by Heather McCulligh, Blog Coordinator, Halogen Software
At first I was surprised to see the very first question in our new HR Raging Debates Forum. “Should you even do performance appraisals” seems like a slam dunk to me, and likely to most of you reading.
But the experts had some great opinions that made me pause and dig more deeply into the issue. Consider this from Ed Lawlor:
"Having a poor performance appraisal system is worse than having none at all. It can drive employees away, waste valuable time and lead to poor talent management decisions."
And this from Laurie Ruettimann:
"Performance appraisals are a dated way to think about the employee/employer relationship. They deliver neither value nor harm. They are silly and mismanaged conversations that occur in the absence of a thoughtful employee communication strategy."
Strong statements certainly, but I think what they do is crystallize what many of the other experts spoke to, about how performance appraisals need to be not an event, but an ongoing process that takes place in real-time during the entire employee work cycle.
I like how Josh Bersin puts appraisals in their place:
"Performance appraisals are only one tiny step in the entire process of managing people… really a record-keeping step used to provide the organization with a consistent way of evaluating and comparing people against each other. It also provides compliance and record-keeping when employees are not performing and they need to be moved; and it gives the organization written justification for compensation decisions."
And Richard Hadden offers managers a roadmap for making positive connections through the process of employee appraisals:
"Leaders should approach performance appraisal as a process, not an event. But the traditional, periodic sit-down discussion between leader and employee to discuss the “results” of the performance appraisal can be very helpful for a variety of reasons. First, it gives both leader and employee a concrete point in time by which time-bound performance goals are to be met, and it sets aside a time and a place to have an important discussion that, without a specific performance appraisal might never actually happen, even with the best of intentions. But most importantly, using an appraisal instrument, and setting aside a time to focus on delivering “the performance appraisal” sends the message that performance is important, and that as your leader, I want to take the time to do all that I can to support you through feedback and coaching."
There’s no doubt about it - we think performance appraisals should absolutely be done, and that (when done properly, with the right tools) they offer tremendous value- competitive advantage even - to an organization. That’s why it was so refreshing - and in some ways reaffirming - to see what our experts had to say on the validity of performance appraisals, as well as a variety of other “Raging Debates” - lets us know we are on the right track, and considering the most crucial business elements in play today.
Heather McCulligh is the Halogen Software blog coordinator. She's got over ten years of experience writing about technology and has worked with a wide variety of organizations during her career.
Source: http://www.halogensoftware.com/blog/from-all-sides-the-validity-of-performance-appraisals/
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