Are performance appraisals still beneficial and appropriate?

It is sometimes fashionable in the 'modern age' to dismiss traditional processes such as performance appraisals as being irrelevant or unhelpful. Be very wary however if considering removing appraisals from your own organisational practices. It is likely that the critics of the appraisal process are the people who can't conduct them very well. It's a common human response to want to jettison something that one finds difficult. Appraisals - in whatever form, and there are various - have been a mainstay of management for decades, for good reasons.

Think about everything that performance appraisals can achieve and contribute to when they are properly managed, for example:

• performance measurement - transparent, short, medium and long term

• clarifying, defining, redefining priorities and objectives

• motivation through agreeing helpful aims and targets

• motivation though achievement and feedback

• training needs and learning desires - assessment and agreement

• identification of personal strengths and direction - including unused hidden strengths

• career and succession planning - personal and organisational

• team roles clarification and team building

• organisational training needs assessment and analysis

• appraisee and manager mutual awareness, understanding and relationship

• resolving confusions and misunderstandings

• reinforcing and cascading organisational philosophies, values, aims, strategies, priorities, etc

• delegation, additional responsibilities, employee growth and development

• counselling and feedback

• manager development - all good managers should be able to conduct appraisals well - it's a fundamental process

• the list goes on..

People have less and less face-to-face time together these days. Performance appraisals offer a way to protect and manage these valuable face-to-face opportunities. My advice is to hold on to and nurture these situations, and if you are under pressure to replace performance appraisals with some sort of (apparently) more efficient and cost effective methods, be very sure that you can safely cover all the aspects of performance and attitudinal development that a well-run performance appraisals system is naturally designed to achieve.

There are various ways of conducting performance appraisals, and ideas change over time as to what are the most effective appraisals methods and systems. Some people advocate traditional appraisals and forms; others prefer 360-degree-type appraisals; others suggest using little more than a blank sheet of paper.

In fact performance appraisals of all types are effective if they are conducted properly, and better still if the appraisal process is clearly explained to, agreed by, the people involved.

Managers need guidance, training and encouragement in how to conduct appraisals properly. Especially the detractors and the critics. Help anxious managers (and directors) develop and adapt appraisals methods that work for them. Be flexible. There are lots of ways to conduct appraisals, and particularly lots of ways to diffuse apprehension and fear - for managers and appraisees alike. Particularly - encourage people to sit down together and review informally and often - this removes much of the pressure for managers and appraisees at formal appraisals times. Leaving everything to a single make-or-break discussion once a year is asking for trouble and trepidation.

Look out especially for the warning signs of 'negative cascaded attitudes' towards appraisals. This is most often found where a senior manager or director hates conducting appraisals, usually because they are uncomfortable and inexperienced in conducting them. The senior manager/director typically will be heard to say that appraisals don't work and are a waste of time, which for them becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This attitude and behaviour then cascades down to their appraisees (all the people in their team) who then not surprisingly also apply the same 'no good - not doing it' negative attitude to their own appraisals responsibilities (teams). And so it goes. A 'no good - not doing it' attitude in the middle ranks is almost invariably traceable back to a senior manager or director who holds the same view. As with anything, where people need help doing the right thing, help them.

All that said, performance appraisals that are administered without training (for those who need it), without explanation or consultation, and conducted poorly will be counter-productive and are a waste of everyone's time.

Well-prepared and well-conducted performance appraisals provide unique opportunities to help appraisees and managers improve and develop, and thereby also the organisations for whom they work.

Just like any other process, if performance appraisals aren't working, don't blame the process, ask yourself whether it is being properly trained, explained, agreed and conducted.