Performance Evaluation - Term Paper Example

Performance Evaluation Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Points of Concern 3 Commonly UsedSets of Criteria for Performance Evaluation 4 Relative Value of commonly used evaluation criteria 5 Advantages of including Supervisors in the Process of Performance Evaluation 6 Disadvantages of including Supervisors in the Process of Performance Evaluation 6 Comparison of Performance Evaluation Method 7 Common Biases in the Performance Evaluation Process 7 Tools and Techniques to improve the performance evaluation Process 8 References 8 Points of Concern The company presently evaluates the performance of an employee by means of personal characteristics and considering the relationship with the colleagues.

Apart from that the manager of the company also used others measures such as neatness of the workplace, attitude etc. However in the context of the project the three areas of concern are neatness, attitude and friendliness. The areas of concern in the context of performance evaluation are discussed below:- 1. In respect to friendliness, the manager of the plant gives an average rating to the engineer. The manager also analyzed that the engineer acts as a turn-off factor for the colleagues. His colleagues complain about his personality and find difficulties to socialize.

Hence it can be stated that the engineer exhibits poor interrelationship skills which makes him aloof. 2. The second area of concern is evaluation based on neatness. The case highlighted that the Engineer’s desk always remains muddled with papers and files. In this context the engineer might have to do a lot of paper work and keep all the necessary files on desk. Also the engineer might feel comfortable working with all the papers available within the desk. A negative review for this reason may impact the engineer’s future performance. 3. The company also uses attitude for the purpose of evaluation.

In this context the engineer depicts poor behavior with the colleagues. However his performance related to the official task always remains superior. Therefore review of the attitudes of an employee may generate dissatisfaction which will eventually impact the overall performance level of the employee. Furthermore, Performance evaluation is primarily carried out to notify the employee about his/her areas of rectification. The company reviews the performance of the employees once in a year.

Therefore employees have to wait for a year to gauge their weak areas which may be a cause of concern. The company in this respect must carry out performance review quarterly or on a half yearly basis. Commonly Used Sets of Criteria for Performance Evaluation Evaluation of employees acts as a stressful task for both manager as well as employee. The employee fears of biased or unfair evaluation which may affect the possible promotion or salary hike. While the managers feel that the evaluation process may impact the relationship among the employees (Drew and eHow, n.d.).

However employee evaluation is mandatory task for an organization, in order to ensure healthy performance in the market place. The most commonly used sets of criteria are discussed below:- Contribution: - It is about the role an employee played towards the attainment of the company objectives. Skill Set: - Skill set is about identifying an employee’s strengths and weaknesses. For example an employee may have strong technical knowledge, but may find difficulties in communication. Work Ethics: - Evaluation can be done on the basis of work ethics.

Factors such as punctuality, motivation, honesty, interaction with co-workers and motivation level can be used for the purpose of evaluation. Professional Development: - Evaluation is also done on whether an employee endeavour to develop his skills through learning or not. An organization always desires that employees must have the zeal to learn and enhance their skill set. Relative Value of commonly used evaluation criteria In the Part A1 the measuring factors were cleanliness, friendliness and attitude.

Friendliness plays an important role for the success of an employee as well as the organization. It creates a sense of team work among the members which eventually enhances the quality of work. An employee who exhibits friendliness holds good interpersonal skills which in turn help to coordinate with the colleagues and achieve goals in a group. While on the other hand unfriendliness designates that an employee do not likes to work with a group. However friendliness is precious as it generates a sense of teamwork.

Cleanliness ensures an employee works in a structured manner. A neat working environment is characterized by properly ordered files and other letters and memos. Moreover structures desk and chair also adds to neatness. Thus in this case incidents such as document destruction, shortage of material depict unstructured work. Moreover neatness also helps to saves time. Evaluation of attitude is also vital as it identifies the superiority of an employee’s work life. In most cases, attitude of an employee portrays the level of motivation achieved for performing a specific task.

An employee depicting positive attitude indicates he/she is highly motivated towards his/her job. While poor attitude depict an employee is either less motivated or not motivated. Thus organizations should try to find the areas which motivate the employees. In the aforementioned measures, friendliness is relatively the strongest, as it helps to get along with the co-workers. After that attitude is also an important measure, as it is also a factor which impacts on the quality of work. Finally cleanliness is relative weakest as it has minimal effect on the work activities, in comparison to other factors.

