It is that time of the year that neither the appraiser nor the to-be appraised are particularly looking forward to; yes, the annual appraisal looms. In some companies it is a lengthy process and at others, a breeze. Thousands of books have been written and complex processes designed to generate the perfect appraisal system however old HR hands would agree with me that expecting the same is foolish considering the inherent subjectivity and contrasting expectations of the people on opposite sides of the appraisal fence. No wonder that some companies have entirely done away with it replaced by regular evaluation or ‘only results matter’ policies.
If executed well though, appraisals can lead to performance improvement, motivate employees, act as a basis for future employment decisions, serve as a feedback mechanism, help in formulating job criteria, training needs and overall career development. However appraisals still have negative perceptions in the minds of some employees, or error ridden exercises and quite often may not align company goals with the individual’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Some years back, I had taken a stab at trying to apply some logic palatable to both sides of the appraisal fence, the employee and his or her manager but had forgotten all about it. Recently while researching for some data on how teams are selected (see blog post on how opTEAMize was conceived and developed), I found my old notes tucked away in a corner of my external HDD. So I decided to reproduce them for the benefit of folks interested and still in search of a transparent appraisal system.
This is a credit or point based system which can easily be deployed for small and medium sized companies. It assigns points to 11 factors including Education, Training and Certification, Experience, Role relevant skills, Soft skills, Potential and Objectives.
Educational qualifications | = | 15 points | |
Consider existing and any new qualifications obtained. | |||
Training and certifications | = | 15 points | |
Credit is given for any certifications earned previously or after joining the company. | |||
Experience | = | 30 points | |
Assign points for years of seniority and loyalty as they have their own value in any company. | |||
Skill development | = | 60 points | |
Use a simple skill matrix that tracks the employee’s skill set. | |||
Soft skills | = | 36 points | |
Credit is given for effective team building, mentoring, delegation and training. | |||
Executive skills | = | 24 points | |
Use template 2 or similar to rate employees on 12 required skills. | |||
Potential | = | 20 points | |
Award points for potential, fast track employees and for any memberships. | |||
Objectives met | = | 100 points | |
Set up measurable KPIs as part of the annual goal setting. | |||
Total Points = 300 | |||
If the above criteria are transparent to the employees and areas for developing, maintaining and enhancing skills (both technical and executive) are clearly communicated, the last area of contention then can only be the KPIs. The examples for executive skills given in the scoring template are generic and can be changed based on specific skills that the particular industry or company is looking for.
I also recommend that you make use of the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, & Time-bound) goal-setting system for employees. By mutually agreeing upon the objectives, continually tracking them and judging results fairly at the end of the year, you can create a win-win for both company and employee. In conclusion, the proposed appraisal system aims to drastically reduce the subjectivity factor which is a big sore point amongst those typically affected by the ‘curse of averages’ that afflicts much of the scoring of existing appraisal systems.
