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Performance appraisals...few really like them and fewer still are very good at conducting them. It takes a tremendous amount of time to do them well. Time that quite frankly many managers that don't view as profitably spent. As a result, this long, arduous task is often put on the hack burner until the last possible moment and then squeezed in between a docket full of "important" meetings. Further, the task can be overwhelming when a single supervisor has numerous direct reports to manage. Consequently, evaluations are often based on what a supervisor thinks (or worse yet, feels), not what he/she observes. Timely documentation gives way to limited recall. Conflict and defensiveness so plague me system that many have advocated tossing out the entire dysfunctional process! Even if appnaisals were eliminated, some means of evaluating employee performance must emerge. At its core, an organization's performance appraisal system is one of its most important managerial activities!
Bottom-line....what are they really good for?
Strategic alignment. Most organizations readily accept the notion that they must have a set of strategic goals and objectives that guide the decision-making process throughout all levels of the organization. Organizational or business unit goals lead to the development of group/ department-level goals which guide and direct individual goals and objectives. Obviously, the external environment (technology, legislation, the economy, competition, etc) imposes itself upon the organization, either positively or negatively in the quest for success. These are forces that organizations must anticipate and deal with, but over which they may have very little influence. But internally the extent to which goals and objectives are achievable are directly related to the degree to which an organization's collective skills, and abilities are aligned with stated goals and objectives. That is, can the organization do what it says it wants to do? Is it capable? There is no way of knowing without a comprehensive assessment process. Where human resources are concerned, this translates into the need for a strategy-driven performance appraisal system-a system that must ask the right questions for the right reasons. Otherwise, over time, a highly capable organization could find itself in the midst of mediocrity if performance assessments are not carried out with strategic goals and objectives in mind.
Identifying training needs. Achieving capable and...