Chennai Feb.

4 It would seem that there is no corporate human resources policy that

has not had its share of controversies for being biased. With an increasing number of
qualitative factors that affect employees at the workplace, democratising the
performance appraisal process to make it as fair as possible has been the dream of
every HR manager.

And now qualitative factors are not just at play in the services sector, but also in
manufacturing. With cubicles giving way to open offices, the top-down approach to
employee performance appraisal is also on its way out.

One company that has set itself on course to further democratising and opening up its
employee evaluation process is car market leader Maruti Udyog.

The company has introduced a unique 360-degree feedback system, starting with its
senior leadership. The new system has been co-developed with Ernst & Young and
has been put in place recently.

Under the 360-degree feedback system, the employee is rated not just by his
superiors, but also by his peers and subordinates.

"We are starting the 360-degree feedback process with employees in the top
management such as chief general managers and general managers, whose
performance will now be assessed based on feedback from their peers and junior
management employees within the same department. Till last year, their performance
was being appraised only by the Directors and the Managing Director," says Maruti's
Chief General Manager (HR), Mr S.Y. Siddiqui.

Ernst & Young, in consultation with Maruti, has listed a set of leadership
competencies that are expected in a general manager. Based on that, it has prepared a
questionnaire to which peers and subordinates can respond online.

Although acknowledged as an effective tool for leadership development in the West,

Indian companies have been shy of introducing such a feedback system for fear of
disturbing traditional hierarchical structures.

HR consultants feel that the critical issues in implementing such a system include
assuring respondents that their feedback will remain confidential and convincing the
person receiving the feedback that this is a development tool and not an appraisal tool.
Maruti has handled this by getting E&Y and other consultants to make detailed
presentations to the senior management personnel before the process got under way.
The company has a committee of general managers, called Human Resource Inter
Divisional Committee (HRIDC), which is consulted on all major HR issues.
The initiative has been unveiled with an e-mail by Maruti's Managing Director, Mr
Jagdish Khattar, asking people to support the online questionnaire process. The 360-
degree feedback system will also include a self-appraisal by the general manager. At
the end of the process, he can compare his self-appraisal with the assessment of his
subordinates and peers.

One of the benefits that Maruti is hoping to get out of the 360-degree feedback
process is the sense of empowerment and importance felt by subordinates, when they
are asked to offer their feedback about their superiors. Maruti currently has over 4,000
employees on its rolls.