PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AT INFOJOBS S.A. 1

Performance Appraisal System at Infojobs S.A.

PA practices in a Spanish corporation. Infojobs case in practice.

Hristo B. Kolev1

AUBG2, EMBA3 program

1 Corresponding Author – contact: hbk127@aubg.bg 2 American University in Bulgaria 3 Executive Master of Business Administration

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AT INFOJOBS S.A. 2

Abstract

Purpose:

A case study to complete a through, thoughtful, and objective analysis of the

company’s performance appraisal system; identify strengths and areas that may need

improvement; and make recommendations based on the present conclusions and some

recommended readings in this area.

Methodology/approach:

The paper is based on a personal interviews (with Joan Pau Fisas, Manager of People

Development Department4 at Infojobs, and Irene Molins, employee in Infojobs), the

International Journal of Human and Social Science’s article “Performance Appraisal

System using Multifactorial Evaluation Model” by Yee, C. C. and Chen, Y. Y.; and

the California State University Business School work study “Designing Effective

Performance Appraisal Systems” by Boice, D.F. and Kleiner, B. H.

Findings:

The paper finds that Infojobs has a well-established and good working formal

Performance Apprisal System5. Both managers and employees are satisfied and

support the actual technique to evaluate their performance, they believe that PAS

helps them to:

• create a motivated and committed work-place environment

• and to translate organizational goals and objectives into personalized

employee specific objectives.

4 PDD abbreviation will be used further down in the present paper 5 PAS abbreviation will be used further down in the present paper

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AT INFOJOBS S.A. 3

However, the actual system needs some minor improvements/adjustments in

almost all performance appraisal areas: training; frequency of appraisal; maintaining

records; measuring system; and conduction process. Infojobs’ PDD managers are

aware of some of the mentioned flaws and are already taking actions.

Introduction

Henderson, R.I. (1984) in his work “Practical Guide to Performance Appraisal”

states that developing an appraisal system that accurately reflects employee

performance is a difficult task, and there are no generic or easily passed systems from

one company to another; their design and administration must be tailor-made to match

employee and organizational characteristics and qualities.

PAS could be defined as a communication system between employee and his

supervisor, the conclusions of which permits to identify areas of improvement,

training, development, etc. The lack of such communication system may be viewed

by the employee as approval of their current work habits and performance. Building a

well-working PAS begins with determining the organization’s goals and objectives,

clarifying job roles, job description and responsibilities. One of the most important

goals for this process is to make to employees understand how their personal job

performance contributes to the overall performance of the company.

Infojobs S.A.

Infojobs S.A. is a Spanish company established in 1998 in Barcelona. Its business

is to optimize selection and recruitment process for B2B clients through its online

platform. Infojobs is the bridge between the two parts of the market labor force –

Demand (unemployed or looking for new employment people) with Supply

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AT INFOJOBS S.A. 4

(companies that offer jobs). The service is free for the Demand and pay-per-offer for

the Supply. Since 2009 Infojobs is part of the Norwegian media conglomerate

Schibsted (94%), still, its initial investors - Spanish-based company Grupo Intercom

owns the rest of the shares (6%). The company has divisions in Spain, Italy, Portugal

and Brazil. Spanish division is of about 200 people with headquarters in Barcelona,

and branch offices in other 8 major Spanish cities.

Infojobs’ Performance Appraisal System

Infojobs calls its PAS - EPD (Evolución Por Desempeño). The system was

designed and introduced in 2004 by the company’s PDD. EPD system is applied to all

employees in the organization, and meets all crucial recommendations for a complete

PAS given by Boice, D. F. and Kleiner, B. H. in their work “Designing Effective

Performance Appraisal Systems”:

Figure 1

Source: Hristo Kolev, interpretation of Boice, D.F. and Kleiner, B. H. article “Designing Effective

Performance Appraisal Systems”

