Surface Ripples

Performance Reviews, Appraisals, or whatever you call them in your organisation are about managing performance.  They aren't just for large multinational businesses, or businesses over a certain size.  You can perform an appraisal on yourself even if you're a sole proprietor or trader.

Sadly, the way many organisations run their performance appraisal process results in appraisees seeing it either as a means of firing people, not paying them the bonuses they deserve, as a way that one's supervisor can "get back" at staff they don't like, as a tool to justify HR's existence or all the foregoing. 

There are a number of reasons that we have an appraisal or review process including (but not limited to): 


This review should be at business/organisational, country, team/department and individual level.  Interestingly, when one looks at what is appraised/reviewed at individual level, it can be diametrically opposite to what is reviewed at the organisational level.  In other words, what individual staff are told to achieve can be out of line with corporate objectives.

Several elements are critical to a robust appraisal system:  

“Relevance” means a system/process that supports the mission and needs of the business in its environment and sector.  This includes frequency, appraisal criteria and culture.  Too often, businesses adopt systems that are inappropriate, either because they measure irrelevant criteria, or because they come from a different environment.  One of my clients' performance appraisal forms measured criteria that ensured that, as long as appraisees turned up on time, wore clean clothes and smiled a lot, they would get a high score.  This may have made a lot of people happy, but it didn't really show who was worthy of promotion or could lead others.

In terms of user-friendliness, some systems seem to stand out more because of  their complexity and lack of user-friendliness. What works in one organisation/country/culture may not work in another (some people have a hard time understanding this). The activities or behaviours that make one organisation unique don’t necessarily apply to others.   As a result, the appraisal system is used at the last minute, no one is committed and outputs are necessarily poor.  Performance suffers. 

In all organisations, certain behaviours or actions are needed to fulfil organisational goals.  How will you get objective feedback on these? Feedback risks being subjective, unless clear definitions and gathering processes are specified. 

Past experience suggests that both appraisers and appraisees waste disproportionate amounts of time extracting or extrapolating results (in their favour) which then become the subject of dispute.  The best way to reduce the likelihood of this happening is to agree in advance what measures will be used, and how data will be extracted.   

Feedback or data in appraisals must be transparent and objective to be trusted.  Ideally, all information in the appraisal should be beyond dispute, i.e. numbers extracted direct from the business’ systems (this pre-supposes that the organisation’s management information is accurate as well).  However, people are usually appraised on a mixture of objective and subjective, quantitative and qualitative data.   

Continuous assessment is now much easier as more systems are automated, and “smart devices” proliferate in the office.  In the past, appraisers had to keep bulky files.  Nowadays, one can make a note immediately and upload it to “the system”, providing instant feedback to appraisees. 

If you can’t get the above right, then acceptance among employees (appraisers and appraisees) will be low.  No business has a “killer” appraisal system.  I’ve seen various methods, each with its good points and bad points.  One thing is clear: as our knowledge about people and our businesses develop, the appraisal process becomes a “moveable feast”.  It will, perforce, change over time.   

In summary, make sure that: 

Remember: if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.  What works in one organisation/country may not work in another.The activities or behaviours that make one organisation unique don’t necessarily apply to others.