8.5 Performance Planning and Evaluation
- How are performance appraisals used to evaluate employee performance?
Along with employee orientation and training, new employees learn about performance expectations through performance planning and evaluation. Managers provide employees with expectations about the job. These are communicated as job objectives, schedules, deadlines, and product and/or service quality requirements. As an employee performs job tasks, the supervisor periodically evaluates the employee’s efforts. A performance appraisal is a comparison of actual performance with expected performance to determine an employee’s contributions to the organization and to make decisions about training, compensation, promotion, and other job changes. The performance planning and appraisal process is shown in Exhibit 8.9 and described below.
- The manager establishes performance standards.
- The employee works to meet the standards and expectations.
- The employee’s supervisor evaluates the employee’s work in terms of quality and quantity of output and various characteristics such as job knowledge, initiative, relationships with others, and attendance and punctuality.
- Following the performance evaluation, reward (pay raise) and job change (promotion) decisions can be made. If work is unsatisfactory, the employee may be put on a performance improvement plan, which outlines the behaviors or performance that must be improved, the milestones and time periods to improve performance, and what will occur if performance is not improved.
- Rewards are positive feedback and provide reinforcement, or encouragement, for the employee to continue improving their performance.
It was once common practice for performance appraisals to be conducted annually, but many companies have moved away from that standard. Instead, managers are encouraged to provide employees with continuous real-time feedback so that skill development and job performance can be improved more rapidly.
Information for performance appraisals can be assembled from a variety of sources, such as colleagues or direct reports, and utilizing a variety of methods, including rating scales, and data about job performance indicators like production or sales statistics. Regardless of the source, performance information should be accurate and a record of the employee’s job behavior and efforts. Table 8.3 illustrates a rating scale for one aspect of a college recruiter’s job. A rating of “9” is considered outstanding job behavior and performance; a rating of “1” is viewed as very poor to unacceptable.
| Example of Behavior-Based Rating Scale (1–9) for Performance Appraisal | ||
|---|---|---|
| Position: College Recruiter | ||
| Job Description: Visits campuses and conducts interviews of graduating seniors | ||
| Job Responsibility | Rating | Comments |
| Planning and organizing of spring semester college recruiting events | 8 | This recruiter plans and organizes spring-semester college-recruiting schedule to minimize travel expenses and maximize the number of colleges visited and students interviewed. Even with tight travel schedules between campuses, this recruiter completes each campus report before arrival at next campus. |
| Contact with faculty prior to visit to gain information about degree programs (goal is 2–3 contacts) | 5 | In making plans to visit a new campus, this recruiter had not identified two or three faculty members for obtaining pre-visit information about degree programs. |
| Obtain student resumes prior to visit | 6 | This recruiter occasionally does not check with college placement office to request student resumes two days before arrival. |
| Resume and interview documentation | 5 | Sometimes this recruiter’s notes are incomplete concerning a student’s response to interview questions. |
| Punctuality and professionalism | 2 | This recruiter is often several minutes late in starting interviews. |
| Interview follow ups | 1 | This recruiter is frequently late in sending thank-you letters to students interviewed. |
| Summary reports | 1 | This recruiter is always late completing campus-recruiting reports. |
| Rating Scale: 7–9 meets or exceeds expectations 4–6 partially meets expectations 1–3 does not meet expectations |
||
Concept Check
- What are the steps in the performance planning and appraisal process?
- What purposes do performance appraisals serve?
- Describe some sources of information for the performance appraisal.