My Top 5 reasons why Performance Appraisals go WROGN! (in no order!)

One of the toughest jobs a Manager has to conduct is the “Annual appraisal”. How many of us truly enjoy this activity? Very few, I’m guessing. Here is my take on why performance appraisals go wrong.

•  At the heart of the performance appraisal is feedback. And by its very nature, feedback is something that needs to be given or received on an ongoing basis, not on a quarterly, half-yearly or annually. “Imagine reprimanding your child on his birthday for having done something wrong or right three months before the birthday!” Feedback must rightfully happen then and there. Praise or criticism, let it happen at the right moment. Waiting for performance appraisal time is just not on.

• Another point to consider is line managers overlooking to share goals and targets with their directs. I can recollect an employee who came to me and said, “If only he had told me what he really wanted from me. Now, when it's appraisal time, he tells me he expected me to work on the other project too. How should I know what he wants when he chooses to keep quiet”.

• We also often don’t know a lot about our teams’ actual work and challenges thereof and so can’t give enough examples and incidents to back up our performance statements. Also at times our feedback is vague and at times cryptic. How does this sound – “Well done. You handled that customer well”. Sounds well… vague – right? Now how does this sound – “You handled that customer well. You did your homework and understood exactly what the customer’s needs were. I also liked the way you explained our different products and their features concisely and helped the customer narrow down their choice to product ABC. Well done!” Much better right?

• We need to create a culture of openness and transparency where people are encouraged to openly disagree (but respectfully). Encourage people to give their feedback - that’s when healthy dialog will emerge. In this kind of culture, negative comments and criticism are welcomed, listened to and worked upon. People understand feedback is not “personal” but is given with the intent of making them become better in their jobs and thereby succeed.

• Linking salary raises/ increments “only” to performance appraisals: Many of us think, the better my review or higher my rating, the higher my salary increase will be. The outcome of performance appraisals are “only one” input to salary increases – the others being the organization’s performance and profit made, the salary budget for the year, current and near future external business conditions (like future global and domestic demand in the market for the company’s products or services, upcoming governmental policy regulations, etc), criticality of some skills and technologies that are scarcely available in the market, and so on. Believe it or not, most companies do use these parameters while deciding increments.

 Many of you would have seen these scenes over and over again in your companies too. Don't you think it's time we took a closer look at this HR tool and take it for what it really is... at best, a recap of the bitter-sweet moments and an opportunity to take stock of the situation on hand and learn from what has happened in the recent past.

 Gone are the days when performance appraisals were the end-all of people management. Let's usher in a new era of frank give and take, and let our colleagues know that appraisal is a two-way street, that feedback – positive or otherwise – is to be timely and not historical. Wouldn't you agree this would foster on-job satisfaction and result in lower turnover?