Performance appraisals

Performance appraisals

Abstract

Performance appraisal in the recent past has been a vital tool for measuring the performance of workers in companies. The employees are being evaluated by their performance appraisers, who are essential for making decisions based on the ratings created. This paper gives insights about performance appraisals in the context of its use, ethical issues, decisions about the performance, and the legal concerns in the assessments. These reviews are very paramount for the success of organizations’.  Most of the appraisals are carried out by the Supervisors or management on their staff. The being of the evaluations is to look at an employee’s growths and contributions. Also, it looks at an employee’s lack of skills and rewards those with outstanding qualifications.

In the current business environment, there is a rapid change that is occurring globally in the world market, and competition in business is high. Companies need to adapt to these changes to fit and evolve in the competitive market. To do this, organizations need to have a healthy level of performance, which is strongly dependent on its workforce. Performance appraisal plays a vital role in creating a strong team that can compete not only locally but also in the world market at large. Performance appraisals are programs developed by employers that are used in checking the performance and in the provision of feedback about the past, current, and future performance expectations of employees. These appraisals occur regularly and seek to know the contribution of an employee to a company. Regular conduction of examinations can take place annually, semi-annually, or quarterly depending on the company’s policy. Companies rely on performance appraisals to get answers related to work that leads to higher possibilities of success. Although performance appraisal use, ethics, decisions, and legal concerns have impacts on employees, it leads to the success of an organization.

The use of performance appraisals is in two forms. One is the administrative and developmental purposeless. The organizational aspects deal with hiring, payment adjustments, promotions, dismissals, and demotions. It also includes a choice of disciplinary actions for employees. The factors above are all interlinked when it comes to rewarding employees. Sometimes the part of the appraisal may fail, which means those employees with better performance may not receive their reward — these results in inadequacy in compensations. Many employees feel like developmental appraisal feedback should be separate from the pay rise. This feeling is because managers manipulate the ratings. Also, employees argue that the whole process of appraisal is a game meant to cone them. They have no trust in a document that is done manually. To improve on this and create trust, the managers have come up with software to perform the appraisals using electronics.

Developmental purposes are very vital after the primary source of information, which is the performance appraisal. After the evaluations, employees need to know certain things and act a way to improve. One knows about their progress through developmental feedback. Besides knowing their development, employees need to improve in these areas. Employees might not identify the areas to improve on, and it is the duty of the organization. Positive contribution to both the employees and the management can lead to the growth of the organization. Developmental appraisals also stress on the use of teams. Team members can provide essential feedback to their members. Team appraisals are best for developmental purposes if they are allowed to design their appraisal systems.

Companies use performance appraisals to evaluate, develop, recognize, and use the evaluations to gather employees’ feedback. Organizations are known to use performance appraisals in two different ways that are known to be conflicting. One of these uses is the provision of a measure of performance, which is considered while making payment. Another method is on the administration. Administrative decisions rely on making decisions about employees in an organization. The role of the administration is to create stress for both managers who do the appraisal and the employees. The emphasis is on the identification of training, planning the employees’ future and careers, as well as the development needs.

They set employees evaluation by supervisors on the goals and objectives. These appraisals are also useful in setting up expectations for the coming years. For those owners with small businesses, the assessments will need to identify the efforts of some employees and find ways to improve them. Supporting and giving encouragement to employees motivates them to perform well in the coming months. Looking at employee’s teamwork skills is another criterion used in evaluating employees in companies.  A proper evaluation that is effective is the one that is precise and direct. It implies that employees will not be overrated, their weaknesses will not be stressed, and the evaluation will be free of surprises.

Development is another use of appraisals that deals with filling gaps identified in the evaluation process. Take, for instance, where an employee experience difficulties in time management. The employers identify this gap and thorough evaluation process and can organize training on all its employees that experience problems in this area. Businesses use performance appraisal as a base in the development of career plans.  Institutions use evaluations to gain insights on how employees are completing their works and to know whether these performances need some events. Inefficient operations in an institution can make employees lag in doing their job. In this case, organizations need to perfect to enable their work to perform tasks correctly with little or no delays.

