Performance Appraisal

Introduction
People differ in their abilities and their aptitudes. There is always some difference between the
quality and quantity of the same work on the same job being done by two different people.
Performance appraisals of Employees are necessary to understand each employee’s abilities,
competencies and relative merit and worth for the organization.
One control measure that the nurse manager uses to achieve organizational goal is the
employee performance appraisal system. Through regular evaluation each employee’s job
performance the manager can achieve several purposes. She can help satisfactory workers to
improve their performance; inform unsatisfactory workers that their performance is
inadequate and recommended methods for improvement; identify employees who deserve
salary promotion or salary increase; recognize employees who qualify for special assignments;
improve communication between herself and subordinates; and establish a basis for later
coaching of employees who need special assistance.
B.F. Skinner’s experiments with classic conditioning revealed that person learn best (learning
results in behavior change) when they receive immediate feedback concerning the adequacy of
their performance. The information that is given an employee during performance appraisal
constitutes feedbacks that will guide the employee in improvement efforts.

Definition
According to Flippo
Performance appraisal is the systematic, periodic and an impartial rating of an employee’
excellence in the matters pertaining to his present job and his potential for a better job.

Performance appraisal is the process of obtaining, analyzing and recording information about
the relative worth of an employee

Objectives of Performance appraisal:

 To review the performance of the employees over a given period of time.
 To judge the gap between the actual and the desired performance.
 To help the management in exercising organizational control.
 Helps to strengthen the relationship and communication between superior –
subordinates and management – employees.
 To diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals so as to identify the
training and development needs of the future.
 To provide feedback to the employees regarding their past performance.
  Provide information to assist in the other personal decisions in the organization.
 Provide clarity of the expectations and responsibilities of the functions to be performed
by the employees.
 To judge the effectiveness of the other human resource functions of the organization
such as recruitment, selection, training and development.
 To reduce the grievances of the employees.

Evaluation principles
 The worker’s evaluation should be based on behaviorally oriented performance
standards for the position that she occupies. Since the job description and associated
performance standards are presented to the employee during orientation as objectives
toward which she should strive, her performance should be evaluated with reference to
those same objectives.
 An adequate and representative sample of the nurse’s behavior should be observed in
evaluating her performance. Care must be taken to evaluate her usual or consistent
behavior and to avoid magnifying the importance of an isolated, atypical instance of
either superior or inept behavior. Since exceptional behavior by a worker, whether good
or bad, is more apt to attract a supervisor’s attention than is more typical behavior, each
supervisor should determine in advance the occasions on which she intends to observe
each nurse in performance of specific job activities.
 The nurse should be given a copy of her job description, performance standards, and
evaluation form to review before the scheduled evaluation conference so the nurse and
the supervisor can discuss the evaluation from the same frame of reference. Both the
nurse and the supervisor should complete the evaluation form.
 In documenting an employee’s performance appraisal, the manager should indicate
those areas in which performance is satisfactory and those in which improvements are
needed. The supervisor should refer to the specific instances of satisfactory and
unsatisfactory behavior in order to clarify the base for evaluation comments.
 If there is need for improvement in several area of nurse’s performance, the manager
should specify which are to be given priority as the nurse attempts to upgrade job
performance.
 The evaluation discussion should be scheduled at a time that is convenient for both
nurse and manager, should be held in pleasant surroundings, and should also allow time
for both to discuss the evaluation at length.
 The evaluation should be structured so that it is perceived as helpful by the nurse
whose performance is being analyzed. An employee can withstand even strong criticism
from a manager who shows consideration for her feeling and offers to assist her in
improving job performance.
Process of Performance Appraisal
The process of performance appraisal occurs both informally and formally

Informal appraisal
In an informal appraisal, continuous feedback is provided regarding the performance of
employees. As a close interactive relationship exists between behavior and feedback, informal
appraisals encourage desired professional behavior and prevent undesired behavior.
The feedback both verbal and written should be taken seriously and acted upon. Suggestions
should be implemented. Informal appraisal usually occurs on a day to day basis.

Formal appraisal
Formal appraisals are usually conducted annually or semi annually.

