Performance Appraisal Tools

Performance appraisal tools are the method of analysing the job done by the company's employees. Employees of the company often regard the performance appraisal bias.

Any manager or other senior authority in an organisation evaluates the reports of their juniors using performance appraisal tools. The hard work of the employees determines the appraisal they receive.

Usually, in a firm or a company, many people work together in a team to carry out a task. Thus, the performance appraisal is evaluated by the HR or the manager based on the team’s performance. 

If the employees think the given performance appraisal is biased, they might feel discouraged from cooperating with their team members. Therefore, it is necessary to consider practical tools to obtain the performance appraisal. Let’s take a look at some of the performance appraisal tools below:

Rating Scale

When evaluating an employee’s performance, one alternative is to assign a numerical score to each performance component. For instance, a rating scale of one to five might illustrate a range of qualities from not meeting to exceeding expectations. 

While this tool produces a quantitative performance level compared to others in similar roles, it has some drawbacks: The appraisal of an employee’s performance is mainly subjective, with various supervisors giving the same person different grades.

Comparing one Another

This method involves comparing the employees with one another and then ranks accordingly. The manager will compare the performance of one employee with all others. Now, they might evaluate the best employee to rank them at the top. 

This method requires much consideration and effort to get a final list. This method requires a significant amount of time too. Moreover, it does not give justice in the case if all team employees have done their tasks efficiently. If a company has more than one managing authority, it will become challenging to decide on the final ranks. 

Confidential Appraisal Report

As the name suggests, it is a traditional method in which the manager hands over the appraisal report confidentially to the senior authority in a sealed envelope. 

No one has access to these reports except the writer of the report and the authority to which it is handed over. As a result, the managers feel freer to write in detail about the performance of their employees. 

However, as the employee does not get to view their reports, they cannot improve their performance based on the manager’s reviews. 

Checklists with Weightage

The managing authorities construct different statements best describing the jobs. Each of these statements holds some weightage or value to it. Now, the manager or the supervisors will check if these statements most closely describe the employees or not. 

The supervisor moves to the final report based on the number of checks with their weightage on the checklist. A person who holds greater experience and is familiar with the role constructs these checklists. 

However, the method is time-consuming and has a high chance of performance appraisal biases. Moreover, it is difficult to analyse the characteristics of all employees just based on some checklists. 

Free Form Method

It is a traditional method of writing a long summary or an essay based on the employee’s performance. The manager gets the advantage of adding all odds and evens they have observed in the last year’s performance of the employee. 

They can write about the employees’ problem-solving skills under different conditions. Moreover, they might add about their sincerity towards their job and if they suit well in the company or not. 

In a company, teamwork is the key to success; therefore, the appraisal report will also include whether you cooperate well with colleagues or not. 

However, sometimes if the manager has some issues with the employees, they can write more odds about them, or they might not be right about their skills. In other words, we can say that it might show personal bias in performance appraisal. 

Conclusion

Appraisal tools are essential to evaluate the yearly or quarterly performance of all company employees. The manager decides on different parameters for evaluating the final report of their employees. For example, they might grant personalised tasks to each employee to analyse their skills under different conditions. 

There are different traditional and modern methods of reviewing performance. For example, the rating method is one of the most common methods that we all even use in our daily life. 

Whenever we book a cab ride, the app asks for the experience in the form of a rating scale of 1 to 5. Thus, reviewing helps a company meet its shortcomings and improvise with time.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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What do you mean by management by objectives in an employee's performance appraisal?

Answer: In this method, the supervisor or the manager assigns special tasks to...Read full

Name some of the tools and techniques that the managers use in the performance appraisal of the employees?

Answer: Some of the tools that the managers use in performance appraisal of th...Read full

State some of the appraisal biases and solutions to them?

Answer: Sometimes, the employee might think that the appraisal report is biased towards them. To eradicate this performance appraisal bias feeling,...Read full

State the most common method or the performance appraisal tool?

Answer: Rating scale is the most common method or the performance appraisal tool.