Companies recognize employees with outstanding performances through consistent ratings, and then they can be placed in mentoring programs by the management and receive a pay rise. Besides that, these excellent workers may also receive promotions in the hierarchy of the company or get transferred to other departments in which they need to transform. The performance appraisal does not only help in recognizing the best workers but also identifies those who have had a consistently poor performance. A written assessment can draw out these employees. The fate of those who perform poorly depended on the decision of the management. The management may decide to demote them to occupy a lower position or terminate them. Also, employees’ who perform poorly may be put through training to improve on their level of specialty or transferred to another department, which seems to suit them well.

These Appraisals use in gathering employees’ feedback. These collections occur where the management needs to improve the career of its workers or get any burning issues within the institution.  The administration uses performance appraisal to get feedback, which is vital for the betterment of the running of the institution. For example, institutional management may ask employees what additional changes they might need the company to make. The feedback received from employees helps the necessary departments, including the top management in planning for career development. This feedbacks are useful not only on planning for employees’ careers but also on their future opportunities.

Performance appraisal and ethics are two entities that Cannot exist separately in any institution. It is very vital for organizations’ to balance between the two for the success of the appraisal system. Consequently, for employee’s performance and development to be improved, there must be a link between ethics and trust within the institution. When an employee during their performance review is b treated with respect, it makes them behave ethically and feel good about themselves. I f the analysis is also conducted relatively; the employee’s implications are likely to be reliable. When employees have a feeling of being treated shabbily, they may behave in an unethical manner sending indirect signals to their co-workers. Such unethical behaviors may include-coming to work late, taking long breaks, and acting in an unfriendly manner towards each other in their field of work. Once a review occurs, it should be delivered to an employee in a positive way that will not hurt. A positive result of the news from appraisals delivered negatively hurts the employee. This delivery may lead to a drop in the performance of employees.

Minor acts in an organization such as respect co-workers irrespective of the ranks show that you value the other person. This small act of honor has a significant impact on the company’s growth. Managers should respect their juniors and staff should also in like manner respect their superiors. While conducting performance appraisals, managers should uphold high standards of fairness behaviors by superiors against their team can affect the staff’s perceptions. Unfairness translates to a loss of trust, which influences the employees to act unethically. Acting in an unethical manner leads to poor performance that, at last, results in the crumbling of the institution. In this case, performance appraisals and ethics should at all times be taken seriously by management for the positive growth of the company.

In the employment sector, a company may decide to form a performance management system to conduct performance appraisal. The company is required to have fundamental elements in its network to ensure that the performance appraisal is useful. The system is, however, controlled by legal rules to ensure its effectiveness. The purpose is one of the legal aspects that should is to concern. The purpose of the appraisal should justify the employee of salary increment and promotions. These should be a proper and fair manner. It implies that every employee should have their performances evaluated and the same rating applied on all. Also, the cost and criteria used in conducting training on supervisors and managers should be stated. The entire staff should understand the company’s evaluation process and how decisions lead to determine the employee who qualifies to undergo skills training.

When these factors are put in place, the issues about legal concerns are out of place. The same performance appraisal formats should have used on all employees, especially those who work in the same department. Performance should ensure consistency at all times, which is very important. Ensuring consistency is essential since it helps avoid being biased on employees while carrying out performance appraisals. The system should not evaluate them based on their gender or disabilities. Favoring the females during evaluation more than the males just because their gender suggests they are week brings injustice to the system. The performance appraisal should not be designed to favor one side that seems to be weaker than the other but should instead measure each individual based on the quality of their work. This fairness helps in avoiding complaints that may arise from dissatisfied employees.