The four basic approaches are proposed for formal appraisals

Superior’s rating the subordinates

It is a common approach and is followed in most organizations.

A group of superiors rating subordinates

In this method the subordinate is rated by a managerial committee or by a group of
managers who fill separate rating forms.
This approach is considered to be more effective than the first approach because it
relies on feedback of a number of managers. The drawback of this approach is are that it
is time consuming and at times it may reduce employees feeling of accountability to
their immediate supervisor.

Peer assessment
Employees working at the same organizational level are asked to rate their co-workers.
This approach is rarely followed in organization, as this too can be subjective.

Subordinate’s rating
Here subordinates evaluate their superior’s performance.

“360-degree appraisal”
 In such a appraisal the individual is evaluated by his or her superior/superiors, peers,
and subordinates. Thus “360-degree appraisal” is in fact an amalgamation of all the four
formal appraisal methods. If 360-degree appraisals are to be successful, they need to be
carefully designed and skillfully implemented.

The effectiveness of a formal performance appraisal system depends on the quality of control
techniques used. They include the followings.

Figure: Performance appraisal system

Individual Corrective action

Inputs  Rewards/
Employee skills, traits and Performance Incentives/
abilities appraisal promotion
Activities systems  Counseling
Job performance, behavior  Training
and work activities  Penalties
Outputs  Shifting
Results obtained  Termination

Establishing performance standards

The first step in the process of performance appraisal is the setting up of the standards which
will be used to as the base to compare the actual performance of the employees. This step
requires setting the criteria to judge the performance of the employees as successful or
unsuccessful and the degree of their contribution to the organizational goals and objectives.
The standards set should be clear, easily understandable and in measurable terms. In case the
performance of the employees cannot be measured, great care should be taken to describe the
standards.

Communicate the standards

Once set, it is the responsibility of management to communicate the standards to all the
employees of the organization. The employees should be informed and the standards should be
clearly explained to them. This will help them to understand their roles and to know what
exactly is expected from them. The standards should also be communicated to the appraisers
or the evaluators and if required, the standards can also be modified at this stage itself
according to the relevant feedback from the employees or the evaluators.
Measuring the actual performance
The most difficult part of the Performance appraisal process is measuring the actual
performance of the employees that is the work done by the employees during the specified
period of time. It is a continuous process which involves monitoring the performance
throughout the year. This stage requires the careful selection of the appropriate techniques of
measurement, taking care that personal bias does not affect the outcome of the process and
providing assistance rather than interfering in an employees work.

Comparing the actual with desired performance

The actual performance is compared with the desired or the standard performance. The
comparison tells the deviations in the performance of the employees from the standards set.
The result can show the actual performance being more than the desired performance or, the
actual performance being less than the desired performance depicting a negative deviation in
the organizational performance. It includes recalling, evaluating and analysis of data related to
the employees’ performance.

Discussing results
The result of the appraisal is communicated and discussed with the employees on one-to-one
basis. The focus of this discussion is on communication and listening. The results, the problems
and the possible solutions are discussed with the aim of problem solving and reaching
consensus. The feedback should be given with a positive attitude as this can have an effect on
the employees’ future performance. The purpose of the meeting should be to solve the
problems faced and motivate the employees to perform better.