Advantages of including Supervisors in the Process of Performance Evaluation During the process of performance evaluation, if the subordinates or supervisors are included it offers the following advantages to the firm:- The employee cannot decline, when the areas are pointed out by his/her supervisor. When an employee is entitled to perform a specific task, but has not completed the same, chances of getting negative comments from the peers are likely. This will help the organization to generate a sound performance plan (Deeb and eHow, n.d.).

Supervisors and subordinates remain acquainted with an employee throughout the year. They are the ones who know an employee more closely than anybody else. Therefore feedback from them holds maximum importance. Moreover the employees can communicate their expectations with ease and this will ensure reduced communication gap. There is less biasness in the process of evaluation. Disadvantages of including Supervisors in the Process of Performance Evaluation There are also disadvantages for including the supervisors and subordinates during the process of performance evaluation.

Some of the disadvantages are mentioned below:- Subordinates may offer feedback based on the personal relationship with the employee. For example a particular colleague can offer positive feedback due to closeness irrespective of the actual happenings. Likewise if an employee has rivalry with some of his colleagues, should expect negative comments from them. This will ultimately hamper the actual evaluation process. Problem may also arise if the reviewers are not trained enough to report an employee’s performance by making use of objective techniques.

Comparison of Performance Evaluation Method The common Performance Evaluation Methods are discussed below:- Critical Incident Method: - In this method the manager keeps a record of the positive and negative points about the employee. This ultimately helps the employee to tailor himself according to the feedback. 360 Degree: - In this method the feedback from the employees are kept confidential from the contemporaries. It measures and helps to develop factors such as team work, leadership effectiveness and character among others.

Management by Objective: - This is the most commonly used method. In this respect supervisor assigns a particular objective to an employee and based on that periodic reviews are carried out. Moreover after reaching the objective employees are also rewarded with various forms of incentives. Common Biases in the Performance Evaluation Process The most common biases that take place during the evaluation process are as follows:- Primary Effect: - Reviewers generally forms an overall impression for an employee based on a particular trait recognized by them.

They do not consider all the other aspects of the employee and therefore it does not offer sufficient base for assessment. Halo Effect: - Employees are sometimes rated based on a particular positive or negative trait. The employee is also given ratings as per the rating of that perceived trait (Changing minds, n.d.). For example if an employee has strong communication skills, he is also rated high in terms of his leadership skills. Hence an overall uniform rating takes place. Personal Biases: - The way supervisors perceive an employee, plays a major role in the evaluation process.

Sometime a supervisor rates his employees based on his likings or disliking. Tools and Techniques to improve the performance evaluation Process An organization can employ number of tools and techniques for improving the performance evaluation process. Now based on the present evaluation techniques of the company, it can be further improved by the following:- 1. Ranking Method: - In this system employees can be ranked based on the performance. Therefore it will be easier to classify among best and worst employees.

Also factors such as biasness will not impact the process. In context with the case ranking method will focus only on the performance level of the employees. Hence it will help the organization to actually rank the employees based on the performance. 2. Checklist Method: - Each task allotted to the employees will have some points or score against it. Based on the quality of the output, the employee will be given points. These accumulated points can be used for the evaluation process. This will help the company to evaluate employees based on the task allotted to him/her.

Moreover employees will be also motivated towards the achievement of points, which will ensure quality output. 3. 360 Degree Method: - It is a method by which feedbacks about an employee is recorded from his/her co-workers. The reviews are also kept secret. In this context this method will help to ensure the accurateness of information. The company should also look after the professional services in order to appraise the performance of the employees. References Changing minds. (No Date). Halo Effect.

Retrieved from http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/halo_effect.htm. Deeb, C., & eHow. (No Date). Advantages & Disadvantages of Peer Review in Performance. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/info_8246331_advantages-disadvantages-peer-review-performance.html. Drew, B., & eHow. (No Date). Common Sets of Employee Evaluation Criteria. Retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/info_7869767_common-sets-employee-evaluation-criteria.html.