Chapter 17

Appraising Performance
You have to get ongoing constructive feedback to push you out of your comfort zone. Kevin Sharer, CEO, Amgen
McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning Objectives
1. Summarize the benefits of conducting performance appraisals. 2. Identify the steps in appraising performance systematically. 3. Discuss guidelines for avoiding discrimination in performance appraisals. 4. Compare types of appraisals.

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Learning Objectives
5. Describe sources of bias in appraising performance. 6. Explain the purpose of conducting performance appraisal interviews. 7. Tell how supervisors should prepare for a performance appraisal interview. 8. Describe guidelines for conducting the interview.

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Performance Appraisal
Performance appraisal
Formal feedback on how well an employee is performing his or her job

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Purposes of Performance Appraisal

To improve, employees need to know how they are doing. An appraisal can help motivate employees. Performance appraisals are part of the ongoing control process and provide important records for the organization.

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The Appraisal Process

Establish and communicate expectations for performance. Establish and communicate standards for measuring performance. Observe and measure individual performance against standards. Reinforce performance or provide remedies.
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The Appraisal Process

Establish and communicate expectations for performance.
List three to five major responsibilities of each position. Focus the appraisal on these responsibilities. Be sure employees know and understand what is expected of them. Employee are most likely to understand and be committed to objectives they helped develop.
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The Appraisal Process

Establish and communicate standards for measuring performance.
Each expectation should be measurable. A supervisors task includes deciding how to measure employees performance and then making sure employees know what will be measured.

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The Appraisal Process

Observe and measure individual performance against standards.
A supervisor should continuously gather information about each employees performance. When preparing a performance appraisal, a supervisor compares this information with the standards for the employee being appraised.

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The Appraisal Process

Reinforce performance or provide remedies.
Point out to employees where they have performed well. Asking an employee to help solve a problem is often more effective than the supervisor simply stating a remedy.

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Possible Causes for Poor Performance

Inadequate skills Lack of effort Shortcomings of the process External conditions Personal problems

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What to Measure in an Appraisal

Do not label people with certain characteristics. Focus on behavior and results. Base conclusions on observations about behavior and results.
Record at least one specific example for each category rated.

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Qualities of Effective Performance Appraisal Measures

Objective Job-related Based on behaviors Within employees control Related to specific tasks Communicated to employees

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EEOC Guidelines
The behaviors and characteristics measured by a performance appraisal should be related to the job and to succeeding on the job. Appraisals should be based on the employees success in carrying out the essential tasks of a particular job. An employee should know performance standards in advance.

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Performance Appraisals and Pay Reviews

Many organizations review an employees wage or salary level at the time of the performance appraisal.
Employees may focus on the issue of money, diminishing a supervisors motivating and coaching opportunities.

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Types of Appraisals
Graphic rating scales
Rates the degree to which an employee has achieved various characteristics Most commonly used

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Types of Appraisals
Paired-comparison approach
Measures the relative performance of employees in a group Appropriate to find one outstanding employee in a group Drawbacks: possible harm to morale and teamwork, and possible lawsuits

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Types of Appraisals
Forced-choice approach
Presents an appraiser with sets of statements describing employee behavior; the appraiser must choose which statement is most characteristic of the employee and which is least characteristic

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Types of Appraisals
Essay appraisal
Often used with other types of appraisals, such as graphic rating scales Drawback: depends on supervisors writing skills

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Types of Appraisals
Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS)
A performance appraisal in which an employee is rated on scales containing statements describing performance in several areas Advantages: can be tailored to organizations objectivesand less subjective

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Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale for Nurses

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Types of Appraisals
Checklist appraisal
Contains a series of questions about an employees performance Drawbacks: can be difficult to prepare and a supervisor has no way to adjust the answers for any special circumstances that affect performance

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Sample Checklist Appraisal

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Types of Appraisals
Critical-incident appraisal
Written record of incidents that show positive and negative ways an employee has acted

Work-standards approach
A supervisor compares employees actual performance with established standards

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Types of Appraisals
Management by Objectives (MBO)
A supervisor compares each employees accomplishments with the objectives for that employee

360-degree feedback
supervisors may combine their appraisals with selfassessments by the employee or appraisals by peers and customers. Appraisals of supervisors and other managers also may come from their subordinates
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Sources of Bias

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Sources of Bias
Harshness bias
Rating employees more severely than their performances merit Similarity bias
The tendency to judge others more positively when they are like yourself
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Leniency bias
Rating employees more favorably than their performances merit

Sources of Bias
Central tendency
The tendency to select employee ratings in the middle of a scale

Proximity bias
The tendency to assign similar scores to items that are near each other on a questionnaire

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The Performance Appraisal Interview

Purpose of the interview
communicate information about an employees performance.

Preparing for the interview

allow plenty of time for completing the appraisal form notify the employee about the appraisal interview ahead of time prepare an appropriate meeting place
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The Performance Appraisal Interview

Conducting the interview
Problem solving and coaching Signatures Follow-up

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The Process of Conducting a Performance Appraisal Interview

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