PerformanceAppraisalSystem

Organizationalandemployeeobjectives

Training

Frequencyofappraisal

Maintainingrecords

Mesurementsystem

Conductingtheappraisalsystem

Payforperformance

Legalissues

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AT INFOJOBS S.A. 5

Organizational and Employee Objectives: An appraisal process pretends first to

determine the organization’s objectives, next steps are to clarify job role, job

description and responsibilities, determining how the role and responsibilities

contribute to wider goals, determining: why individual and team performance is

important; and what is expected within the current planning period. The most

important point of the process is to ensure that the employee understands how his/her

job performance contributes to the overall performance of the company. Further in this

paper we will see how Infojobs measures the acceptance of its core values (PAS form

applied to all employees) and how goals are clearly transmitted to sales agents (RAC

form).

Training: Infojobs trains both parties of the process (managers and employees).

Mangers are provided with a specific approach and rating criteria and employees are

trained how to set objectives and give accurate feedback. However in this respect the

company needs to improve its system by:

• Perform periodic refreshing courses. The last training course for manager in

evaluating criteria was 2 years ago, thus many of the new managers in the

company have never performed it.

• Raters (in the case of Infojobs-the managers) should be evaluated on how

they conduct performance appraisals in order to make sure that the criteria

are consistent throughout all the organization.

Frequency of Appraisal: PAS is conducted in the organization on a yearly bases.

This is another flaw in the Inforjobs’ system, because makes it difficult to monitor the

Action Plan improvements (please consult point 4 of the PAS system further down).

Infojobs’ managers are aware of this problem, and have already decided to perform

PAS on quarterly bases, starting from Q1 in 2013.

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AT INFOJOBS S.A. 6

Maintaining Records: Infojobs starts each PAS with the conclusion (results) of the

previous year evaluation. Crane, J.G. (1991) in his work “Getting the performance you

want” states that carefully maintained data establish patterns in an employee’s

behavior that may be difficult to spot by typical incident-by-incident supervision. If

Infojobs wants to go further in this respect, they should let employees be themselves

responsible for part of the process of record-keeping: this would help reinforce the fact

that a major part of the process is devoted to employee development and employees

themselves are responsible for their own development.

Measurement System: Infojobs’ system is based on 3 different techniques –

managers’ subjective opinion (criteria-based) about an employee; employee’s

feedback on managers’ opinion; and rating scales (details further down in Infojobs’

PAS (EPD) System). As outlined in the Yee, C. C. and Chen, Y.Y. (2010) article

“Performance Appraisal System using Multifactorial Evaluation Model”, it is

essential to understand that different organizations might use different techniques in

assessing staff performance. Infojobs uses other techniques like 360º, 180º and RAQ

(Results Activity Quality – Appendix 1), but they are not directly linked directly to the

PAS. The company should integrate all those techniques to the PAS in future.

Conducting the Appraisal System: In this respect Infojobs should improve in

some respects. In the actual system employees are evaluated only by their direct

managers, while analyst consider that in flat organizations (like Infojobs) multiple

rater systems should be used, where the input of all supervisors is required to complete

a thorough performance review. Another improvement in this respects comes from

Goff, S.J. and Longenecher, C.O. (1990) article “Why Performance Appraisals Still

Fail”, they suggest that employee should be encouraged to self-appraisal, this helps

the employee to be less defensive and passive in the appraisal review. The self-

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AT INFOJOBS S.A. 7

employee appraisal problem is solved with the 180º and 360º, however these still need

to be integrated in the company’s PAS.

Pay for Performance: Only the sales agents in the company have part of their

payrolls linked to their performance and it is out of PAS. In Infojobs Pay for

Performance is measured by the RAQ form (Appendix 1) and is not integrated in the

PAS. This is exactly what Boice, D.F. and Kleiner, B.H. recommend in their work

“Designing Effective Performance Appraisal Systems” – stating that the link between

payment and performance is often unsatisfactorily established and even less often

maintained to the satisfaction of employees and supervisor/organization.

Legal Issues: theory says that there is a legal reason for the PAS, meaning that, for

example, failure to conduct appraisal “properly” may result in employees taking legal

actions. However in Spanish (thus Infojobs) environment this is not that straight

forward.

