No surprises

Appraisals can end up as battlegrounds where employer and employee have very different expectations of the outcome. Tim Holden’s guide to effective, robust appraisals should help you avoid some of the more common pitfalls.

People have described them to me as the time when appraisees look forward to a possible promotion and pay rise whilst appraisers may not quite see the event the same way. Some appraisers feel it is a great opportunity to remind the appraisee of all the times they failed to deliver!

Managing expectations

I enjoyed reading Doug Crawford’s ‘Who’s afraid of performance management’. He raised some interesting points around the importance of trust – and the need for a conversation rather than a box-ticking exercise. Appraisals get a bad press because although they represent one-on-one time without interruptions, both the appraiser and the appraisee can feel somewhat short-changed by the experience. However a number of forward-thinking organisations have grasped the significance of effective appraisals during the recession, identifying their impact on retention and engagement during these troubled times.

Doug’s article also pinpointed the importance of managing expectations. As he says… ‘creating a high performance environment within an organisation is a journey that takes time – it doesn’t happen overnight or just because the performance management process is changed! So manage expectations and recognise that managers and staff will require support throughout the course of the journey – its not just about sending people on a training programme and then expecting everything to change as a result.’

Example of a robust appraisal system

We recently designed a bespoke appraisal system for a small engineering client, producing five example templates for a handful of appraisers and appraisees and taking on board their comments about what they liked and what they didn’t like. In the end we produced a simple document with a combination of free text boxes and tick boxes regarding ratings which met with their expectations for a robust system that would be neither time consuming nor complicated.

Do:

• Design an appraisal that fits the reasons for why the review is taking place, recognising that certain formats are better suited for certain jobs – typically a manager’s appraisal should be more comprehensive than a non-manager’s appraisal.
• Split the appraisal into one-third looking at the past and two-thirds looking forward, with an emphasis on impartiality, objectivity, consistency and positivity.
• Matching performance appraisals and personal development plans to SMART objectives tends to work best in my experience. Develop performance goals in an objective way so that fair and equitable comparisons can be made.
• Align the results of the performance appraisal with other anticipated personnel decisions. It sends mixed messages if managers give employees poor performance appraisals yet reward employees with a promotion or raise. During the recent round of redundancies this has caused problems: how to manage individuals out of an organisation when they have nothing but an exemplary appraisal record.
• Make the performance review process a partnership between the manager and employee. Both sides should participate in a two-way process of communication. We suggest that managers give employees a list of questions for discussion before the actual review and encourage feedback. The process should be designed to help the employee be successful, rather than simply create a path to the exit door.
• Train all appraisers and appraisees – prevent future problems by training individuals on conducting reviews shortly after they are promoted to managers and by refreshing that knowledge just before their first review process. There are courses available from two hours to two days…
• Follow up through diary notes regarding training courses, review of performance etc. It is useful to systematically record events throughout the year to avoid focusing solely on the last few weeks and months to the detriment of occurrences that took place shortly after the last appraisal.

Don’t:

• Cut corners by using an off-the-shelf system; rather develop an appraisal system that fits the culture, values and beliefs of your specific organisation. Interviews and an employer survey may be useful to design the process.
• Over-complicate matters or make the form longer than it needs to be. Brief and to the point works best.
• Try to do too many appraisals in one day, otherwise the people will blur: but do try to appraise a full team within a short period as it helps to set targets that are complementary and help strengthen the team as well as the individual.
• Seek to undertake an appraisal that will be a surprise to the employee. The employee should be able to anticipate what will happen in the meeting.
• Get obsessed by 360 degree appraisals. We talk most clients out of them because there are insufficient levels of trust and employee engagement. A succession of incremental steps are needed over time to create an environment where feedback from peers, customers and suppliers is valid and provided on a neutral basis without scoring points.
• Wait until the appraisal interview to mention areas that need improvement. It is important to address disciplinary or performance issues when they occur. That way, if the employee corrects the problem in the time before the review, the manager can recognise that as a positive element in the meeting. An appraisal interview is not the time to make personal attacks.
• Commit to promises that cannot be delivered: better to deliver a pleasant surprise in the future than a disappointment. Making promises, such as saying you’ll conduct annual reviews, but failing to keep them is one of the red flags in litigation.
• Railroad the system through, for it may be necessary to pause in order to get buy-in.
• Be blinded by personal attributes: it is important to focus specifically on performance in order to instill an all-important degree of objectivity.
• Have appraisals that are inconsistent within a department – it will create a feeling of ‘them and us’.
• Include pay discussions in the appraisal process, even though it may be tempting. When the two issues are discussed at the same time, appraisers will complete the documentation with the possible salary change in mind. It also doesn’t allow management a chance to step back and look for consistency in the judging of performance across a department or function. The final rating should drive the merit increase not vice versa.

Earlier in 2009 we produced a video role playing good and bad aspects of appraisals. Check it out via the link below: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWPVHZfjp0o

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