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Conducting Effective Appraisal Meetings
Section I Welcome 1
Section II Getting Started 4
Section III Getting Down to Business 8
Section IV Appendix 17
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Conducting Effective and Comfortable Appraisal Meetings
Appraisals are a way of life for organizations such as the
University of South Dakota. They can be very beneficial because
they tie individual job performance to USDs overall goals. They
also provide USD with useful data by identifying talented
employees who are important to the Universitys future as well as
identifying developmental needs where productivity can be
improved. In addition, performance appraisals convey the message
that employees are accountable for their performance. And finally,
they provide a vehicle for rewarding good performance with pay.
Yet despite these benefits, if youre like many managers, you may
not eagerly anticipate giving your employees appraisal interviews.
In fact, you may be tempted to delay the interview or even avoid it
altogether. Here are just a few of the reasons why:
Appraisals involve confrontation because it requires facingconflict and dealing with disagreement.
Appraisals require an investment in time to plan and conductthem.
Appraisals often lack a systematic format which ensures thatall pertinent issues are covered so that conclusions can be
accurately drawn.
Appraisals are often viewed as futile because its your wordagainst your employees.
In the first Performance Management training module, you learned
how to plan for strong performance by developing performance
goals with your employees. During the second module, you
learned how to provide ongoing informal feedback about the
performance goals throughout the performance cycle. And in thethird training session, you learned how to rate employees fairly
based on how well they performed each goal. In this final training
session, you will learn how to conduct the appraisal meeting with
your employees and discuss your ratings with them. You will gain
the practical skills you need to make the appraisal meeting easier
and more comfortable all the way around.
TRAINING GOALS
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SPECIFICALLY, YOULL LEARN HOW TO:
Structure the meeting so that both positive and negativeinformation regarding performance is sufficiently addressed.
Ensure the employee actively participates in the appraisal meeting.
Develop your employee by planning future performance and areasfor growth.
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Closing the Loop and Charting the Course
The appraisal meeting closes the loop on the employees past
performance and charts a new course for the coming year. There
are two main purposes of the appraisal interview, and those two
purposes often conflict with each other.
The first purpose is to develop employees and give feedbackabout their performance so they can continue to improve in
their work.
The second is to evaluate employees performance so they canreceive a merit increase that reflects their levels of
performance.
The problem is that when you evaluate an employee, it makes him
or her defensive, which in turn may make it more difficult to enter
into a discussion of his or her weaknesses and areas for
improvement. For this reason, it is difficult to make the most of the
appraisal meeting as both a developmental and an evaluation tool.
Merit increases for your employees are based on performance
appraisal scores. This means that employees will naturally want to
emphasize their strengths and will be anxious about their raises. Itwill be your challenge as a manager to conduct developmental
interviews while being sensitive to your employees concern about
the ultimate consequences of the appraisals - their raises.
PastPerformance
FuturePerformance
Purpose of the Appraisal Meeting
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In a developmental appraisal, your goal is to provide both feedback
and ideas to employees -- feedback about what they have done
over the last year and ideas about ways they might improve ormaintain their performance. This includes identifying training
needs as well as other kinds of developmental needs, such as
having an employee work with different kinds of people at the
University or on a variety of projects.
Even though your appraisal will be developmental, it still serves
the purpose of evaluating the employee for a merit increase. It is
difficult for a manager to act as a judge and then, minutes later,
turn into a coach and counselor. From the employees perspective,
Develop employees
Evaluate employees performance
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it is difficult to hear your ideas about development while worrying
about being evaluated.
Naturally, the appraisal meeting should not be the only opportunity
to provide performance feedback to employees. Employees should
receive feedback throughout the performance cycle. On the day of
the performance appraisal, they should not receive any surprises.
Employees should come to the appraisal meeting knowing pretty
well what you think of their work. The conversation should
reinforce and reflect previous coaching sessions. If you have
coached your employees throughout the performance cycle, both
you and they will feel more comfortable with the meeting process.
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Each time you conduct an appraisal meeting with an employee,
youll follow a specific sequence of events.