Infojobs’ PAS (EPD) System in details

Infojobs PAS evaluation is conducted once a year, using a 5 stages form (original

form is available in Appendix 2). The main aspects of the form are as follows:

1. Previous Period

o Evaluation results from previous period: keeping records ensures the

effectiveness of the system. Well-maintained records are essential if

the need arises to discipline, demote or dismiss an employee.

o Employee comments: gives feedback of the employee, this section is

the proof that the employee understands and accepts the PAS results,

and its further action plan.

2. Infojobs’ Values (present period)

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AT INFOJOBS S.A. 8

o The company has 7 core values6 and the employee is ranked in an

even scale of 4 possible ranks - low; middle; high; and excellent: this

scale is a solution to the “average rating problem”, forcing the

managers to rate employees on one side of the central point.

o Employee comments: proves that the employee is aware of the

possible gaps between corporate values and his/her performance.

3. Competencies (present period)

o Strengths and Improvement area: From one hand the manager points

out the strengths of the employee and from other hand suggests

which competencies the employee should improve for the next year.

o Employee comments: proves that the employee is aware of which

areas his manager expects him/her to improve in future.

4. Action Plan

o Schedules a list of actions in order to develop needed competencies

(detected in point 3).

o Employee comments: proves that the employee accepts and is

engaged to the action plan.

5. Professional Career

o Employee expectation regarding his career in the organization

o Manager’s opinion

o Recommendations

6 Sincerity, Generosity, Humility, Effort, Ambition, Common Sense, and Joy

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AT INFOJOBS S.A. 9

Once these 5 stages are completed, PDD staff elaborates a quadrant, which is the

final result of the PAS, where Y-axis represents the Nº of areas to improve (or Alerts)

and the X-axis represents the performance level (low if it is “–“ and high if it is “+”).

Figure 2

Source: Hristo Kolev, based on interview with Joan Pau Fisas and Irene Molins (PDD at Infojobs)

The company’s objective is to have 100% of its employees in the Quadrant 4 (Q4).

The worst situation is when an employee is in Q2, meaning that employees in thiat

quadrant have a lot of areas to improve (Alerts) and low performance at the same time.

These employees are put under closer monitoring during next year, and must change

their performance, and reduce their areas of improvement, if not are dismissed. Actual

employee distribution is Q1= 2%; Q2= 5%; Q3= 7%; and Q4= 86%.

Conclusions

For Infojobs people development is a core company value. Top management

believes that in times of global competition we are living at, people in organizations

are resource of competitive advantages, and the company can not afford unmotivated

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AT INFOJOBS S.A. 10

and uncommitted. This is why PDD of the company has direct representation in the

Board of Directors (PDD manager Joan Pau Fisas is a board member). According to

the results of the Granfield-ESADE, (2000) research “Gestión Estratégica de

Recursos Humanos¨, less that 15% of HR managers participate in the board of

directors in Spanish organizations. This fact provides a linkage between employee

performance and organizational goals, making the PAS completely effective.

Other proof of the effective Performance Appraisal System in Infojobs is the award

“Best Place to Work” in Spain for 2011.

PAS is a dynamic process and needs to be improved with the pass of the time.

Infojobs’ PAS has some minor flaws in terms of training; frequency of appraisal;

maintaining records; measuring system; and conduction process, that need to be

addressed in the short turn. However, I believe that company’s managers will be able

to correct those flaws in the near future and Infojobs will be again in top positions of

the Best Place to Work in Spain’s rankings.

References:

Fisas Suriol, J.P. (24.10.2012) Infojobs PDD Manager interview

Molins, I. (25.10.2012) Ifojobs PDD employee interview

Boice, D.F. and Kleiner, B.H. (1997) “Designing Effective Performance Appraisal

Systems”

Henderson, R.I. (1984) “Practical Guide to Performance Appraisal”

Crane, J.G. (1991) “Getting the performance you want”

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AT INFOJOBS S.A. 11

Yee, C.C. and Chen, Y.Y. (2010) “Performance Appraisal System Using

Multifactorial Evaluation Model”

Granfield-ESADE (2000) research “Gestión Estratégica de Recursos Humanos

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AT INFOJOBS S.A. 12

Appendix 1

NOMBRE: [Escribe aqui] MES: [Escribe aqui]

Mercado Objetivo: Resultado: Logro:

GE #DIV/0!