Performance appraisals should not favor any side. Considering one side and neglecting, the other does not show fairness in the evaluation process. For example, while recognizing poor performance, those with higher performance should also be known and awarded accordingly. While the management is awarding the outstanding performers, it should occur at the same time. All those who performed well should be rewarded, and their rewards, promotions and salary increments should be proportional. This reward also applies to those who perform poorly. Their demotions and suspensions should even rhyme. Over-rating of employees is another legal aspect that should not be tolerated to considerations at all costs. Those employees who underperform should not receive ratings that are not proportional to their performances.

The appraiser should tell the affected staff the truth based on the report from performance appraisal. Results given to employees in a way that does not stir the worker to emotional outbursts will make things better in the future. This transparency helps avoid legal consequences in the future. Given the wrong ratings to a poor performer and decided to fire the same employee in the future due to poor performance may make the employee file a case in court. The fact is based on records by the appraisers. These records show that the employee was a good performer, although they were false results show discrimination.

Performance appraisals are carried out in processes before any decision occurs. These processes lead the appraisers to a valid conclusion based on the findings on the performance of each employee. These processes are discussed as follows. The standard-setting process is a process by which standards take place and used in comparing the performance of employees. These standards should be clear, well understood by every employee in the institution, and should have measurable terms. Once the rule takes place, it should be communicated to the staff as well as the appraisers. Communicating the standards to the supervisors will enable them to have a clear view of the criteria they will use in the assessment of the employee’s performance. Both the employees and the evaluators can give feedback, which in modification of the standards. Providing input to both parties creates awareness. It makes the entire exercise of evaluation easy and trusted since the employees are aware of the techniques to be used in evaluating them.

Measuring employee’s actual performance is another continuous process. The process is ongoing in that it has to be checked every day by the evaluators, and results kept for a final decision. This process calls for carefulness as any mistake made in one event can lead to the overall effect on the final result.  It is continuously monitored daily to avoid biasness, and in this case, it is likely to take a long period to be completed. Another process involved in decision making is a comparison process. It consists of comparing the employees with the desired performance mentioned in the performance appraisal. The evaluator looks at the performance of employee and compares it with what is on the assessment. The two sets of data are then analyzed to determine if the employees have accomplished the desired purpose of his work or not.

The comparison results tell the appraisers which side outweighs the other. After the comparison, feedback is given to employees. This step involve communicating with the staff listening to the evaluator. This feedback or discussions of the result focuses on problems and possible solutions to the issues. The consequences occur in a manner that does not affect the employee’s performance. The feedback is provided by appraisers who are managers. The managers must have a lot of carefulness in his speech as it can hurt the employee’s side.  The process also involves the solution to employee’s problems.

Lastly, after conducting all those processes and gathering enough information on each employee, the managers come up with a final decision. The decision from the managers are from what is on the performance appraisal, and it is free of bias. The evaluator is required by the management to conduct the process with a lot of clarity and precision. These decisions affect individuals but not a group. The choices may lead to employees being promoted, rewarded, demoted, and transferred or, in some cases, suspended. Those who receive rewards and promotions are the ones with good performances, while those whose contract is terminated are the ones who perform poorly.

Conversely, performance appraisal is a system that is designed by businesses in the current competitive world market to enable a company to thrive and survive in the market. However, many things are put into consideration for the appraisals to be effective. The use of the performance appraisals is considered since it gives guidelines to appraisers on how to carry out the evaluations. Ethnicity is another factor which shows that for the assessments to be valid, ethics and performance appraisals should have a mutual existence. In the system, there must be a step by step guidelines of how the process of evaluation should be conducted. These steps must follow one another from setting standards to the comparison of the performance before any decision is. Legal aspects also play a crucial role in the evaluation process. These are laws set in the performance appraisal that enable the management to avoid being on the wrong side of the law. These laws allow appraisers to prevent any action in the process of evaluation that might violet the rights of the employees. Performance is a perfect tool for businesses that wish to compete and succeed in the global market.

References

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Judge, T. A., & Ferris, G. R. (1993). The social context of performance evaluation decisions. Academy of management journal, 36(1), 80-105.