It’s no secret that appraisals are despised
People look at the appraisal form with hatred, secretly wishing they could shun the whole thing and forget it exists.
And yet we are far from replacing it with anything better…or actually doing any shunning!
We know we need them but most of us would rather poke out our eyes than do one.
“What do 58% of organisations feel is not an effective use of time, yet almost 100% insist on doing? Yes, it’s the annual appraisal, without doubt one of the most unpopular phrases in the HR lexicon – one that often inspires apprehension and anxiety in staff and cynicism in managers.” Lucis Mitchell, HR magazine
The question is, why?
Well, people seem to hate the same things; the admin work, the paperwork, and ultimately, the lack of any worthwhile results and added value.
It seems pretty obvious to me that the answer is to change the erroneous process you might have in place and replace it with something worthwhile that is viewed as a positive experience.
So how can you stop your appraisals from being just another admin process?
- Time – Don’t see the appraisal as something to get over with as quickly as possible in a 15-minute meeting. You need to be able to have real conversations with your team
- Quality – Once the time is set aside you need to make good use of it!
- Talk about your employee’s strengths and weaknesses, discuss progress and overall performance
- That being said, an employee should not be finding out about a performance issue during an appraisal. If you do, it becomes eerily like a disciplinary and that is not what an appraisal is. Keep the conversation positive by not just looking at what is wrong but the why and deciding on real solutions
- Offer your support. By letting the employee know that you are here to help them work through their actions they will feel more at ease and also that not all of the onus is on them. That can go a long way to helping someone to achieve their objectives. You may even end up with some objectives yourself!
- The paperwork doesn’t make the process – The appraisal isn’t about the paper it’s printed on, it’s about the conversation. If you use paper forms why not scrap them? You’ve had a good chat, what is important now is the follow-up plan. What are the core objectives and points for improvement? As long as you have these things written down somewhere, you can look back to them at your next appraisal and see what has and has not been achieved
- The follow up is key – Once the conversation is done don’t just tick it off your task list and forget about it. You offered your support and most likely walked away with an action or two for yourself. Set the precedent by following these up straight away
- Getting your pennies worth – It’s easy to focus on a secular view, looking at each employees results individually but is there a bigger picture? It’s the job of your HR team or HR consultants to analyse the results and talk to your managers. What trends are there? What actions need to take place on a business wide scale? Maybe the results highlight a need for a department to receive training?
Download our tips for being more productive
See how we implemented appraisals with some of our clients
If you need support with your employee appraisals or HR in general then give us a call on 01256 328 428 ir click the button below to organise a callback at your convenience!