Objetivo: Resultado: Logro:

0 0 #DIV/0!

SITUACIONES RELEVANTES

Mercado (GE) Empresa A Destacar (ko, anticipo, retraso, …)

Observaciones del comercial: (a cumplimentar previamente por el comercial)

Mercado Objetivo: Previsión: Logro:

GE #DIV/0!

Objetivo: Previsión: Logro:

0 0 #DIV/0!

SITUACIONES RELEVANTES

Mercado (GE) Empresa A Destacar (ko, anticipo, retraso, …)

Observaciones del comercial: (a cumplimentar previamente por el comercial)

SEGUIMIENTO CUALITATIVO

Cualitativo definido para el Qx (Definido previamente por el manager)

Estado actual (Definido previamente por el manager)

Objetivo Deadline

!!!

RESUMEN DEL MES ANTERIOR

RAC DE INFOJOBSMANAGER: [Escribe aqui]

Parte 1: CIFRAS CLAVE

!"#$%&'"()*(

VENTAS: (a cumplimentar previamente por el comercial)

ACTIVIDAD: (a cumplimentar previamente por el comercial)

(a cumplimentar previamente por el comercial, casos a destacar). KO's, anticipos,

retrasos, casos relevantes, …

[Escribe aqui]

!"#$%+',%-

VENTAS: (a cumplimentar previamente por el comercial)

ACTIVIDAD: (a cumplimentar previamente por el comercial)

(a cumplimentar previamente por el comercial, casos a destacar). KO's, anticipos,

retrasos, casos relevantes, …

[Escribe aqui]

¿Qué he hecho bien? (a cumplimentar previamente por el comercial)

[Escribe aqui]

¿Qué voy debo cambiar o mejorar para el siguiente? (a cumplimentar previamente por el comercial)

[Escribe aqui]

Parte 2: SATISFACCION

#%')#.%++)/

&

[Escribe aqui]

[Escribe aqui]

Nivel de satisf. del comercial: (a cumplimentar previamente por el comercial)

[Escribe Aqui]

Parte 3: COMPROMISOS

+*!0(*!

)#*#

Seguimiento COMPROMISOS mes anterior (a cumplimentar previamente por el comercial)

[Escribe aqui]

Compromisos para el mes próximo (durante la reunión)

Descripción Tarea

"#$%&'(')*%+,-%./%0*-*1.2%+/'.-).%3

1%-*(%

+)/&$

!%&%2"

[Escribe aqui]

Parte 4: VALORACIÓN FINAL MANAGER (ventas, actividad,

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL SYSTEM AT INFOJOBS S.A. 13

Appendix 2

E P D Indicaciones: Cuando escribáis en los recuadros cambiará el formato del documento, no os

preocupéis, intentar adaptarlo según este modelo una vez este cumplimentado.

A rellenar por el evaluado

Nombre: Periodo evaluado:

Posición Actual: Fecha evaluación:

Evaluador:

Evaluación periodo anterior:

Comentarios del evaluado:

Valores Infojobs: (demostrados en el periodo)

Bajo Medio Alto Sobresale

Sinceridad

Generosidad

Humildad

Esfuerzo

Ambición

Sentido Común

Alegría

Comentarios del evaluado:

Competencias: (demostradas en el periodo)

Fortalezas A desarrollar (en el próximo año)

-

-

-

-

Comentarios del evaluado:

Acciones de mejora: (a desarrollar en el próximo año)

Competencia Acción Fechas Responsable

1.

2.

3.

4.

Futuro profesional:

Expectativas del evaluado:

Opinión Manager:

Recomendaciones: