Evaluating Employee

Performance

10 steps of Performance

Appraisal:

- Determine purpose of appraisal- Identify environmental and cultural limitations- Determine who will evaluate performance- Select the best appraisal methods to accomplish goals- Train raters- Observe and document performance- Evaluate performance- Communicate appraisal results to employee- Make personnel decisions- Monitor the legality and fairness of the appraisal process

Common uses for performance appraisal:- Providing employee feedback and training

- Determining salary increases

- Making promotion decisions

- Making termination decisions

- Conducting personnel research

Determine the Reason for Evaluating Employee Performance

Identify Environmental and Cultural Limitations

- Identify the environmental and cultural factors that could affect the system.

Determine Who Will Evaluate Performance

360-DEGREE FEEDBACK

MULTIPLE-SOURCE

FEEDBACK

Sources of relevant information:

- supervisors

- peers

- subordinates

- customers

- self-appraisal

- A performance appraisal system in which feedback is obtained from multiple sources such as supervisors, subordinates and peers.

- A performance appraisal strategy in which an employee receives feedback from sources (e.g., clients, subordinates, peers) other that just his/her supervisors.

- will observe the employee’s end result

- often see the actual behavior of the employee

- known as upward feedback

- files complaints or compliments to the manager regarding his or her employee

- technique employed by small organizations

Select the Best Appraisal Methods to Accomplish Your Goals

Two important decisions must be made:

- The focus of the appraisal dimensions

- To use rankings or ratings.

- which can focus on traits, competencies, task types or goals.

- involves the use of objective measures such as attendance and number of units sold, or having supervisors rate how well the employee has performed on each of the dimensions

Trait-focused system

- concentrates on such employee attributes as dependability, honesty, and courtesy. Though commonly used, this dimension is not a good idea because they provide poor feedback and thus will not result in employee development and growth.

Compentency - Focused Performance Dimension

- It concentrates on the employee’s knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Tasked–Focused Performance System

- It is a dimension that refers to an organized similarity of tasks that are performed. The advantage of this approach is that it is easier to visualize employee’s performance.

Goal-Focused Performance

- It aims to organize the appraisal on the basis of goals to be accomplished by the employee. The advantage of this approach is

that it makes it easier for an employee to understand why certain behaviors are expected.

Contextual Performance

- It refers to the effort that an employee exerts to get along with peers, improve the organization, and performance tasks that are needed but necessarily an official part of the employee’s job description.

Weighting Dimensions

- It makes good philosophical sense, as some dimensions might

be important to an organizations that others.

Employee Comparisons, Objective Measures, or Ratings

- evaluate performance by comparing employees with one another (ranking), using objective measures such as attendance and number of units sold.

Employee Comparisons

- Rank Orders

- Paired Comparisons

- Forced Distribution

- In this approach, employees are ranked in order by their judged performance for each relevant dimension. It is convenient when there are only few employees.

- It involves comparing each possible pair of employees and choosing which one of each pair is the better employee.

- It is referred as “rank and yank.” This method refers to the predetermined percentage of employees placed in each category. To use this method, one must assume that employee performance is normally distributed.

Objective Measures

- Quantity of Work

- Quality of Work

- Attendance

- is obtained by counting the number of relevant job behaviors

that take place.

- Is usually measured in terms of errors, which are defined as deviations from standard.

- Can be separated into 3 distinct criteria: absenteeism, tardiness, and tenure.

- Safety

- Employees who follow safety rules and who have no occupational accidents do not cost an organization as much money as those who break the rules.

Ratings of Performance

- Graphic Rating Scale

- Behavioral Checklist

- This scale is fairly simple, with 5 to 10 dimensions accompanied by words such as excellent and poor anchoring.

- It is used to forced supervisors to

concentrate on the fall supervisors that fall under dimension. It is constructed by taking the task statements from a

detailed job description.

Train Raters

The effectiveness of training also is a function of training format.

The better that employees understand the performance appraisal system, the greater is their satisfaction with the system.

Frame-of-reference tra

ining

- is to communicate the organization’s definition of effective performance and to then get raters to consider only relevant employee behaviors when making performance evaluation.

Observe and Document Performance

Importance of Documentation:- It forces a supervisor to focus on employee behaviors rather

than traits. - It helps supervisors recall behaviors

when they are evaluating performance.

- It provides examples to use when reviewing performance

ratings with employees.- It helps an organization defend against legal actions taken

against it by an employee who was terminated or denied a

raise.

Evaluate Performance

Obtaining and Reviewing Objective Data

Reading Critical-Incident Logs

Completing the Rating Form

Reminders: Supervisor must be careful not to make the common rating errors.

COMMON RATING ERRORS: - Distribution Errors - Halo Errors - Proximity Errors - Contrast Errors

- These are made when rater uses only one part of a rating scale (Leniency Error, Central Tendency Error, and Strictness Error).

- These occurs when rater allows either a single attribute or an overall impression of an individual to affect the ratings that she makes on each relevant job dimension.

- These occurs when a rating made on one dimension affects the rating made on the dimension that immediately follows it on the rating scale.

- The performance rating one person receives can be influenced by the performance of a previously evaluated person.

LOW RELIABILITY ACROSS RATERS

- First, rater often commit the rating errors previously discussed. - Second, raters often have very different standards and ideas about the ideal employee.

- Third, two different raters may actually see very different behaviors by the same employee.

Communicate Appraisal Results to Employees

In most organizations, supervisor spends a few minutes with employees every 6 months to tell them about the scores they received during the recent period.

Research suggests that certain techniques can be used to make the performance appraisal interview more effective: time; scheduling; and preparation.

Terminate Employees

Employment-at-Will Doctrine- because employees are free to quit their jobs at will, so too are the organizations free to terminate an employee at will.

In situations not covered by employment-at-will, there are only four reasons that an employee can be legally terminated: probationary period; violation of company rules; inability to perform; and economically caused reduction in force.

PROBATIONARY PERIOD- In many jobs, employees are given a probationary period in which to prove that they can perform well.

VIOLATION OF COMPANY RULES1) A rule against a particular behavior must actually exist.

2) A company must prove that the employee knew the rule.

3) The ability of the employer to prove that an employee actually violated the rule.4) Considered by the court, the extent to which the rule has been equally enforced.5)The extent in which the punishment fits the crime.

INABILITY TO PERFORM- Employees can also be terminated for an inability to perform the job.

REDUCTION IN FORCE - Also known as layoffs. Employees can be terminated if it is in the best economic interests of the organization to do so.

Monitor the Legality and Fairness of the Appraisal System

Performance ratings should be analyzed each rating period to determine if there are gender, race/ethnicity, or age differences.

end of the report…