To Appraise Performance..don’t wait for year to get over!!!!

Whenever a manager over heard mere “Performance appraisal”,  you will be able to hear their groan out of stress. Many managers see Performance appraisal as nothing more than an empty, bureaucratic exercise  forced on them by HR. even for appraisee (a subordinate) when he gets a meeting request from his boss for performance review discussion, he feels just yesterday he has written his goals which is promptly forgotten too and this discussion becomes more of a bajate raho discussion for him.

More than 80% of staff feels that performance reviews are unnecessary and is a waste of time because of lack of efforts put in by managers in to the process. Lackadaisical attitude of management results in Employee apathy.

The sanctity of performance management system is to keep a tap on the achievement viza viz goals set and to design competency development plan based on the performance review analysis. Regret to mention than this appraisal tool is just being used to identify A,B and C category and decide increment percentage which is too mostly influenced by key business drivers. The annual performance review discussions, if so happens, are not aligned with need assessments, thus barely adds value to them.

Here, we need to change the approach rather than the system. There are four ways I perceive, if adopted, the Trust in performance appraisal system will be restored and employees will find it more effective and generate the desired outcome.

First is to Keep it Simple, many managers dislike complexity of modus operandi of performance appraisal system and bureaucratic forms. Design a format which is simple to decipher & captures relevant data and focus on structural part of conducting review discussions with reduced stress element.

Second, Frequent Connect between Manager and his subordinate. It is no longer effective to meet your subordinate once or twice a year to discuss on performance appraisal. Frequent appraisal meetings will help to monitor on goals achievements and to keep check on relationship needs, growth needs, motivational needs & learning needs of your subordinate. Meeting once in a quarter or sometimes more frequent will save you from future peril of non achievements of targets and give a pat on a back for achievement & study the shortfalls when they are fresh in memory and  a employee can also express his feeling on his performance. Once or twice a year performance review meeting will force you to drop your criticism at him at once like a bomb, rather zor ka jatka dheere se approach will be easier to swallow and leads to constructive conversation.

Third, Conversations focused on future. Annual appraisals often becomes ‘poker game’ where employees are being asked to lay their cards on the table first, so that managers can identify weaknesses and focus on actions require to improve those weaknesses. To conduct effective performance appraisal discussion, adopt ‘sandwitch technique’ whereby, you open conversations highlighting notable achievements in recent times, followed by critical assessments and interactive discussion on areas of improvement and conclude the discussion with landing a hand to him to unleash hidden potentials and tips for learning and development.

Fourth, Self monitoring of performance & learning. Nowadays, modern Performance Appraisal tools track self performance ratings which has been perceived by most of the staff as a data gathering tool for counter arguments by managers. Hence they rate themselves high so that after negotiation they will be rated somewhere in mid range. Whereby, essence is to provide a honest rating for their own performance. By asking employees to keep a track on own performance and learning, write down their goals and keep a check on success and discoveries, the data generated out of it is not being used by managers to critically evaluate but to help each employees to take responsibility of their own performance.

In era of automation, we sometimes get caught in terminologies and having an online PMS module which runs once or twice a year is not at all an issue but this system will only help to capture data, it can not motivate, inspire and develop people. Hence, frequent feedback sessions on performance & creating self organized learning environment where people learn from this feedback meetings which takes place in corridor, lifts or across the coffee.

Author Bio:

Paras Khatri

Paras, born & brought up in city of dreams. A human Resource pro and a believer that having an active presence on social media will not only align you with professionals across industry & domain experts but also a platform to share your thoughts with them, which influenced me to become a blogger. A traveler, who wants to explore world, meet people and walk over no mans land. You can follow him on twitter  @paraskhatri .

Four ways to Disconnect with your employees

Four ways to Disconnect with your employees...

Good employee relations is marketing. To me HR, especially the employee relations aspect of it, has always has a marketing component to it. Human Resources should take lessons from Marketing. Marketing tries to alter consumer behavior and we in HR try to alter employee behavior. There are numerous lessons that can be applied to dealing with your employee populations. It is not just to your older workers but to all the generations you have in your workforce.

Lesson #1- Don’t disrespect their heroes

We each have our “heroes” that we look up to, listen to, follow, read or whatever. If we find that someone is “bad-mouthing” our heroes generally we take a dim view of that individual. Bad-mouthing a talk show host, or a TV show, or a politician, or a singer or whatever will start to build a barrier between you and the employee. You don’t have to like their “hero”, after all you are entitled to yours, but at the same time you don’t need to demean who they like. Everyone tries to relate qualities of their Heroes in you as a leader and when you start disrespecting theirs, eventually you are disrespecting yourself.

Lesson #2- Don’t assume you know their beliefs

Having misleading notion in assuming you know someone’s beliefs based upon the generational/cultural/gender category you believe they belong to. disagreeing with their predetermined beliefs can prove fatal for the team efficacy. Even twin brothers apart in age, considered to be in the same “generation” have vastly different beliefs in a number of areas. If they happened to work for the same company their employer would be making a major mistake in assuming they had similar wants, desires and beliefs. in marketing, it is important to understand your target audience beliefs and perceptions through continuous interaction and going out there, similarly to understand your employees belief, go out there and start interacting

Lesson #3- Don’t bother to learn something about their frame of reference

In marketing you need to have some idea of the frame of reference of your target market. It is just as important for HR to understand the various culture reference points for the employee groups they have under their roof. It will help to make communication easier and give you points on which you can craft a message to employees. Touch points or points of reference for each generation in your workforce should be studied and understood by HR.

Lesson #4- I don’t get No Respect

Respect is a basic human condition that many people feel should be given until proven otherwise. Others feel it should not be given until earned. I am in the former school. I was reared to respect people, their feelings and their property until they proved to me they were not worthy of it. If you took the time and effort to hire someone to work for you then you should afford them the respect they deserve. If you feel they don’t deserve it then don’t hire them. Respect is a condition that all good HR people should be aware of on a consistent basis. If you are not then you are asking for trouble. People don’t always use the word “respect.” They use words like harassment, discrimination, or bullying to express a lack of respect exhibited toward them and those words are expensive in time, effort and money.

So heed these four lessons from marketing rudiments and start seeing the employee group as a customer group and figure out how you can avoid disconnecting with them and ultimately driving them away. 

Author Bio:

Paras Khatri

Paras, born & brought up in city of dreams. A human Resource pro and a believer that having an active presence on social media will not only align you with professionals across industry & domain experts but also a platform to share your thoughts with them, which influenced me to become a blogger. A traveler, who wants to explore world, meet people and walk over no mans land. You can follow him on twitter  @paraskhatri .