What is the importance of the Appraisal Process ? Why should we take the trouble of improving the effectiveness of our Appraisal Systems ? The answers would emerge after examining a real - life case .
 In a textile Company "A" ,  a manager asked his subordinate  to go and receive the participants of a training programme at the railway station at 4a.m . The executive felt that it was unnecessary and that the manager was being sadistic by asking him to do such a task. So , the subordinate did not go .
         During the Increment and appraisal time , the manager quoted the above incident to the Managing Director to indicate the low level of  performance of the subordinate . This resulted in a lower than expected increment to the subordinate , which further impacted his motivation and morale.
     An analysis of this brings to the fore , the key errors committed by appraisers.
         The appraiser  as well as the the validator are using one incident to consolidate the performance of the appraisee. This incident is colouring the entire appraisal . What about the Appraisee's performance against objectives set for the year ? What about the satisfaction levels of Internal Customers of the appraisee ? What about the level of competencies exhibited by the appraisee , while doing the core job functions ? This is like branding a batsman as "Incompetent" because he dropped a catch once.
         The picture drawn of  the appraisee's Performance is unduly and wrongfully coloured by one incident , resulting in its vitiation and the corresponding negative cascading effects of low motivation and morale.
 In such cases , the appraisal does more demage than good and this seems to be a dominant pattern in most organizations.
      Some organizations are so disillusioned by the Appraisal Process that it is an uphill task to get the exercise completed. Quoting the GM of a manufacturing Company , " We are not able to get the Appraisals filled ".
     There is obviously something seriously inadequate about the current system of appraising.
         Let us assess the potency of "Performance appraisals" in existence today in most organizations.The broad pattern visible in most performance appraisal  systems is the focus on :
  a. Objectives' setting and the measurement of  performance against the objectives.
  b. Assessment of the appraisee on traits such as integrity,initiative, decision making,creativity,communication etc.
               In order to standardize the meaning & assessment of traits, organizations have included their definitions in the appraisal form.

         The current utilization of these aspects  of the Appraisal System indicate the following  deficiencies :
  a. Objective setting  :  Objective setting such as " improving the system of vendor management" seems to be predominant. These kind of objectives have little relevance for performance assessment . Quantifiable objectives like " Generate 3 vendors  per  product by Jun30" not only help in effective performance assessment , but also trigger the expected behaviourial patterns and energy levels of the appraisee.

  b. Traits Assessment  : The reliability and validity  of Trait Assessment , including its correlation of actual Job Performance is a question mark . The utilization of trait based appraisals has declined. However , they continue to be predominant in the Indian Context. Moreover,  a standard practice is that all the Management Personnel are appraised on the same Appraisal Parameters irrespective  of the functional area or the hierarchical level of the job. This is like measuring the effectiveness of a telephone and a printer on the effectiveness parameter of  the amount of plastic used .
                              The standard practice of  defining the traits does not help beyond a point because the meaning & value of a trait differs from position to position.The meaning & value of ,"Initiative" for a sales executive would be different from that of a HR executive.Hence an assessment of 2 of the sales executive should be treated differently from the assessment of 2 of the HR executive,on the trait ,"initiative".
 In order to resolve these inadequacies,a shift to competency assessment is desirable :

         The competency inventory for each job position has to be extracted from 3 sources , i.e customers , organization vision and departmental focus areas. Hence , the competency set would directly relate to performance requirements. Furthermore , the competency set has to be differentiated into vital , essential and desirable competencies.
         The resultant assessment of competencies would provide a realistic picture of performance and cases such as the one of organization A , would cease to happen .

     c. Lack of a standard process of assessment  :  The standard of assessment varies from department to department in an organization. Some assessors  would assess an individual as "meets expectations"while another assessor would categorize the same assessee as "exceeds expectations". This non-standard process of assessment is unfair and inequitable.
      It is surprising that very few organizations have tried to to remove this inadequacy by innovating & evolving a process of standard assessment. An  example of such a process  of assessment is mapped below :
 
  Process of  Performance Measurement
     (Example)
    Decision Parameters :      Measurement Scale :
 a. Work done      1 = Below Expectations
 b. Mistakes      2 = Adequate
 c. On time / Late      3 = Meets Expectations
 d. Innovation / Improvement    4 = Exceeds Expectations
        5 = High Performance

     Standard Assessment Process  :

 
     This process of assessment used in combination with quantifiable objective setting would reduce perception gaps between the appraiser & the appraisee. It would also facilitate the removal of assessment contamination sources such as ,"leniency","strictness" or "central tendency".
     This can be converted into a Standard Process of assessment  by  involving the key appraisors during its evolution and training the rest of the appraisers on its application.The application of this across department s would remove the ubiquitous error of different performance perceptions, in different departments.
 Appraiser training has been one of the neglected areas in most organizations. Since , the appraisal system has a major impact on Individual and Organization Performance , organizations ignore it at great invisible cost.

     d.  Lack of Validity of Ratings  : The appraiser ratings are predominantly dependent on their general perceptions. This creates chances for contamination of ratings due to one incident or one trait or one behaviour or one failure / success.
      Organizations can increase the validity of appraiser ratings by asking the appraisers to provide the pattern of Observable data  along  with the rating as a standard process of validation. Without the "Observable Data Pattern" the rating should be considered null and void. Hence, if the appraiser is rating the appraisee at 2,he /she needs to provide multiple examples indicating the pattern of  performance.

  e.Lack of an effective Appraisal Interview :    Though organizations have realized the importance of the appraisal interview by integrating it into the appraisal system,it continues to be practiced haphazardly & half-heartedly.Observations indicate that appraisals without the appraisal interview continue to be accepted by HR departments.An appraisal interview is  a quailty gate ,without which the appraisal should be considered to be below quality standard & discarded.
        The appraisal interview should also be a far more open minded process than what it currently is.It is presently an occasion for the appraiser to share the pattern of observable data on which the rating is based .The appraiser should also facilitate the sharing of alternative patterns of observable data by the appraisee before evolving a shared pattern of observable data  for performance assessment.