Employee Appraisals - Assignment Example

Effective Performance Employee Appraisals affiliation Performance appraisal involves evaluating individual employee performance and documenting it. It is a process involving career development and is an important part of the success of a business. Currently, there is stiff competition in almost every industry and companies or businesses that are looking forward to success have to brace themselves and adopt measures that will see them gain a competitive edge over their competitors. While there are many crucial components of any given business, the importance of having a strong employee body cannot be overestimated. This section of a business steers it to the levels of success it desires. Without competent employees, it is understood that the business’ chances of success drops exponentially. This paper will dig out on performance appraisals, a method that ensures that employees stay relevant and that they put forward their best performances for the benefit of the corporation. In addition, the paper will focus on how performance appraisals can help the company achieve its strategic objectives and then address some loopholes that exist in the appraisals processes. The performance appraisal system serves several purposes. Some of these functions include training and development, transfers, compensations, promotions, and reduction in the workforce. If completed properly, the appraisals can come in handy in protecting the employees in the event of charges or at times, lawsuits. Dipboye & De Pontbriand (2011) state that performance appraisal are very effective in assisting the employees meet the objectives of their jobs. The success of the system depends mainly on communication. In most cases, the managers or those higher in the job ranks do not find it important to keep the employees engaged. In a matter of fact, there are managers who believe that performance appraisals are a waste of time and that they do not have success in helping a company meet their strategic objectives. Concerning communication, informal discussions may take place on a daily basis. This method is very crucial in providing immediate feedback and help steer changes more easily and at times more conveniently. Formal appraisals are more detailed and properly laid down. They are known to provide the management and the employees the opportunities they need to review prior performance, discuss, or communicate expectations of each party, and make plans for the future development of the company. If the employees have their weaknesses pointed out, there is no doubt they will want to improve. As mentioned above, performance appraisals are helpful in communicating the expectations of a job. If the employees are continually informed on what is required of them, they will not be acting blindly but will be having the goals of the company on mind. The understanding on the roles they are supposed to play in the business that makes it possible to increase their performance. In other words, the system helps the employee prioritize on their duties. Most employees may feel detached from their jobs if the relationship between them and their supervisors is a master-servant one. The performance appraisals work effectively in opening the lines of communication between the two parties thus making the employees feel like they are business partners. The strategic advantage created in this case is one that sees a system foster its employees’ performance and in turn boost the prospects of success for the business. Other than this, the appraisals increase job satisfaction, improve the sense of loyalty of an employee toward the company, and most importantly, assist the employee in appreciating their role in the success of the business increasing their morale. These advantages result in greater efficiency among the employees in turn improving the organizational productivity. Naturally, performance appraisals are bound to have some bias, as they are subjective events (Erdogan, 2003). Unless the appraisal is completely relying on tangible data such as sales, they require more than one person to observe a given employee and then arrive at a consensus. Raters are human and human is to error. They may be at the verge of making the mistakes intentionally and thus exhibit bias (Keeping, & Levy, 2000). Through trickledown effect, the bias affects other components such as pay rise and promotion. Being aware of such bias is crucial in reducing the possibilities of presenting bias. Every company should focus on methods that eliminate bias in the appraisal system. If the system exists and some employees undergo discrimination, yet they feel that they have been of the best service to the business, and then the system may bring more harm than good to the business. The performance appraisals are a crucial part of achieving the strategic objectives of the firm. To say the least, these strategic objectives include productivity in relation to how resources are put to use, innovation, financial wellbeing, social responsibility and so on. It should be noted that these are the same things the performance appraisals help address. With the appraisals, the employees are able to put resources into good use in the end so that they can increase their productivity, they also exhibit social responsibility as that is part of their performance and so on. In conclusion, there are several benefits involved in the use of performance appraisals. Some of them include ensuring that the employees remain relevant and that their productivity does not decrease. With proper employee performance-appraisal systems, companies have the best shot when it comes to improving their productivity. While there are many benefits of the system, there exist some letdowns. Most ‘raters’ have problems avoiding bias when observing the employees. In this regard, there are competent employees that feel they have been treated unfairly and failure to address such a problem affects the morale of such employees, which may in turn be a big blow to the firm’s productivity. References Dipboye, R. L., & De Pontbriand, R. (2011). Correlates of employee reactions to performance appraisals and appraisal systems. Journal of Applied psychology, 66(2), 248. Erdogan, B. (2003). Antecedents and consequences of justice perceptions in performance appraisals. Human Resource Management Review, 12(4), 555-578. Keeping, L. M., & Levy, P. E. (2000). Performance appraisal reactions: measurement, modeling, and method bias. Journal of applied psychology, 85(5), 708. Read More