Performance Appraisal Systems - The 2 Most Popular Approaches
The performance appraisal process is something that's essential to any business' productivity and performance
. Many businesses carry "dead weight" in the form of employees that simply don't pull their weight. The appraisal process is not really aimed at catching out slacking employees but rather to identify problem areas so that it can be corrected quickly.
Staff appraisals has been the subject of a lot of debate and many unions are opposed to. Regardless, managers and senior staff really need appraisals to help them evaluate the business at ground level. There are basically 2 models for appraisals and each has its own positive and negative aspects. Lets quickly look at them and see what the pro's and con's are for each.
The first and most popular form of evaluation is what is called a "trait evaluation" and this basically focuses and personal and professional traits. Traits like the ability to get on with colleges, work attitude, ability to solve problems, ability to follow instruction, leadership abilities etc. The good thing about this type of assessment is also the bad thing. Although its a great way to keep the focus on more general traits, its almost impossible to get an accurate and objective assessment.
The second type of assessment is much more scientific and aims at doing away with more general traits. The focus is on more measurable aspects of a person's job and how it works is that an employees performance gets measured against the completion of certain definite goals and tasks that he or she had to do. Obviously this works better in certain occupations but it can be a great way to measure actual performance against goals set to the employee.