BUSINESS

Navigating Staff Appraisals In The Real Business World

Evaluating performance can sometimes feel like you are about to explore uncharted territory, especially for the first-time managers and new business owners. But staff appraisals work and you can make them work for you too because effective appraisal administration with your staff can and will enhance and encourage better performance. With the expertise of Real Business, we explain what staff appraisals are, guide you towards implementation and provide you with a few techniques that can improve your employees’ performance.

Finding what works best for you and your team, is paramount to the success of utilising staff appraisals in your workplace. This article simply serves as a model that can be easily integrated into your operations that will support your business goals for long-term profitability and growth.

Redefining The Appraisal

Long gone are the days, where the notification of a staff appraisal meeting filled both the sender and receiver with dread and discomfort. Previously performance management felt very much like a one-sided affair, where employees were rather dictated too on what the expectations were for their performance. Employees felt very much excluded from the process and evaluation of their performance management.

But these days, staff appraisals have been redefined into a collaboration that both benefit the employer and employee. This is a space that allows two-way communication, clear expectations and transparency between both parties. Once employees feel included in the process of their evaluation and work management, they see the value in improving their performance and optimising how they work.

Staff appraisals can be used in several ways to address different areas of performance management. For example, this discussion can be used to identify the responsibilities of employees, explore their roles and determine their future career routes. It is also a chance to highlight which work and job-defined areas employees excel at and which they struggle with. remuneration, incentives and other benefits are also clearly discussed at this meeting between manager and employee. Lastly, the manager can review the performance to date allowing for feedback from the employee. Quarterly staff appraisals allow employees performances to be measured accurately. Problems in performance can be remedied within a certain time and this can be evaluated to see further improvement is needed.

Implementing Staff Appraisals

Integrating staff appraisals can be daunting, especially if it is a new initiative that is being introduced to the business. It’s important to acknowledge and communicate to all level employees that a staff appraisal is not a once-off exercise, but rather a continuous performance management tool.

To begin, outlining what you hope to achieve with staff appraisals can help your staff understand the objectives of the implementation. Following this, managers need to prepare for staff appraisals by looking at previous performance notes. If reviews were carried out in the past, these can be the base for the implementation of frequent staff appraisals.  It’s crucial that managers are comfortable with the process themselves and can field any questions or reluctance from their employees. The key to the successful integration of staff appraisals in any business is employee buy-in. Employees that understand the process, feel confident in the measurement and evaluation models used to assess their performance and can communicate freely – are more likely to use the staff appraisal to their advantage for their future development and growth.

Managers need to provide detailed goals for both the organisation, department, team and employee. If the employee can see the bigger picture, they will be more willing to optimise their performance to see that goals are achieved.

Methods To Consider

Before choosing a method for your staff appraisals, you need to understand and determine what your business needs are. No two businesses are alike, even if they operate in the same industry. The measurement of employees performance is determined by many factors but the ultimate objective of doing so is to improve productivity and profitability. Enhancing performance throughout the business can be achieved through staff appraisals – which is why the method you use is so paramount to your progress.

Some businesses use one dedicated method with no alterations to suit their specific workplace and others use a combination of different methods. Real Business will explore three suitable methods that are easy to adjust to your business, operations and employees.

Quite commonly used these days, is the management by objectives method. Because the focus is goal-orientated, the process is rather simplified and integration easily achieved into any scenario. This method specialises in goal setting, both the manager and employee determine. Once set, both parties need to regularly update the progress of achieving the goal and allow for two-way communication and feedback. Usually attached to this type of method of staff appraisals are remuneration bonuses, once goals are achieved, employees can enjoy several benefits for their improved performance.

A traditional method which still features in some businesses today is the rating system. While the space for open communication and feedback is removed, it narrows down on specific performance requirements. Because of how direct and clear this method is, employees are required to acquaint themselves with expectations with no objections. Managers then proceed to “rate” how well or poorly each expectation had been met, thus determining if the performance improved over time.

Lastly, a method that is gaining popularity is the 360-Feedback Staff Appraisal. In which feedback on an employee’s performance is collated from a number of different sources. These sources include people who work directly with the said employee, such as managers, colleagues, clients and suppliers. It also allows for the employee themselves to evaluate their performance in a predetermined period. This method can quickly identify areas for development and can provide feedback that is honest and without bias.

Determining what staff appraisal method works for your business is truly reliant on your workplace culture, morale and organisational ethos. The objective of staff appraisals may be to evaluate and assess performance, in order to enhance it and your overall productivity. But staff appraisals have several other advantages that can benefit your business in the long-term. Employees are more likely to feel job satisfaction when their performance is recognised. They are also encouraged to increase their productivity and feel motivated by the potential career growth they can experience.  Succession preparation is another added incentive to utilise staff appraisals as it can indicate to employees that you value their input and do see them in a higher position over time. While this article provides you with a brief overview of staff appraisals, methods and implementation, we hope it helps you navigate the integration of them into your business successfully.

Muhammad Aslam

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