Novartis Managing the Sales Force Q) Novartis conducted regular performance appraisals to measure the performance of its sales

representatives. How did these appraisals help the organization? Wh at are the hurdles in the way of a good performance appraisal? Novartis was rated as one of the Best companies to work for, by Fo rtune magazine in 2004. It has maintained its legacy ever since. One of the main reasons which made this possible was its world class performance appraisal mech anism. These appraisals were very beneficial for the organization. It was realized 9000 person-days in a year was wasted due to minimum data entry. The reports were more accurate. Sales managers had real time and authentic information available which made it e asier to measure performance. The attitude of the sales reps was also positive as they became more assured. Computer based appraisal will remove the inherent weakness of the appraisal syst em that is subjective assessment of vague and abstract performance targets, uncl ear guidelines for appraisal.

There are several hurdles in the way of a good performance appraisal. They have been highlighted below: Poorly Trained Managers - If training is not provided to introduce managers to the philosophy of performance appraisal at the organization, including a review of the forms, the rating system and how the data gathered is used the system wil l collapse. First Impression (primacy effect): Raters form an overall impression about the r atee on the basis of some particular characteristics of the ratee identified by them. The identified qualities and features may not provide adequate base for ap praisal Inconsistent Ratings- Inter-rater reliability is generally very low between mana gers at any organization. What one manager considers to be "acceptable" performa nce, another may consider "not meeting expectations. Lack of Outcome-Based Measures - Performance appraisals that ask managers to rat e employees on subjective criteria such as "customer service skills" or "leaders hip ability" lack specific outcomes that can be tied to measurable results. Halo Effect: The individuals performance is completely appraised on the basis of a perceived positive quality, feature or trait. In other words this is the tende ncy to rate a man uniformly high or low in other traits if he is extra-ordinaril y high or low in one particular trait. Central Tendency: Appraisers rate all employees as average performers. That is, it is an attitude to rate people as neither high nor low and follow the middle p ath. Spill-over Effect: The present performance is evaluated much on the basis of pas t performance.

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