Decision making
The last step of the process is to take decisions which can be taken either to improve the
performance of the employees, take the required corrective actions, or the related decisions
like rewards, promotions, demotions, transfers etc.
Types of evaluation devices
Free response report
In the free response report the evaluator is asked to comment in writing on the quality
of the nurse’s performance in a particular position over a given period. Because the
evaluator is given no direction concerning which aspects of performance are to be
evaluated, the assessment is apt to be invalid in that it ignores one or more significant
aspects of the employee’s job description. The free response report may also lack
objectivity if it concentrates only on those areas of the nurse’s performance about
which the supervisor entertains strong feelings.
Simple ranking
Some evaluation tools call for the evaluator to rank the employee in relation to his
coworkers with respect to various aspects of performance. A particular staff nurse might
be ranked by her superior as having demonstrated the highest performance among
seven staff nurses in her unit with regard to patient care, as third highest in the same
group with regard to the quality of her patient teaching, and lowest in the group with
regard to the amount of her research productivity.
Paired comparison
A better technique of comparison than the straight ranking method, this method
compares each employee with all others in the group, one at a time. After all the
comparisons on the basis of the overall comparisons, the employees are given the final
rankings.
Critical incidents method
In this method of Performance appraisal, the evaluator rates the employee on the basis
of critical events and how the employee behaved during those incidents. It includes
both negative and positive points. The drawback of this method is that the supervisor
has to note down the critical incidents and the employee behavior as and when they
occur.
Field review
In this method, manager discusses and interviews the supervisors to evaluate and rate
their respective subordinates. A major drawback of this method is that it is a very time
consuming method. But this method helps to reduce the superiors’ personal bias.
Performance checklist
A performance checklist might consist of a list of performance criteria for the most
important tasks in the employee’s job description, with adjacent blanks in which the
evaluator indicates whether the nurse does or does not exhibit the desired behavior.
Since the criteria are statements of desired behavior, a quick glance at the completed
form reveals the overall quality of the nurse’s total work performance.
Graphic rating scale
A graphic rating scale includes a series of items representing different activities in the
nurse’s job description. The supervisors indicate the quality of the nurse’s performance
of each activity by checking the appropriate phrase is a series of phases.
Forced choice comparison
In a forced choice comparison the evaluator chooses from a group of weighted
descriptive statements those best describe the nurse being evaluated and those that
least describe her. Favorable and unfavorable items are grouped so that the evaluator is
forced to select some unfavorable as well as some favorable statements to describe the
nurse’s performance. This latter feature counteracts the tendency toward leniency
displayed by some evaluators. The descriptive statements that make up the form are
weighted according to their ability to predict success in the position under
consideration. Since the supervisor who uses the form does not know the predictive
ability of each item, she cannot deliberately skew the final score in a positive or negative
direction.

Writing performance appraisal

The written performance appraisal document should ideally contain following basic sections:

Performance elements
A performance element is a general description of an employee’s overall responsibility in a
particular area of work. Performance elements are basically the job description of the
employee clearly describing the roles and responsibilities expected from him.

Performance standards
Performance standards are the expected or the desired level of the tasks to be accomplished by
the employee.

Actual performance
This section records the data of the actual performance of the employee, his accomplishments,
successes and failures, his on-the-job performance, his strengths and weaknesses.

Plans for employee development

The developmental requirements (the training needs) felt or found by the appraiser for the
employee.

An overall rating
An overall rating for the employee’s overall performance like satisfactory performance,
unsatisfactory performance, requires improvement etc.

Advantages of performance appraisal

 To provide back-up data for management decisions concerning transfer, promotions,
salary benefits.
 To serve as a check on hiring and recruiting practices.
 To motivate employees by providing feedback about their work.
 To improve communication between supervisor and employee, and to reach an
understanding on the objectives of the job.
 To help the supervisors observe their subordinates more closely.
 To establish standards of job performance.
 To help the organization determine if it is meeting organizational goal.

Obstacles to effective performance appraisal

  Lack of support from top management
 Resistance on part of evaluators because
o Performance appraisal demands too much of supervisors effort in terms of time,
paperwork, and periodic observation of subordinate’s performance.
o Supervisors are reluctant to judge others
o Supervisor lack skills in appraisal techniques
o Performance appraisal is not perceived as being productive
 Evaluator biases and rating errors, which result in unreliable and invalid ratings
 Lack of clear, objective standards of performance
 Failure to communicate purposes and results of performance appraisal to employees.
 Lack of a suitable appraisal tool.
 Failure to police the appraisal performance effectively