Adequate Planning And Preparation 1Without preparation by both supervisor and
employees, the full advantages of the meeting are
not realized. You must be prepared to discuss any
setbacks, failures or unachieved goals. Your
employees must also prepare for the evaluation by
completing the self-appraisal and by being ready to
discuss both positive and negative aspects of their performance.
Appraising Employee Performance Relative To Goals 2Your employees want and need to know how
you formally rated their performance over the
past year. You need to not only provide the
ratings, but also discuss the reasons for the
ratings. You should support your reasons with
actual examples that stay focused on performance-related
behaviors.
Planning For Future Performance 3When the focus of the appraisal meeting
changes to future performance, your role
must change from one of a judge to one of an
advisor. You need to develop action plans
with your employees that provide your
employees with strategies to both improve their performance andpursue additional skill areas.
USDs Appraisal Process
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It is helpful that you keep the following in mind before you begin
the appraisal process:
Employees want to improve.
Employees know how to do their job and are sufficientlyinnovative to find ways to improve their performance.
Supervisors and managers have a stake in employees careers,not just in their daily performance.
Rewards are based not only on work quality and productivity,
but also on internal and external customer satisfaction.
Before You Begin the Appraisal Process
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Preparation by Supervisors
The first step is to give the employee sufficient notification of the
date of the meeting. The meeting will seem less important if the
appraisal is delayed or postponed. Therefore, establish a time that
will be convenient for both of you. Also make sure that you allow
sufficient time for you to rate your employees and for your
employees to complete their self-appraisal.
The second step is to provide your employees with the appraisal
form and have them complete the self-appraisal section.
Once you have received and reviewed their self-appraisals, you
must complete the evaluation section of the form by rating your
employees performance. As mentioned in the introduction of this
manual, the Rater Bias module provided you with techniques to
rate your employees fairly based on notes from your coaching
sessions. To make sure youll be fair, you should reread the rater
bias information in that module, follow up on other sources of
objective data and review your coaching notes and the self-
appraisal. Based on these sources of information, you will rate the
employees performance on each goal.
Immediately prior to meeting, review the appraisal form containing
the ratings that you completed for your employee. In addition to
the ratings, consider points to discuss concerning the employees
future performance. Also note any discrepancies that exist between
your ratings and the employees self-appraisal. Be prepared to
address these discrepancies in the meeting. Finally, it is a good
idea to review the communication--skills section of the Coaching
module. Practice paraphrasing techniques and using "I" statements.
In order to be optimally prepared for the interview, select the exact
words to use for introductory statements and to confront
defensiveness. Anticipate problems and be ready to provide
examples to support and illustrate your points.
Planning and Preparing for the Appraisal Process
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Preparation by Employees
While employees will hopefully know their supervisors opinions
of their performance before going into the meeting, they may feel
uncertain about what will actually take place in the meeting in
terms of format and process. Therefore, it is advisable to provide
them a preparation list that delineates all the documents that they
should review and the developmental issues that they should come
prepared to discuss. A copy of this list can be found in the
Appendix.
At the same time that they are provided the preparation list,
employees should also be given the official form and instructed to
complete the self-appraisal section.
Now, all that awaits is the moment of truth -- conducting the
appraisal meeting.
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The meeting should take place in a private area without
interruptions. To conduct the meeting successfully, break the
session into three parts and understand what you want to
accomplish in each part. The interview session should consist of an
opening, a discussion of performance ratings and a discussion of
future performance. The session flows best if you follow this order.
Opening
Performance Ratings
Future Performance
Opening
The opening of the meeting should put the employee at ease as
quickly as possible. During the opening, youll make some small
talk and demonstrate some interest in the employee as a person.
You can help to create a comfortable and calm environment by sit-
ting next to the employee rather than across a desk. The employee
is probably quite anxious at this point; therefore, you should try to
show empathy and to help the employee relax. The most important
element in putting the employee at ease however, is discussing
your approach to the appraisal openly and letting the employee
know that you plan to make this a mutual conversation.
Discussion of Performance Ratings
The most critical part of the discussion of performance ratings is
organizing it for optimum effectiveness. Lets take a look at a
logical progression of steps:
The First Step Of Your Discussion 1You do this by saying, "Id like to start by hearing you talk about
your accomplishments over the last year. What things did you do
that youre really proud of?" The employee should elaborate on the
accomplishments he or she detailed in the self appraisal.
