Performance appraisal

Performance appraisal is a formal ,structured

system of measuring and evaluating an
employee ‘s job related behaviour and
outcomes to discover how and why the
employee is presently performing on the job
and how the employee is presently
performing on the job and how the employee
can perform more effectively in the future so
that the employee ,organisation and society
all benefit.
 Objectives of performance
appraisal
 To effect promotions based on
competence and performance .
 To confirm the services of probationary
period
 To assess the training and development
needs of employees
 To decide upon a pay rise
 Objectives of performance
appraisal
(cont)
 To let the employees know where they
stand

 To improve communication
 To determine whether HR programmes
such as selection, training, transfers have
been effective or not
 Design appraisal programme
 Formal vs informal appraisal
 Whose performance is to be assessed

 Who are the raters- immediate supervisor,

Subordinates, peers, clients, self appraisal

 What problems are encountered – leniency or

severity ,central tendency, halo error, primacy

and recency effects, spillover effect, status effect
Factors that help improve accuracy
 The rater has observed and is familiar with
behaviour to be appraised.
 The rater has a checklist to obtain and review
job related information
 The rater is aware of personal biases and is
willing to take action to minimise their effect.
 Rating scores by Raters of one group or
organisation are summarised and compared with
those by other raters.
Factors that help improve accuracy
 Performance factors are properly defined.
 The rater has documented the behaviour
to improve the recall.
 How to Evaluate?
 Relative Assessment
 Employees are measured against other
employees and ranked on their distance from
the next higher to the next lower performing
employee.
 Absolute Measurement
 Employees are all measured strictly by absolute
performance requirements or standards of their
jobs.
 What to Evaluate?
 Traits Measures
 Are an assessment of what the employee is, not what

the employee actually does.

 Behavior-based measures
 Focus on what an employee does and what the

employee should do differently.

 Results-based measures
 Focus is on accomplishments or outcomes that can be

measured objectively. Problems occur when results

measures are difficult to obtain, outside employee
control, or ignore the means by which the results were
obtained.
•• Comparative
Comparative
–– Ranking
Ranking
–– Paired
PairedComparison
Comparison
–– Forced
ForcedDistribution
Distribution
•• Absolute
Absolute
–– Critical
CriticalIncident
Incident Appraisal
–– Narrative
NarrativeEssay
Essay
–– Checklist
Checklist Methods
–– Graphic
GraphicRating
RatingScale
Scale(GRS)
(GRS)
–– Behaviorally
BehaviorallyAnchored
AnchoredRating
RatingScales
Scales
(BARS)
(BARS)
–– Forced
ForcedChoice
Choice
•• Objectives
Objectives
–– Management
ManagementBy ByObjectives
Objectives(MBO)
(MBO)
 COMPARATIVE METHODS

 Ranking

 Alternation Ranking

 Paired Comparison

 Forced Distribution
Alternation ranking
 PAIRED COMPARISON:
For the trait “Creativity”

ARUP BHAVANA CHARLES DILIP EESHWAR

ARUP
+ + _ _
BHAVANA
_ _ _ _
CHARLES
_ + + _
DILIP
+ + _ +
EESHWAR
+ + + _
 Forced Distribution
30

25

20 Low
15 Low-avg
Avg
10
High-avg
5 High
0
Low Low- Avg High- High
avg avg
GRAPHIC RATING SCALE (GRS)
In a Graphic Rating Scale, the rater assesses a
ratee on performance-related characteristics and
personality characteristics,

ie. factors like quantity of work, dependability, job

knowledge, cooperativeness, ability to lead,
interpersonal skills, etc. by using a rating scale.
 FREE ESSAY

 It is a narrative appraisal method and is based

on absolute standards

 It describes an employee's actions rather than

indicating an actual rating

 The intent is to allow the rater more flexibility

than other rating methods do.
 The Process
 A job is broken up into various general dimensions.
Each dimension is followed by some space where
the rater has to write an essay on that dimension
 These essays concentrate on performance
strengths and weaknesses, identify developmental
needs and also suggest courses of remedial action
 These essays can either be composed alone or in
collaboration with the appraisee
 Narrative Forms
 Final appraisals
are frequently
written in a
narrative form
 Supervisor rates
employee by
describing the
behaviour related
to each factor
 CRITICAL INCIDENT METHOD
 Critical incidents are behaviors that result in good or
poor job performance.
 The rater records all such incidents and the ratee’s
involvement in it.
 The rater plays the role of ‘Observer’ rather than
‘Judge’.