Problems in performance appraisal

In order to achieve objectivity in evaluating subordinates, the nurse manager must struggle to
overcome two categories of bias, which are commonly referred to as “halo effect” and “horn
effect”.
Halo effect is a tendency to overrate a subordinate’s performance for the following reasons.
 An employee with the pleasing personality or high level of social skills is apt to receive a
higher performance rating than her work quality would warrant simply because the
maneger unconsciously generalizes her personal liking for the individual to appreciation
for her work.
 A subordinate who has performed well in the past but whose current work the manger
has not closely observed may be assumed to be performing at the same high level, so
may be given an unduly high rating by the manager.
 A subordinate who shares the manager’s area of clinical expertise, research interests, or
personality quirks is likely to receive higher than deserved ratings, since the manager is
inclined to look favorably on interests and tendencies that resemble her own.
The horn effect is a tendency to rate an employee lower than her performance would warrant
for one of the following reasons.
 An employee whose work is consistently above average but is inclined to disagree
openly with her manager is apt to receive a lower rating than deserved because of the
manager’s resentment of the employee’s failure to support the manager’s ideas and
suggestions.
 An employee whose work is of high quality but fails to conform to the manager’s ideal
of proper behavior for an employee of the hospital is likely to receive a lower rating
 than deserved because the manager will unconsciously generalize her disapproval of the
employee’s manner to disapproval of her work.
 An employee whose performance is above average but associates with poor-performing
employees is likely to receive lower than deserved ratings because the manger tends to
judge subordinates by the company they keep rather than by their individual job
performance.
The pitchfork effect is a common tendency to rate the people on the basis of their most recent
behavior and forgetting the events and their performance in the starting of the period.
 An employee who didn’t performed well throughout the year but has delivered a
spectacular performance or received an impressive award within a few days of her
annual performance evaluation is often given a higher rating than overall annual
performance deserves because the manager’s attention is focused on the worker’s
recent success.
 An employee who has performed at above average level throughout the year but within
a few days of her annual performance evaluation has committed an error in patient care
or employee supervision is apt to receive a lower that deserved rating because her
recent blunder remains fixed in the manager’s memory.
Central tendency is the tendency of the rater to give average ratings to the employee without
actually appraising or condemning them.
Stereotyping an employee on the basis of the performance of his/her team is another common
error.

Essential of performance appraisal

The essentials of an effective performance system are as follows:
 Documentation – means continuous noting and documenting the performance. It also
helps the evaluators to give a proof and the basis of their ratings.
 Standards / Goals – the standards set should be clear, easy to understand, achievable,
motivating, time bound and measurable.
 Practical and simple format - The appraisal format should be simple, clear, fair and
objective. Long and complicated formats are time consuming, difficult to understand,
and do not elicit much useful information.
 Evaluation technique – An appropriate evaluation technique should be selected; the
appraisal system should be performance based and uniform. The criteria for evaluation
should be based on observable and measurable characteristics of the behavior of the
employee.
 Communication – Communication is an indispensable part of the Performance appraisal
process. The desired behavior or the expected results should be communicated to the
employees as well as the evaluators. Communication also plays an important role in the
 review or feedback meeting. Open communication system motivates the employees to
actively participate in the appraisal process.
 Feedback – The purpose of the feedback should be developmental rather than
judgmental. To maintain its utility, timely feedback should be provided to the employees
and the manner of giving feedback should be such that it should have a motivating
effect on the employees’ future performance.
 Personal Bias – Interpersonal relationships can influence the evaluation and the
decisions in the performance appraisal process. Therefore, the evaluators should be
trained to carry out the processes of appraisals without personal bias and effectively.

Conclusion
In order to get the most and the best possible work from subordinates, the nurse manager
must ensure that each employee knows what behavior is expected of him or her, how much
time is available in which to develop expected skill and speed, what assistance is available to
meet job expectations, and when and by whom his or her job performance will be evaluated.
The aforementioned concerns should provide the basis for an effective performance appraisal
system for nursing personnel. Nurse Managers should write job descriptions for all categories
of nursing personnel, should design the performance evaluation system and schedule for
nursing personnel, should construct the evaluation devices or tools to be used in this process,
and should execute regular performance evaluation for each subordinate. To fulfill these
responsibilities, the manager must acquire skill in job analysis and evaluation, performance
measurement, and direct and indirect interviewing.

References
 Gillies D A, Nursing management: 537-551.
 Basvanthapa BT. Nursing administration. 1 st edition, Jaypee brothers medical
publishers: New Delhi 2004: 327-332
 Introduction to management, Icfai ceter for management research: Hydrabad 2007:
285-298
 www.wikepedia.com
 www.books.google.co.in