The Tribune

By Ian Ferguson

Last week we explored the benefits of performance management for companies ready to move into a new era of success. We indicated that performance management encompassed a number of areas, including the performance of an organisation, a department, employee or even the processes to build a product or service. Today, we focus attention on employee performance management, particularly the use of appraisals in the process of promoting staff, recognising them for excellence and developing their skills and competencies.

Performance appraisals are instruments used to evaluate the job performance of an employee generally, in terms of quality, quantity, cost and time. There are many benefits from using these tools in pinpointing exactly where employees are in their level of functioning. Some of these advantages include:

• Giving employees feedback on their performance

• Identifying employee training needs

• Validating selection techniques and human resource policies

• Documenting criteria used to allocate organisational rewards

• Providing the opportunity for organisational diagnosis and development

• Facilitating communication between employee and administration

• Forming a basis for personnel decisions: Salary increases, promotions, disciplinary actions etc.

It is this final benefit listed that charts the course of our discussion. Before we delve in, we must ask ourselves: By what measures and means have we made these decisions in the past? How do we definitively determine who deserves to be promoted? Why is there so much dissention regarding who receives the promotion? Most persons in small, medium and large companies throughout this country would agree that these decisions are made far too subjectively, relying heavily on emotions or ‘gut’ as the final indicator.

Amid the opportunities for using employee appraisals to ‘get it right’, there are also precautions that must be considered. The chief concerns in successfully using these instruments are:

1. There must be ongoing documentation of employee performance throughout the evaluation period. If this does not happen, the evaluator is more inclined to complete the evaluation based on the last few behaviours and actions of the employee.

2. The appraisal must be used as a tool of development. If employees view the instrument as a disciplinary action, or something that holds up the increment or bonus, then very little growth will take place.

3. The instrument must be done fairly and accurately. It amazes me how many appraisals do not reflect the truest depiction of the employee being evaluated. We have constantly been accustomed to giving glorious reports for lacklustre and less-than-glorious performance. Truth and honesty must be the watch words when assessing performance if success and growth are to follow.

4. The performance appraisal should - and must be shared - with the employee. It is a tragedy that employer, managers and leaders complete secret employee appraisals without even sharing all of the details with the employee. This completely undermines the benefits of a performance management system.

NB: Ian R. Ferguson was educated locally, regionally and internationally, having earned a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Miami. During the course of his nearly 20 years in education, talent management and human resources, he has served both the public and private sector in senior management roles. He currently serves as manager of the Chamber Institute, and as a local consultant in the field, having assisted hundreds of local and regional businesses in improving business and service excellence through their human capital.