Performance Appraisals By, Gemmy Allen Google.com ©1998 Emily Kalanges

Performance Appraisals “A formal, structured system that compares employee performance to established standards.”

Why Evaluate? Ensures that sales goals are being achieved To guarantee that selling costs are under control Provides feedback to managers and salespeople regarding how selling tasks can best be accomplished.

Performance Appraisal Methods: Written Essay Comparative Standards Group Rank Ordering Individual Ranking Paired Comparison Absolute Standards Critical Incidents Graphic Rating Scale Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) Management by Objectives (MBO) 360º Feedback

Written Essay: A written account which evaluates an individual’s: Strengths and Weaknesses Past Performance Potential for Promotion Offers Recommendations for Improvement

Comparative Methods: Comparing one employee against another Group Rank Ordering: The Supervisor ranks employees into a certain classification, such as the “top one-fifth” of the company. Ex. If there are ten employees, two could be considered in the in the top fifth. Individual Ranking: Employees are ranked from the highest to the lowest. The differences found between the top two employees is equal to that of the bottom two employees.

Comparative Methods: Paired Comparison: Each employee is compared to the other employees. The supervisor then rates each employee as being either superior or weak. Once all comparisons are completed, each employee is ranked according to the number of superior scores he/she received.

Absolute Methods: Rates employee’s performance against constant standards Critical Incident: Focus on critical behaviors or activities that separate effective and ineffective performance Graphic Rating Scale: Assessment of performance factors such as initiative, dependability, cooperation etc. by awarding a score on a sliding scale, either bad to very good, or 1-9.

More Absolute Methods: Management by Objectives (MBO): Evaluates how well an individual accomplished objectives critical to job performance. Aligns objectives with quantitative performance measures such as profits or sales. Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS): Elements from the critical incident and graphic rating scale approaches are combined. A supervisor rates employees according to items on a numerical scale.

More Absolute Methods: 360° Feedback: Provides feedback from the full circle of people with whom the employee interacts: supervisors subordinates co-workers Effective for identifying strengths and weaknesses

Appraisal Judgements: Performance Evaluations can be either objective or subjective. Objective Factors- Observable and measurable results Examples include: Quantities, errors, and attendance records. Subjective factors- Opinions Difficult to measure and may be caused by bias. Examples include: Personality traits such as reliability and perseverance.

Judgments (cont.): The equal employment opportunity laws regulate the ways in which performance can be measured. Employee evaluations must be supported with measurable documentation. Supervisors must ensure that they are not favoring employees or making unsupported judgements.

Halo Effect: Assessments may be influenced by one particular characteristic or incident which overshadows all others. Employees do some tasks better than others and ratings for specific job performances should reflect this. In order to avoid this error, supervisors must compare performance on a single factor, before going to the next factor.

Objectives of Performance Appraisals: Employee evaluations try to meet certain objectives. These include: Tell and Sell Tell and Listen Problem Solving Mixed Model

Performance Appraisal Objectives: Tell and Listen- Also used for evaluative purposes Supervisor shows the employee the evaluation and listens to his/her reactions open-mindedly. Tell and Sell- Used for evaluative purposes Supervisor shows the employee the appraisal and convinces the employee to follow the recommendations for improvement.

Objectives (cont.): Problem Solving- Used for employee developmental purposes Rather than show the employee the evaluation the supervisor allows the employee to decided his/her weak areas. Supervisor and employee work together to find ways to improve. Mixed Model- Used for evaluative and developmental purposes Supervisor and employee work together to find weaknesses. Supervisor persuades employee to follow an action-plan for improvement.

THE END! any questions?