Conducting the Appraisal Meeting
Ask The Em lo ee To Review His Or Her Self-A raisal As
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2 Ask What The Employee Would Like To ImproveThis is done simply by asking, "Where did you feel you could have
done better?"
3 Offer Support For Those Areas For ImprovementAsk the employee: " As you try to work on that in the upcoming
year, what would make it more likely for you to be successful?
What can USD do? What can I do?" Throughout the first three
steps, you will use your active listening skills.
4 Express Your ExpectationsAt this point the floor is yours. Its time for you to share with the
employee what your expectations were and how the employee did
compared to your expectations. Using "I" statements, begin with
something like: "Now, Id like to express to you what I was
looking for and how I saw your performance." The best way to do
this is to present the evaluations to the employee and encourage the
employee to take ample time to read and understand the ratings
and comments.
5 Review Each GoalProvide feedback about the employees performance, using specific
examples. In many cases the employee will have already said
something about this area in the first part of the meeting. It is
important that you relate your comments back to the employees
comments. For example, you might say: "You said earlier that you
were pleased with your efficiency in getting the new system
installed. I had focused on the number of bugs still in the systemwhen we started using it. That was a real problem for me because
so much work had to be redone. But I agree with you that you got
it done more quickly than I expected. I think I would rather have it
done a bit more slowly and have fewer errors."
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Then tell the employee what overall rating you gave him or her for
that performance goal. The rating must reflect the employees
performance relative to the goal. Therefore, the examples should
focus solely on the performance goal. If performance has been
acceptable, you should compliment the employee. However, you
should not offer empty compliments in an attempt to buffer
negative feedback. Also avoid sandwiching compliments between
criticisms. It is important that you present an accurate and fair
assessment in a supportive and non-punitive manner.
While the tone of the appraisal is intended to be positive,
remember you still have to make the hard choice of evaluating
your employees. Many of your employees will receive a "Meets
Expectations" level. It will be helpful if you clarify to the
employee that you see performance at this level as positive, as
what you expect. You can also discuss with the employee what he
or she would need to do to be rated as an "Outstanding" or
"Exceptional" but be careful to keep your word next year if the
person performs according to your expectations.
Ratings 6If there is disagreement, it is important for the supervisor to be
patient and try to understand what the employee is feeling. In fact,
you should repeat what the employee has said so there will be
clarity of understanding. Only when both parties understand one
another is it possible to discuss and resolve differences. Negative
feedback can provide opportunities for improvement, andconveying this is something an effective rater must learn to
practice.
Although the best situation would be for the appraisal meeting to
proceed smoothly, there is the possibility that the employee will
not agree with the appraisal. Do not try to stop the employee from
venting frustration. In many cases, it is prudent to say nothing in
response, but rather just listen. If the person becomes increasingly
rude or abusive, you may end the meeting and reschedule it for the
next day.
Ask The Em lo ee To Verball React To The A raisal
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The most important aspect of the discussion of ratings is the
exchange of viewpoints. Maintaining this communication is
essential to both job improvement and to building a strong working
relationship between the employee and supervisor. Therefore, the
main thing to keep in mind is to promote and encourage dialog. If
there is no verbal communication, distrust and resentment may
emerge. The employee may readily agree with negative feedback
quickly in order to deflect attention from the issue. You will need
to recognize this tactic and control the dialog. Similarly, an
employee may also use tangents in an effort to avoid
uncomfortable discussions. Again, you should recognize the
dynamics and retain control of the meeting.
An employee who is criticized may seek justification in
comparisons to others in the department. Do not be drawn into
discussions concerning other behaviors and other employees. Also,
do not let a persuasive employee force the alteration of an honest
opinion rendered in good faith. This does not mean that your
ratings need to be set in stone. If the employee provides support forhis or her opinion and presents information that you had not
considered, a modification of the rating may be warranted.
Discussion Of Future Performance
The discussion of future performance is very important for
summarizing the evaluation aspect and helping both of you close
the meeting in a positive fashion.
