Appraising

Performance

McGraw-Hill/Irwin

You have to get ongoing

constructive feedback to
push you out of your
comfort zone.
Kevin Sharer,
CEO,
Amgen

Copyright 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All

Learning Objectives
1. Summarize the benefits of conducting
performance appraisals.
2. Identify the steps in appraising performance
systematically.
3. Discuss guidelines for avoiding discrimination
in performance appraisals.
4. Compare types of appraisals.

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Learning Objectives
5. Describe sources of bias in appraising
performance.
6. Explain the purpose of conducting performance
appraisal interviews.
7. Tell how supervisors should prepare for a
performance appraisal interview.
8. Describe guidelines for conducting the
interview.

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Performance Appraisal
Performance appraisal
Formal feedback on how well an employee is
performing his or her job

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Purposes of Performance
Appraisal
To improve, employees need to know how
they are doing.
An appraisal can help motivate
employees.
Performance appraisals are part of the
ongoing control process and provide
important records for the organization.

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The Appraisal Process

Establish and communicate expectations
for performance.
Establish and communicate standards for
measuring performance.
Observe and measure individual
performance against standards.
Reinforce performance or provide
remedies.
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The Appraisal Process

Establish and communicate expectations for
performance.
List three to five major responsibilities of each
position.
Focus the appraisal on these responsibilities.
Be sure employees know and understand what
is expected of them.
Employee are most likely to understand and be
committed to objectives they helped develop.
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The Appraisal Process

Establish and communicate standards for
measuring performance.
Each expectation should be measurable.
A supervisors task includes deciding how to
measure employees performance and then
making sure employees know what will be
measured.

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The Appraisal Process

Observe and measure individual
performance against standards.
A supervisor should continuously gather
information about each employees
performance.
When preparing a performance appraisal, a
supervisor compares this information with the
standards for the employee being appraised.

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The Appraisal Process

Reinforce performance or provide
remedies.
Point out to employees where they have
performed well.
Asking an employee to help solve a problem
is often more effective than the supervisor
simply stating a remedy.

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Possible Causes for

Poor Performance
Inadequate skills
Lack of effort
Shortcomings of the
process
External conditions
Personal problems

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What to Measure in an
Appraisal
Do not label people with certain
characteristics.
Focus on behavior and results.
Base conclusions on observations about
behavior and results.
Record at least one specific example for each
category rated.

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Qualities of Effective Performance

Appraisal Measures

Objective
Job-related
Based on behaviors
Within employees control
Related to specific tasks
Communicated to employees

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Guidelines
The behaviors and characteristics measured by
a performance appraisal should be related to the
job and to succeeding on the job.
Appraisals should be based on the employees
success in carrying out the essential tasks of a
particular job.
An employee should know performance
standards in advance.

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Performance Appraisals
and Pay Reviews
Many organizations review an employees
wage or salary level at the time of the
performance appraisal.
Employees may focus on the issue of money,
diminishing a supervisors motivating and
coaching opportunities.

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Types of Appraisals
Graphic rating scales
Rates the degree to which an employee has
achieved various characteristics
Most commonly used

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Types of Appraisals
Paired-comparison approach
Measures the relative performance of
employees in a group
Appropriate to find one outstanding employee
in a group
Drawbacks: possible harm to morale and
teamwork, and possible lawsuits

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Types of Appraisals
Forced-choice approach
Presents an appraiser with sets of statements
describing employee behavior; the appraiser
must choose which statement is most
characteristic of the employee and which is
least characteristic

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Types of Appraisals
Essay appraisal
Often used with other types of appraisals,
such as graphic rating scales
Drawback: depends on supervisors writing
skills

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Types of Appraisals
Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales
(BARS)
A performance appraisal in which an
employee is rated on scales containing
statements describing performance in several
areas
Advantages: can be tailored to organizations
objectives and less subjective

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Behaviorally Anchored Rating

Scale for Nurses

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Types of Appraisals
Checklist appraisal
Contains a series of questions about an
employees performance
Drawbacks: can be difficult to prepare and a
supervisor has no way to adjust the answers
for any special circumstances that affect
performance

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Sample Checklist Appraisal

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Types of Appraisals
Critical-incident appraisal
Written record of incidents that show positive
and negative ways an employee has acted

Work-standards approach
A supervisor compares employees actual
performance with established standards

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Types of Appraisals
Management by Objectives (MBO)
A supervisor compares each employees
accomplishments with the objectives for that
employee

360-degree feedback
supervisors may combine their appraisals with selfassessments by the employee or appraisals by peers
and customers.
Appraisals of supervisors and other managers also
may come from their subordinates
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Sources of Bias

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Sources of Bias
Harshness bias
Rating employees
more severely than
their performances
merit
Similarity bias

Leniency bias
Rating employees
more favorably
than their
performances merit

The tendency to
judge others more
positively when they
are like yourself
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Sources of Bias
Central tendency
The tendency to
select employee
ratings in the
middle of a scale

Proximity bias
The tendency to
assign similar
scores to items that
are near each other
on a questionnaire

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The Performance
Appraisal Interview
Purpose of the interview
communicate information about an
employees performance.

Preparing for the interview

allow plenty of time for completing the
appraisal form
notify the employee about the appraisal
interview ahead of time
prepare an appropriate meeting place
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The Performance
Appraisal Interview
Conducting the interview
Problem solving and coaching
Signatures
Follow-up

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The Process of Conducting a

Performance Appraisal Interview

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Perform. Appraise.
Change or Maintain.
Improve. Succeed.

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