SSC351--Appraising The Office
Workers Performance
In employee performance appraisal, or performance evaluation, the
relative value of an employees traits, personal qualifications, attitudes, and behaviour is appraised. You will want to remember
that in performance appraisal, the evaluator studies and analyzes the performance of the employee, not the
job held by the employee. The evaluator may use the information obtained from the performance appraisal for the following
purposes:
- To determine salary increases and to make decisions regarding promotion,
transfer, and demotion.
- To enhance the workers morale, to contribute directly and indirectly
to self-improvement, and to stimulate confidence in managements fairness.
- To stimulate employees to improve their work.
- To discover workers needs for retraining and promotional training
programs.
- To uncover exceptional skills among employees.
- To furnish a tangible basis for terminating unqualified or unfit
employees.
- To help assign work in accordance with the workers ability by furnishing
information for the proper placement, career counseling, and guidance of the worker.
- To aid in validating the selection process, especially in the areas
of interviewing and testing.
- To help settle disputes in arbitration cases.
From this list, we can conclude that performance appraisal should
provide a fair treatment of all employees, an objective rating, and a feeling by employees that they are not ignored or overlooked.
Frequency of Performance Appraisal
The performance of workers is being informally appraised in a never-ending
process by their supervisors who observe, evaluate, and coach them on a day-to-day basis. This kind of appraisal is one of
the supervisor' downward responsibilities to aid workers in improving their performance, to heighten their motivation, and
to solve job-performance and human-relations problems on the spot by "striking while the iron is hot." However, this continuing
type of appraisal is not an adequate substitute for the formal employee appraisal, which is discussed in this section.
In most companies, the performance of office workers is evaluated
once a year; however, more frequent reviews can be arranged in event of promotional openings, poor performance, or
outstanding performance. Often, during an entry-level workers probationary period or during the first year on a new job, appraisals
are made more frequently. Thus, a firm with a probationary period of six months may evaluate the new office workers at the
end of one month, three months, and six months; thereafter, the employee is placed on permanent status and reviews are scheduled
annually on the anniversary of the employees hiring date. Anniversary-date reviews are very important to employees; therefore,
supervisors should not postpone the review of employee performance even if the reviews contain a great deal of negative criticism.
Who Should Appraise Employees?
In answering the question of who should appraise employees, it seems
logical that the evaluation should be made by those who come in direct supervisory contact with the workers. In many large
companies, you will find that the appraisal is made by the employees immediate supervisor and is reviewed by both the next
higher-level manager and the human resources department.
Generally, the appraisal is discussed with the employee, who in many
companies must sign the appraisal form to indicate that it has been discussed with him or her. The appraisal then becomes
part of the employees permanent personnel record. Sometimes the office worker may be given a copy of the appraisal. In many
instances, the office workers have the right to appeal or to protest the performance appraisal.