Performance Evaluation Interview Preparation Guide

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Performance Appraisal is not for witch hunting but for finding out strengths as well as weaknesses. The strengths can be consolidated upon and the weaknesses too be removed through appropriate training. However, this aspect is not given importance and so the main objective of performance appraisal is neglected.

Performance appraisal is a continuous job for the superiors. There is need to continuously observe the subordinates, keep records, fill documents, write reports, hence time consuming and costly.

Performance appraisal is not complete without communicating to the employee the results of the appraisal and also give him a chance to give his opinion, otherwise it is a one-sided affair without participation of employee and will not lead to their development.

Performance Appraisal must lay stress on the performance of the individual and not on his personal characteristics. Many a times this is overlooked and the personnel characteristics comes in the way of his performance appraisal.

Many a times to be on the safer side the rater would put the ratee on average scores. This happens because of two reasons. First of all if the rater does not want low scores to the ratee. Secondly, if he himself is not competent and would not like to show his incompetency.

Superiors have continuous and daily relations with the subordinates, giving accurate ratings may lead to spoiling relations with them which the superiors may want to avoid, hence higher rating to the subordinates.

Selection of appropriate appraisal technique is important to give the correct result. Some of the techniques are time-consuming and costly and so avoided. If wrong techniques are applied performance appraisal results may prove defective.

The standards used by different departments in the organization may not be the same, hence, rating becomes unscientific and employees suffer. Some rates are too liberal while others are too strict causing lack of uniformity.

The tendency of an individual to rate an employee consistently high due to some earlier good performance rather than his existing performance is called as carrying a halo around oneself.

The tendency of a superior to rate a subordinate lower than his performance justifies due to some recent/earlier failures.

The biggest limitation of performance appraisal is subjectivity. Due to human element in appraisal, there is always a fear of one's own opinion coming in the way of appraisal.

Here are some limitations of performance appraisal methods:
☛ Personal Bias
☛ Halo Effect
☛ Horn Effect
☛ Lack of Uniform Standards
☛ Appropriate Appraisal Technique
☛ Wrong Appraisal by Superior
☛ Stress on Individual and not on Performance
☛ Central Tendency
☛ Lack of Importance to Self-Development
☛ Lack of Communication and Participation with Employees
☛ Time-Consuming and Huge Paperwork

This multi-source feedback method provides a comprehensive perspective of employee performance by utilizing feedback from the full circle of people with whom the employee interacts:
☛ Supervisors
☛ Subordinates
☛ Co-workers

360 degree feedback is effective for career coaching and identifying strengths and weaknesses.

Philosophy of management that rates performance on the basis of employee achievement of goals set by mutual agreement of employee and manager. The appraisal is based on whether or not the employee has met his or her objectives.

In this method the employee's behavior and performance dimensions are analyzed and used for evaluating the performance of the employee. The HR department is involved in the process of preparing the BARS. Based on the Employee's performance and behavior, employees are anchored in different slots of good, average and poor. The rater is required to give corresponding ratings to the employee.

Various characteristics such as job knowledge or punctuality are rated by the degree of achievement. The rate usually receives a score of 1 to 5, with 5 representing excellent performance.

A performance appraisal that rates the degree to which the employee has achieved various characteristics. The graphic rating scale is the most common type of appraisal used.

Checklist appraisal method's questionnaire is prepared and scored by the HR department. The main disadvantage of checklist appraisal method is the rater is not given the flexibility to add or delete the statements.

A performance appraisal that measures the relative performance of employees in a group. This is a method of performance evaluation that results in a rank ordering of employees to come up with a best employee. This type of approach measures the relative performance of employees in a group.

Ranking appraisal method is difficult to adopt, in case of evaluating large number of employees.

The disadvantage of this method is that their quality depends on the supervisor's writing skills.

Methods focusing on the past have the advantage of dealing with work already done and are therefore relatively measurable.

The main purpose of this method is to reduce the evaluator's burden of rating the employee. In this method a dichotomous questionnaire (A question with two answer choices namely `Yes' or `No') is used. A rater is required to put a tick mark against the respective column.

It is the oldest and simplest method of performance appraisal. In this method the employee is ranked from the highest to the lowest or from best to the worst.