A Time Of Crisis

Your people may be working hard and putting up with a lot, patiently and without complaining but you and they may need to know about it. Morale and motivation may be suffering. Rewards may need to be looked at again.

Managers do not like playing God. It is one of the reasons why performance assessment and appraisal have not been accepted by everyone in management. Performance appraisal is probably the least popular of a manager's tasks. Making those critical judgements and comments about an employee's performance can be very difficult but where applied must be considered part of the relationship between manager and employee. It may be separated from the ongoing relationship but the feedback will have an impact on the employee's view of self. Each individual is different so each response is different. There is no one formula. The appraisal may be an hour a year or a whole year's observation, but the negative effects on the individual and performance can be demotivating. Managers also may feel a sense of guilt about the comments and outcomes of the appraisal process.

A number of ways have been tried to get round the negative aspects of appraisal. Multi-source feedback (MSF) has grown in importance. Employees are invited to comment on their performance as are peers, subordinate staff and customers. An even wider method is the 360 appraisal method which invites views from all round a job. The idea is that it is more balanced and objective than the opinion of one single person who might let any number of personal feelings and biases interfere.

There are ways of delivering better performance. Performance control plans define and target work which is then performed and measured against the plan. Control emphasis is an outcome of this drive to efficiency. Uncertainty and the threat of competition increase the pressure for efficiency and control and the need to conform to the budgets set by the finance department. There are other views of reality that argue for the development of people as well as the development of control. Disillusionment and demotivation can lead to mere obedience as opposed to genuine trust and commitment. Management can try to create a culture where people development is seen as a long term commitment and gain that trust and commitment.

Performance management systems coordinate approaches to MSF. They are usually based around competencies. They can help link business strategies to areas of responsibility and goals, critical success factors and performance measures. They use a combination of quantitaive and qualitative measures. A personal performance and development plan can establish where individual strengths need to be developed and excellent behaviours rewarded and weaknesses and any unacceptable behaviours eliminated. Self diagnosis and MSF can be used to make the individual see what is being done well or not so well and where improvements should be made. Coaching can keep the plan on course with feedback from various sources to monitor progress. Performance appraisals as popular or unpopular as they may be can be a vital link between performance and rewards and career progression. It is a matter of getting the right balance.