Assessment should not be confined to past performance alone. Potentials
of the employee for future performance must also be assessed.
A formal definition of performance appraisal is:
It is the systematic evaluation of the individual with respect to his or her
performance on the job and his or her potential for development.
A more comprehensive definition is:
Performance' appraisal is a formal structured system of measuring and
evaluating an employee’s job related behaviors and outcomes to discover how
and why the employee is presently performing on the job and how the
employee can perform more effectively in the future so that the employee
organization and society all benefit.
The second definition includes employees’ behavior as part of the
assessment. Behaviour can be active or passive--do something or do nothing.
Either way behaviour
affects job results. The other terms used for
performance appraisal arc: performance rating, employee assessment.
Employees performance review, personnel appraisal,
Performance evaluation employee evaluation and (perhaps the oldest of the
terms used) merit rating. In a formal sense, employee assessment is as old
as, the concept of management and in an
informal sense; it is
probably as old as
mankind. Nor performance appraisal is done
in isolation. It is linked to job analysis as
shown in Fig.
Performance
Fig. Relationship of Performance Appraisal and Job Analysis
Job analysis sets out requirements, which are translated
into performance standards, which in turn from the basis
for performance appraisal.
OBJECTIVES OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL
Data relating to performance assessment of employees
arc recorded, stored. and used for seven purposes. The main
purposes of employee assessment are:
1. To effect promotions based on competence and
performance.
2. To confirm the services of probationary employees upon
their completing the
probationary period
satisfactorily.
3. To assess
the
training and development needs of
Performance
Appraisal
Performance
Standards
Job Analysis
Describes
the
job-relevant
strengths and weaknesses of
each individual
Translate job
requirements I into
levels of acceptable or
I' unacceptable
Describe work and
personnel
requirement of a
particular job
employees.
4. To decide upon a pay raise where (as in the
unorganized sector) regular pay scales have not been
fixed.
5. To let the employees know where they stand insofar as
their performance is concerned
and to assist them with
constructive criticism and guidance for the purpose of
their development.
6.
To improve communication. Performance appraisal
provides a format for dialogue
between the superior and the
subordinate, and improves understanding of personal goals
and concerns. This can also have the effect of increasing the
trust between the rater and the ratee.
