What Is Performance Appraisal?
There are several practical ways to increase the performance of a team of collaborators. And to find out what you need to improve on that performance, you need to use the Performance Assessment.
Waiting for bad results to appear to realize that something is wrong is the worst alternative. The right thing is to do a continuous monitoring through the performance evaluation.
Therefore, in today’s article you will see what Performance Evaluation is, how it works, what are its main objectives and how to implement it correctly.
Table of Contents
What Is Performance Appraisal?
The Performance Appraisal is an HR tool to analyze the annual performance review of an employee or an entire team.
Through the Performance Assessment, it is possible to assess technical and behavioral skills of employees . And yet, relate them to the company’s culture.
It is also possible to analyze whether the selection methods are correct and efficient, enabling the correction of processes and avoiding new wrong hiring.
It is important to note that the evaluation is carried out from time to time, in cycles, to analyze a specific period. Only in this way is it possible to examine the evolution of the employee or team.
What are the objectives of the Performance Appraisal?
The objectives of performance evaluation are diverse, among the main ones are:
1 – Identify the employee’s points of improvement and develop them
Through the mapping of competencies, the Assessment shows the employee’s strengths and areas for improvement. And, with the employee’s information, the manager can put together a more effective Individual Development Plan (PDI) . The training and development process is implemented in the company with the aim of training and retaining talent.
Furthermore, the Performance Appraisal also helps in the promotion of employees .
Here, at impulseup, we use a PDI Library to speed up some of the collaborators’ development actions. You can take advantage of this content as it is or be inspired to create new Development Plans in your company.
2 – Bring accurate and historical data to the HR team
Every professional evolves gradually. Following this line, Assessments generate historical data about a professional or team and, in this way, it is possible to analyze how their evolution took place.
It is also possible to identify those professionals who have the necessary skills and behaviors to work in the company and, from that, use this professional profile as “ideal”.
3 – Improved communication
The Performance Assessment provides a path for dialogue between the superior and the subordinate, improving the understanding of personal goals and concerns.
In addition, this dialogue can also increase trust and partnership between them, directly influencing the organizational climate.
How to implement the Performance Assessment in your company?
The Assessment requires efforts not only from the HR team, but also from managers and directors from other areas. Check out a step-by-step guide on how to implement Performance Assessment in your company.
1 – Define competencies and goals
The first step is to establish the parameters that will be used for the Performance Evaluation. We can talk about two parameters that can be used:
Skills
Competencies are a set of knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors that allow the individual to perform their tasks effectively. These competencies can be courses, personal skills or training they have taken, for example.
Therefore, to assess competencies, the process is usually more subjective. For a finance team, for example, the assessed competence might be “punctuality”. In practice, it will be evaluated whether the delivery of billing reports and payments always takes place on time.
Some technical skills must be assessed through knowledge tests. For example, knowledge in some software (eg advanced Excel).
goals
Goals are well known in the corporate environment. They are the results and performances that an employee needs to achieve in order to deliver value in their work to the organization. Here are some benefits of goal setting:
- Provides clear guidance to managers and employees;
- It acts as a kind of guideline for the performance evaluation of teams;
- Clarifies the company’s expectations in relation to employees;
- It cultivates a sense of accomplishment among managers and teams, serving as an inspiration to those who have not yet achieved the best performances;
- Enables increased employee engagement with the company.
As you can see, a competency can be more subjective, like “productivity”, for example. A goal, by contrast, should always be more measurable.
Therefore, when establishing a performance goal that is clear, realistic and relevant to the employee and relevant to his/her talent, the manager must offer guidance in relation to what is expected of him/her.
So, after establishing your competencies and goals for the assessment, share them with team members. Everyone should know and understand how you will conduct this process: transparency in the process increases engagement and brings security to the team.
2 – Set deadlines
You have already defined your competencies and goals. In other words, it means you now have more organized performance expectations. However, these expectations may require some employees to change the way they act and work. However, this doesn’t happen overnight.
Therefore, the next step is to set realistic deadlines so that employees can work towards the expected performance.
Performance appraisal does not have to take place immediately. It can be a process, consisting of observing the team and the progress they will make within that time frame.
Therefore, it is crucial to keep in mind that this progress is more important than the final result achieved when the deadline is over. Your focus should be on constantly improving your team.
3 – Make a 360° assessment
When the deadline that had been stipulated ends, it’s time for the evaluation itself. It’s time for you to analyze the progress of each employee and the team as a whole.
In this case, a recommended methodology is the 360° evaluation. This method is based on bringing together different assessments from stakeholders with different profiles, which will provide different perspectives, to obtain a more complete and accurate picture of performance.
In the 360° evaluation, evaluations are applied:
- From the superiors;
- From colleagues;
- Self-assessments;
- Customers or partners (when applicable).
It is important that the data obtained in each one be analyzed comparatively, so that the conclusion of this evaluation is more impartial and accurate.