1 Discuss DevelopmentUse all the discussion you and the employee have had so far to
discuss employee development and your role in supporting that
development Be sure again that the approach is to assign mutual
responsibility for the employees success -- the employees efforts
and your use of USDs systems and resources. At the same time, be
clear that it is your responsibility to set stretch goals for employees
and expect them to achieve them. It is also your responsibility to
identify those employees who have the most potential. With that in
mind, it is important to recognize that many employees fall into the"Meets Expectations" rating category and they deserve respect
even though they may not be superstars.
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In order to encourage the employee to participate in the
development discussion, you may want to ask the following
questions:
What are your career goals?
How do think these goals support this departments and the
Universitys overall goals?
What additional skills do you need to realize these goals?
What help do you need from others to achieve these goals?
How can we monitor your progress toward these goals?
Plan For Next Year
2
It is probably most convenient if you use the time that you are
together to plan for the coming year. You both can talk generally
about how you can use your experiences of the past year to
improve your relationship and the employees work performance
for the coming review period.
Do The Paperwork
3Following the discussion, you and the employee will complete theTraining and Development Plan section. A copy of the Training
and Development Plan may be found in the Appendix. In addition
to the development goals for next year, make sure you indicate
your responsibilities as well as the employees in order to
accomplish goals. In this section, you should summarize the
development discussion and restate the extent and timing of your
support. Determine what, if any, additional meetings and follow-up
sessions are to be held. Then both of you must sign the form
indicating that the appraisal has been completed.
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4 Request FeedbackFinally, ask if the employee has any remaining thoughts or
feelings. Discuss those, using active listening. If the employee says
no, indicate that you would be glad to talk about the appraisal if he
or she has any second thoughts during the next couple of weeks.
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Your role as supervisor in the performance appraisal is critical.
Providing consistent feedback and winning the trust of the
employee by honest and open verbal exchange are determining
factors in the overall success of The University of South Dakotas
performance management system for non-faculty exempt staff.
The following are effective communication techniques useful in
the appraisal meeting:
Let the employee do most of the talking.
Make a special effort to listen.
Use brief comments such as "I see" or "Uh-huh" to indicate
that youre listening.
Maintain good eye contact.
Ask open-ended questions.
Match your words with appropriate facial and body language.
Paraphrase to ensure understanding.
Use silent pauses to encourage them to discuss sensitive points.
Emphasize points of agreement.
Give examples based on behaviors relating to performancegoals.
Knowing the employees and being aware of their strengths and
weaknesses, coupled with a sincere desire to create job
satisfaction, are ways in which you can decrease the amount of
negative experiences associated with the performance appraisal.
Summary
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1. Review the performance appraisal form.
2. Complete the self-appraisal section of the appraisal form and
return it to your supervisor.
3. Review the report of your last performance review. Be
prepared to discuss goals you achieved, and those that were not
accomplished. Prepare a list of development goals.
4. Write down, or be prepared to discuss the following:
What do you think has been your most valuablecontribution(s) to your department this past year?
Considering the goals on the Appraisal Form, whatwould you have preferred to have done better?
Whats keeping you from reaching your full potential?
What frustrates you, and how can this be alleviated?
What are your career goals or interests?
What can your supervisor do to help you achieve your
goals or interests?
Employee Preparation List
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Employee Self-Appraisal
Instructions
This page to be completed by employee prior to the evaluation of his or her performance.
Accomplishments
Looking over the goals described in this appraisal form, what would you say are your key accomplishments this
year?
Opportunities for Improvement
Considering the goals on this Appraisal Form, what would you have preferred to do better?
Training and Development Plan
Describe your professional development goals and how you plan to reach these goals. Also identify how your
supervisor can assist in your development.
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Employee Training and Development Plan
Training and Development Plan
Describe the ways in which the employee can develop his or her skills to better meet his or her performance and
career goals.
Supervisors Role
Describe how you can assist the employee.
Employee Comments
Please provide feedback regarding the proposed development plan as well as the appraisal process and rating.
Signatures
Employee* Date
Supervisor Date
* My signature signifies that I have had a performance appraisal and read this form. It does not necessarily imply
agreement with the content.