Leadership Skills
How to Conduct a Performance Appraisal
By Brian Ward
Feb 12, 2007 - 1:48:50 PM

Conducting an employee performance appraisal is one of the foundational skills for managing effectively, yet only a small percentage of managers get it right. Here are seven tips for conducting an effective appraisal.

In implementing these tips, keep in mind that the purpose of a performance appraisal is to build the confidence of the person being appraised. The appraisee, and appraiser, should come away from the interaction feeling buoyed by the experience.

TIP # 1: Make appraisal an ongoing process. At least once a month, have an informal 'chat' with the employee. Here you want to know what's going well, what needs improvement, and how they feel about their job.

TIP #2: Make appraisal a two-way conversation. Here, you want to achieve a balance between you telling the employee how you feel, and the employee telling you how they feel. Make sure there is equal time spent on each party talking and listening.

TIP #3: Cover the organizations key expectations. Explain, and keep explaining, your organization and dept/work unit long term and medium term goals, values and vision. Keep the conversation focused on the organizations medium to long term goals.

TIP #4: Explore each employee's key work expectations. Research has shown that these work expectations cover a lot of territory, such as compensation and benefits, autonomy, teamwork, diversity, recognition, structure, environment, expression, stability, work/life balance, and career growth. These vary from employee to employee, so tailor the converasation to suit each individual.

TIP #5: Use goal setting at the beginning of the year and appraisals at the end of the year as 'bookends': By bookends I mean keep the substance in the middle, using the ongoing dialogue throughout the year as a way to generate lively discussion and improvement. Document it all at the end of the year from notes you both take throughout the year.

TIP #6: Build on strengths. There is enough evidence available now for us to be able to predict that success is built on strengths and not weaknesses. Focus on strengths, shore up weaknesses, and build collaboration within your team. One persons weakness is anothers strength...leverage it.

TIP #7: Make the Process Rewarding. A process that rejuvenates people will always be welcome. Apart from the usual rewards of compensation, focus on the other work expectations that are important to each individual, and provide suitable rewards.

Performance appraisal can be a positive process for everyone if you work on it year round in small bite size chunks.



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