 For eg.
 “I saw Mishra closing the steam line valve at the
instant the pipeline burst. We could save a lot of
lives due to the above factor.”
CRITICALITY OF THE METHOD..
 This forms the basis for developing a lot of
the other formats that are used for
performance assessment.
 Checklist
 GRS
 BARS
 Forced Choice Scales
RECORDING CRITICAL INCIDENTS

 Should be Specific
 Focus on Observable behaviours that
have been exhibited on the job
 Describe the Context in which the
behaviour occurred
 Indicate the Consequences or Outcomes
of the behaviour
 BEHAVIORALLY ANCHORED RATING
SCALES (BARS)

 Developed by Patricia Cain Smith and Lorne

Kendall
 A series of continuous graphic rating scales
arranged vertically
 Behavioural descriptions exemplifying various
degrees of each dimensions serve as anchors on
the scale
 Designed to allow superiors to be more
comfortable while giving feedback
 GROUP TASK
1. Identify a JOB that every member of the group knows
well and which has a large component of observable
elements.
2. Identify at least five major dimensions of performance for
that job. You can use or adapt the dimensions that are
already provided or generate your own.
3. Individually generate incidents for each dimension, using
the four categories that are provided.
4. Ensure that the incidents meet the four characteristics
that were discussed, and are actually observable
behaviours, and not inferred traits.
 GROUP TASK (contd.)
 RETRANSLATE: Each person is to read out an
incident he/she has generated and the others
have to state which dimension and which
performance level that incident belongs to.
 For each incident mark the level of agreement
for both ‘dimension’ and ‘performance level’.
 Keep only those items where level of agreement
is more than 80%. The others need to be
discussed until there is some agreement or else
should be discarded.
 GROUP TASK (contd.)
 ASSIGN EFFECTIVENESS VALUES: for all the
incidents that survive retranslation.
 Take all the incidents that have remained and
individually assign an effectiveness value on a 7
point scale. 1 = not acceptable & 7 = excellent.
 Discuss and keep only those incidents where there
is agreement on the effectiveness values.
 Try to have incidents that define the middle and
ends of each scale.
 CHECKLIST & WEIGHTED
CHECKLIST

 This method requires the rater to select statements

or words that describe the employees performance
or characteristics.
 Checklists consist of groups of statements that
pertain to a given job.
 Raters check statements most representative of the
characteristics and performance of an employee.

STEPS IN CONSTRUCTION
Generate a large no. of behavioural
statements relevant to work
 These should represent all levels of
effectiveness
 Rules to follow
 Express only one thought per statement
 Use understandable terminology
 Eliminate double negatives
 Express thoughts simply and clearly
 A panel of experts judges how far each
statement represents effective or ineffective
behaviour
 FORCED CHOICE SCALE

THE NEED
Despite the sophisticated methods of new
rating formats (e.g BARS), deliberate
distortion of ratings still remains. Such
distortion , undermine the purpose of the
appraisal system.
 What is the Forced Choice
Method ?
 A rating technique specially designed to increase
objectivity and to decrease biasing factors in
ratings.
 It comprises of the use of statements that are
grouped into sets according to certain statistical
properties.
 Rater is “forced” to select from each group of
statements a subset (usually 2) of those
statements that are “most descriptive” of each
ratee.
For eg.
 Gives good clear instruction to subordinates
 Can be depended upon to complete any job
assigned

 Makes promises that he or she cannot be kept

 Shows favoritism toward some employees.
 MANAGEMENT BY OBJECTIVES

 The use of Management By Objectives was first

widely advocated in the 1950s by the noted
management theorist Peter Drucker.
 MBO methods of performance appraisal are results-
oriented i.e., they seek to measure employee
performance by examining the extent to which
predetermined work objectives have been met.