According to Schuler and Jackson, performance appraisal is a formal and structured system that measures, evaluates and influences traits related to work, behavior, and results, including the level of absenteeism of an employee. This performance appraisal focuses on knowing how productive an employee is and whether the employee is able to provide the same or even more effective performance in the future, so that employees, companies, and the community can benefit from the performance provided.
There are three criteria that are the focus in every performance appraisal carried out by the company, namely, individual tasks, individual behavior and individual characteristics.
Unfortunately, performance appraisal discussions conducted by company leaders with their employees do not always give good results. Often, employees feel more stressed about the things delivered by their leaders when the performance appraisal discussion takes place.
Then, How do you make a performance assessment meaningful and relevant?
In this article, we will discuss 5 ways to create meaningful and relevant performance assessments, and of course the methods below will be very beneficial for company leaders when they want to provide work evaluations to their employees.
1. Make Performance Appraisal not just “Rating” but Make It a Discussion.
When employees hear the word “assessment”, what they have in mind is “My boss will judge everything that is in me, maybe even my uneven hair dye will be commented on”. The word assessment will only make employees feel scared because they know exactly what is expected by the company may not be able to meet them.
The atmosphere of the room imagined by employees when getting performance appraisals will definitely be very gripping and frightening. Either they will get a scolding from their boss or a scathing criticism that makes them no longer excited. That is why, to make this rating system more calm and enjoyable, would it be better if we turn it into a “discussion” between leaders and employees.
The word “discussion” sounds lighter, friendlier and more comfortable for employees. They will not feel that they are being judged or tried as the performance appraisal says that is quite frightening for them. By discussing casually but professionally, this will encourage employees to be more open and communicative. In this way, the discussion will significantly increase employee involvement.
2. Emphasizing Employee Strengths rather than Weaknesses.
When the discussion takes place, are we the type of leader who always focuses on employee weaknesses compared to their strengths? Try asking this question to each of us. A survey shows that 55% of employees who are exceptional and superior feel disappointed with their leaders. Why? Because every time a performance discussion takes place, their boss only questions their shortcomings, not the focus on their strengths.
When we focus our assessment points too much on their shortcomings, then it is the same as slowly turning off employee productivity. We need to consider the strengths our employees have.
– For example, how have employees improved their abilities and skills since the last meeting?
– What projects are they working on now? Are they experiencing difficulties with the project?
– What strength have they given in facing the difficulties of the project?
If employees give outstanding performance in completing their work, then don’t forget to deliver compliments that are very meaningful and make them more enthusiastic to give other best performance. In this case, it does not mean that we are prohibited from providing feedback on employee weaknesses or shortcomings. Giving feedback on employee shortcomings is good, but don’t just focus on the shortcomings.
3. Give a Transparent and Appropriate Assessment.
So that the valuation discussion that we hold is truly meaningful and relevant, we must be transparent and submit points of evaluation in accordance with the business context we have. It is intended that employees can understand very well the dynamics and direction of our company’s business.
Reiterate the company’s goals and what problems need to be prioritized in its resolution. In addition, we also need to refocus on how each employee can contribute to achieving company goals. Why is transparency really needed in this matter? Transparency acts as a guide for employees that every individual involved in the company is truly valued and is given a clear explanation regarding the company’s expectations to each employee.
In other words, there is nothing that leaders cover up for their employees. For example, giving a poor performance appraisal even though the employee is not given any clarity on the points being assessed.
4. Plan a Performance Discussion with a More Organized Schedule.
We need to know that performance appraisals conducted once a year are very ineffective. Why? Because too many things must be summarized in one day, while employee performance is given for one year. Logically, how can we summarize all that many performance assessments into one or two hours of performance discussion? Very unlikely taste.
In fact, maybe our employees have forgotten what they did wrong. In order for assessment discussions to be more effective, we need to schedule performance discussions to become more routine. For example, combining assessment assessments with monthly performance check-ins. Scheduling like this is proven to be more effective because it can increase the level of employee involvement and reduce the number of employee turnover (resign) significantly.
5. Discuss what can be done to Improve Performance and Achieve Goals.
Performance discussion will be meaningless and meaningless if we do not convey any points that need to be improved by employees. This is the most important part of the performance discussion, because this section will direct employees more precisely about what they need to improve to achieve company goals.
