On completion of this tutorial you will be able to:

• Define appraisal
• State what makes for an effective appraisal
• Discuss the uses of appraisals for managers and staff

What is Appraisal?

Generally speaking an appraisal interview is taken to be a formal time when a manager and a member of staff sit down to consider the member of staff's past performance; set future objectives and discuss future career opportunities for the member of staff.

The performance assessment element is generally done against a set of objectives that the person has to complete in a given time frame - normally a year. For instance, if one objective was

"to prepare an Access Database of current customers for interrogation by the Sales force by the end of April 200x"

then the performance discussion can focus upon whether the objective was completed in time, to budget and to the satisfaction of all parties concerned.

For some organisations, appraisal is still the end part of a formal procedure that determines, amongst other things, promotion and salary changes. For others it a part and parcel of normal managerial activity, the opportunity to take stock, formally, from time to time, of a member of staff'' performance to date and future objectives.

Functions of Appraisals

In 1984 the Institute of Personnel Management (as it was then) identified the following eight functions that appraisal sought to fulfil:-

• Evaluation - to enable the organisation to share out financial and other rewards 'fairly'
• Auditing - to discover the work potential, both present and future, of individuals and departments
• Constructing success plans - for human resources, departmental and corporate planning purposes
• Discovering training needs - by exposing inadequacies and deficiencies which could be remedied by training
• Motivating staff - to reach organisational standards and objectives
• Developing individuals - by offering advice, information, praise or sanctions
• Improving standards - and thus performance
• Checking the effectiveness - of personnel procedures and practises

Often it is difficult for a manager or a member of staff to work out precisely which of the above functions an appraisal interview seeks to cover. When setting a date for an appraisal interview with a member of staff it is therefore important for the manager to state which of the above functions the interview will fulfil and where the emphasis of the discussion will be focused. It is unproductive if the manager wants to focus primarily on improving standards when the member of staff wants to talk about training needs. Both will end up frustrated at the outcome of the interview.

What Makes an Effective Appraisal?

Effective appraisals require both parties to come together in an atmosphere of openness and trust to work positively towards finding out:-

• What the member of staff has done over the period of time;
• What improvements could take place;
• What future ambitions both the organisation and the staff member have for the employee,
• Where there are development needs, and
• How to meet those development needs through a variety of options, one of which is formal training.

The key elements for an effective appraisal are:-

• Preparation - by both the manager and the member of staff
• Factual information and evidence - of past performance, both positive and negative
• Privacy - uninterrupted discussion time
• Open, honest discussions - from both sides
• Create agreed action plans - for follow-up after the meeting
• Agree main tasks and targets for the coming period

Later in this course we will examine each of these key elements in greater detail.

Summary

In summary an effective appraisal provides a formal opportunity for the organisation, as represented by the manager, to state clearly and concisely what it values from the member of staff, what activities it wants that individual to pursue in the future and how it will assist in the success through the provision of equipment, training and support.