The Performance Appraisal Meeting
All the time spent linking goals to jobs, developing assessment criteria, creating forms, observing employees, and completing the appraisal can be sabotaged if the appraisal is presented poorly to the employee. Too often employees are handed an appraisal in a sealed envelope and told to sign it and return it soon without a face-to-face discussion, or the appraisal meeting is rushed with no real opportunity for constructive feedback. There are a number of steps employees can take to prepare for those important meetings.
Managers should prepare for, and schedule the appraisal in advance. This includes reviewing employee job descriptions, period goals that may have been set, and any performance data on the employees. It is important to note any comments or suggestions on last year's appraisal. The employee will most certainly remember them and expect their manager to comment on any efforts to improve any deficiency mentioned the year prior. The appraisal should be scheduled well in advance to give employees the opportunity to prepare their own data for the meeting.
Explaining the purpose of the meeting in advance creates a supportive environment and puts employees at ease. Performance appraisals conjure up several emotions, most especially anxiety. Managers should make every effort to keep employees comfortable during the meeting, so that they are receptive to constructive feedback, Nonverbal communication should not be threatening.
By describing the purpose of the appraisal to employees, they will know precisely how the appraisal will be used. Will it have implications for pay increases, or other personnel decisions? If so, managers must make sure employees understand exactly how the appraisal process works and its consequences. It is important to involve the employee in the appraisal discussion, including a self-evaluation. Performance appraisals should not be a one-way communication event. Although supervisors may believe they have to talk more in the meeting, that needn’t be the case. Instead, employees should have ample opportunities to discuss their performance, raise questions about the appraisal, and add their own data/perceptions about their work. One means of ensuring two-way communication is to have employees conduct a self-evaluation prior to the meeting. Managers should actively listen to their assessment. This involvement helps to create an environment of participation.
The focus of the discussion should be on work behaviors, not on the employee. One way of creating emotional difficulties is to verbally attack the employee. Therefore, the evaluator should narrow the discussion to the behaviors observed. Telling an employee, for instance, that his report stinks does not point out the specific problem with his performance. Indicating that he didn’t devote enough time to proofreading the report describes the behavior that is problematic.
The evaluation should be supported with examples. Specific performance behaviors help clarify to employees the issues raised. Rather than saying something wasn’t good (subjective evaluation), the evaluator should be as specific as possible in the explanations. So, for the employee who failed to proof the work, describing that the report had five grammatical mistakes in the first two pages alone would be a specific example.
Both positive and negative feedback should be given. Performance appraisals needn’t be completely negative. Despite the perception that this process focuses on the negative, it should also be used to compliment and recognize good work. Positive, as well as negative, feedback helps employees gain a better understanding of their performance. For example, although the report was not up to the quality expected, the employee did do the work and completed the report in a timely fashion. That behavior deserves some positive reinforcement.
Evaluators should ensure that employees understand what was discussed in the appraisal. At the end of the appraisal, especially where some improvement is warranted, the manager should ask the employee to summarize what was discussed in the meeting. This will help to ensure that the manager has gotten the information across and the employee understands the appraisal and the reason for the evaluation.
A development plan should be generated. Most of the performance appraisal revolves around feedback and documentation, but it needs another component. Where development efforts are encouraged, a plan should be developed to describe what is to be done, when it should be completed, and what the supervisor will commit to aid in the improvement/enhancement effort.