviews with social workers to learn what they think.
WEGO is not blind but seeks the best from each member of the workplace team.
--Bill Gorden