Performance Appraisal

What is an Employee and Performance Appraisal?

Performance appraisals are primarily used to improve the performance of an employee. They can also be used to justify an employee's compensation and promotion potential. An effective employee performance appraisal process improves performance, reduces dissatisfaction, identifies training opportunities and promotes a corporate culture. Appraisals are usually conducted using a performance appraisal form.

A poorly performed performance appraisal can lead to negative results, such as employee withdrawal, poor office policies and inadequate corporate culture.

This article covers the following points

1. Why most employee performance appraisals fail

2. How to conduct a performance review effectively

3. How to streamline performance assessment processes with software

Top 5 Reasons Why Employees Question Performance Appraisals

"One in four employees fear performance reviews more than anything else in their entire working lives," said Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen, authors of "Thanks for the feedback. Managers share this feeling.

Most managers, supervisors and HR practitioners still struggle to conduct useful performance reviews. In a survey aimed at employees, only 55% of respondents felt that performance reviews have a positive impact on their organization. Despite the negative feedback, in another study, only 30% of respondents indicated that their organization had made changes to its management system in recent years.

 

Here are some of the reasons why employees may consider an individual performance review to be ineffective:

 

1. No input from employees - Employees do not feel that their opinions and suggestions are valued, as their manager conducts most, if not all, of the discussions.


2. Does not evaluate actual performance - Evaluations often focus on an employee's characteristics, even if these do not necessarily harm their work, rather than on their real contribution and productivity.


3. Can be highly subjective - Results depend too much on the personal bias of your manager Factors such as the mood and personal preference of the manager influence the results of a supposedly objective assessment.


4. Managers are not prepared - Some employees have different shifts than their managers. This creates the feeling that their managers have not observed them sufficiently to be able to give an accurate assessment of their performance.


5. Too rarely - As most companies only conduct performance reviews once or twice a year and no catch-up activities take place in between, employees are not informed about their performance status until the actual review. This can lead to fears and defensive attitudes on the part of the employee.

 

Obtain to take these concerns of the employees into account, and it is essential to prepare a well-performed performance appraisal process.

 

5 Useful Tips for Conducting a Performance Review

Here are five tips to help a manager, supervisor or HR manager conduct an individual performance review:

1. Prepare - Make sure you are well prepared by then:


• Compare notes from the employee's previous appraisals - Compare with the more recent work to obtain the employee's overall status and progress.


• Review your newer works - Most employee appraisals are planned on an annual or semi-annual basis, which means that your more original practices and activities have not been reviewed. Review and compare an employee's recent work.


• Live Feedback - Provide positive and negative feedback on-site, rather than waiting for the scheduled assessment. This shows your employee that you are paying attention to his or her work, which encourages them to be more open and honest during the actual evaluation.


2. Make it talkative - Having a conversation instead of "lecturing" an employee during a performance review is important because employees are forced to be open and honest when they feel they are being listened. Involving the employee in the process promotes commitment and a better understanding of the purpose of the performance review.
 

3. Tailored action plans - Action plans must be tailored to the strengths, weaknesses, objectives and personal goals of each employee as a member of the organisation to be effective. A good action plan must be logical, feasible and directly linked to objectives.


4. Set practical and realistic goals - The goals should be aligned with the business, have a timeframe for completion and expected output. Employees will be more enthusiastic and work harder to achieve their individual goals if they understand how this affects the broader success of the business. When setting practical and realistic goals, factors such as the nature of the task, the employee's skills, the tools used, and the support offered through training and assistance from the manager should be considered.


5. Proper documentation - Proper documentation of what is discussed during a performance review is essential for practical and procedural purposes. A correct documentation allows you easy access to employee appraisals when you need them. It is also a common requirement that employees sign their performance reviews. Using a performance appraisal form can help streamline the performance appraisal process.

What is Lumiform, and How Can It Be Used for Performance Appraisals?

Lumiform is a powerful app for digital forms that helps you streamline your performance assessment process. Conduct performance reviews via phone or tablet, take notes and add real-time follow-ups. Create reports instantly on your mobile device and easily access them online. Free yourself from paperwork so you can focus on conducting useful performance reviews.

To help you get started, we've created these free forms that you can download, customize, and use right out of the box.

• Perform paperless performance reviews on your mobile device


• Create instant performance review reports for distribution to your staff and management


• Capture electronic signatures


• Use unlimited cloud-based storage for all your review reports.

Collection of Performance Review templates

Use Lumiform, the powerful mobile inspection application, to streamline performance assessment processes. Here are some of the most popular digital forms on the subject, which you can download and customize to suit your needs: