PERFORMANCE
APPRAISAL
PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
A performance appraisal, also referred to as a performance review,
performance evaluation, development discussion, or employee appraisal is a
method by which the job performance of an employee is documented and
evaluated.
Performance Appraisal is the systematic evaluation of the performance
of employees and to understand the abilities of a person for further
growth and development.
PROBLEMS OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
1.Bias
Managers commit mistakes while evaluating employees and their
performance. Biases and judgment errors of various kinds may spoil the
performance appraisal process. Bias here refers to inaccurate distortion of
a measurement.
2. Stereotyping.
This refers to classifying people into our own predefined categories.
This bias can come from the manager’s attitudes and opinions about race,
national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, hair color, weight, height,
intelligence, etc. This bias goes both ways – people the manager personally
likes will benefit and people he personally dislikes will be punished. This is
one of the most detrimental forms of review bias.
3. The Halo Effect
The Halo effect bias is roughly defined as when a manager forms a
generalized positive impression of an employee on the basis of one or two
things, qualities or features. The manager would then rate the employee high on
unrelated areas even where the employee’s performance was mediocre.This
apart from inflating an employee’s rating also keeps the employees from knowing
about their faults in other areas, which keeps them from growing, as well as
diminishing their value to the company.
4. Leniency, Central and Severity Tendencies
These three mistakes are all about distribution errors, meaning the overall
distribution of appraisals doesn’t match up to the classic bell curve. Some
appraisers are lenient and score everyone as above average, while others might
score everyone as average, while still others might tend to score everyone as
below average. More than likely, there should be a range of evaluations where
there are some standouts, some poor performers, and some average performers
as well. If all your appraisals are coming out the same, make sure you’re giving
the full range of performance measures adequate consideration.
5. Similarity Error
Birds of a feather do tend to flock together, which is the root of this
mistake. Some managers will automatically give higher scores to
employees that are more like themselves and lower scores to those who
are different. Keep in mind that you’re evaluating their performance and
results, not how much they are or are not like you. Objectivity and
respect for diversity are the ways to keep from making this appraisal
error.
6. The Recency Effect
Another common error is when appraisers focus in only on a short period
of time right before an appraisal takes place. If performance appraisals
happen once or twice a year at your organization, it’s important to remember
that you’re evaluating performance over the entire period, not just a small
part of it. Otherwise, you’re not being fair to someone who has done a great
job but only recently begun to falter, or vice versa. Avoiding this error entails
having a good process in place to capture performance information
throughout the period being reviewed.
7. Compare/Contrast Error
It’s also important to keep in mind that you’re not comparing or
contrasting employees against each other. You should be appraising each
individual’s performance against a set of standards and criteria. Contrast error
can bring down scores of good performers because if they are compared
against high performers, the contrast makes them seem less than average when
in fact they are good if they fulfill the specific criteria of what is good.
8. Attribution Error
This is a tricky one because it involves allowing your subjective opinion
on what might have caused certain behaviors or outcomes, and allowing
that to cloud your judgment. Never assume you understand why an
employee behaved a certain way, and don’t let that into your appraisal
process. Stick to the objective criteria that have been laid out and how the
employee’s performance compares to them.
THANK YOU!
