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Appraisals are a waste of Time
The poll of nearly 3,000 workers also found a quarter who had had an appraisal suspected their managers simply saw the annual review as a “tick-box” exercise. And a fifth complained managers rarely prepared for the meeting in advance – a key bit of advice you’ll always get in appraisal training – and did not even think about it until they were actually sat down in the room.
That is just a start on the problems with annual rating of people. On page 101 of Out of the Crisis Dr. W. Edwards Deming states the following as one of the seven deadly diseases:
Related: Dr. Deming on performance appraisal - Continuous, Constructive Feedback - Performance without Appraisal - Righter Performance Appraisal - The Leader’s Handbook
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December 15th, 2007 at 5:47 am
This confirms what I’ve believed all along that appraisals are damaging to employee motivation. As a manager you should coach and help your team as part of a continuous process, not a one off event. Why wait a year to tell someone they are doing a poor job - regular feedback is the key!
December 21st, 2007 at 10:48 am
John, I think my article called “Accountability, systems, and loop gain“may relate to the issue you’re describing.
December 26th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
[...] Carnival of Human Resources #23 by Ann Bares: The purpose of performance management, according to my favorite definition, is to create an environment where successful performance is a high probability outcome. What could be more important? And, yet, is there any program that poses greater challenges to Human Resources? For this reason, I am always grateful for the wisdom and insights of those both within and outside the field of HR on this topic. HR Thoughts reminds us of the importance of preparation and honesty in this process with the post A strong performance evaluation does not just happen. To help us keep perspective and representing the opinion of many, John Hunter of Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog quotes Deming and shares the results of a British study in his post Performance appraisals are worse than a waste of time… [...]
December 26th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
As someone who has recently completed a series of Performance Appraisals I confirm the difficulties.
We are dealing with people’s egos here, our own included. In a War for Talent market like China the power is
all in the staff member’s hands and the level of ‘preciousness’ is very high. High maintenance is not
adequate to describe the behaviors.
Managers think they can evaluate people who resist evaluation. They can’t. There is always a
better job around the corner and some seemed to express the attitude that the company is lucky they tolerate
its foibles.
I tiptoed around on egg shells for three days ….. Not doing that again.