Assessment of the performance system
The company carries out its performance appraisal annually during which the supervisors assess the employees by awarding scores to various aspects of their jobs. The performance appraisal forms are simple showing the varied elements for employees’ assessment.
The form contains eight aspects viz. quantity and quality of work, dependability and initiative at work, cooperativeness and communication, energy and enthusiasm and the employees’ socialization with co-workers. During appraisal, the supervisors should award scores to each aspect for each employee. This proves the process tedious given the large employees’ population. The supervisors undertake this operation in one day – 31 December, every year.
The human resource department then carries out cumulative ratings for each employee. To effect promotions within different departments, the human resource office uses the rated information. The office also uses the information during salary increment for the employees. Close examination of the appraisal exercise reveals that the process is tedious and time consuming, especially for the supervisors.
The exercise is also subject to individual manipulation by the supervisors since the information contained in the evaluation forms is simple. The evaluation process is nonprofessional since the management has never offered training to the supervisors on how to carry out the process (Schwind, Das & Wagar, 2009, p. 362). Due to volumes of the evaluation forms, the human resource personnel finds it difficult to retrieve any information required for promotions and salary hikes; thus rendering the process useless and a waste of resources.
Recommendations
First, the management should adopt a continuous performance appraisal rather than the current one-day practice. This method will improve the credibility of the evaluation process. As the case shows, the current exercise is vulnerable to manipulation by the supervisors and the human resource personnel.
In fact, the survey conducted astoundingly revealed that, only 10% of the supervisors adhered to the rules of the appraisal (Schwind, Das & Wagar, 2009, p.363). In order to root out this administrative malpractice, the management should design a new approach in which the supervisors have limited capacity to manipulate the process. Ideally, a continuous appraisal approach would enhance this achievement.
Secondly, the human resource department should alter the content and format of the appraisal form. The aspects of initiative and dependability are indeed confusing, especially to such supervisors who have no skills in performance evaluation. Conventionally, initiative people are dependable.
Therefore, in order to avoid the reigning confusion, the management should either combine the two aspects or remove the aspect of dependability. The forms should be designed in a way that, the supervisors retrieve most of the information from the past records of the employees.
For instance, instead of using quality as an aspect, the evaluation should look into successes and failures of specific employees. This move will reduce the capacity and probability of supervisors providing wrong or predetermined information. Since the supervisors have to deal with more than 700 employees, the process is time consuming. Therefore, altering the content of these forms to reduce time expended shall save the company considerable costs.
Finally, the management should provide training to the supervisors on appraisal performance because the training will make the process professional and therefore an important tool for decision-making by the human resource office. As a result, the company’s promotions and salary increment criterion shall be credible and satisfying to the employees and the management.
Alternatively, the management can hire the services of an external professional to monitor the process. This move will ensure that the supervisors adhere to the rules of the process and hence make the process useful to the company.
Reference
Schwind, H., Das, H., & Wagar, T. (2007). Canadian Human Resource Management: A Strategic Approach (8th ed). Ontario; McGraw-Hill Ryerson. Print.