Performance Evaluation

Wednesday, 15 November 2023 1:40 PM

Performance Evaluation
• Judging the employees

Performance Management
• Identifying, communicating, measuring, and rewarding employees
• Allows organizations to convert strategies into results

Purpose of performance management systems:

• Clarify expectations
• Provide feedback on performance
• Identify areas of success and development
• Document performance

Corporate Strategy
1. Sets performance expectations
2. Provides performance direction
3. Motivates employees to participate
4. Assessment
5. Performance appraisal

Types of Performance Information

Trait-Based
• Character traits related or unrelated to the job (honesty, initiative, extraversion)

Behavior-based
• Specific behaviors that lead to successful outcomes (speaking slowly or fast)

Results-based
• Accomplishment and results are emphasized in terms of quantity or quality (results of action)

Performance standards

Performance Appraisal
• Systematic process of determining how well employees do based on a set of standards
• Process of communicating feedback

Steps:
1. Determine Purpose
A reason to justify the use of resources

• Training and Feedback

• Salary Increases (or cuts)
• Promotion Decisions
• Termination Decisions (poor consecutive performance)
• Research

Peter Principle - being the best at your current job doesn't mean you'll be good at the next job
(promotion)
Do internal recruitment

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 Do internal recruitment

2. Identify Limitations
• Work load
• Finances
• Employee Relationships
Should be neutral

3. Determine Evaluators
Identify who will evaluate
360-Degree Feedback - Multiple sources to appraise performance
(depends on the industry)

a. Supervisors - Most common

b. Peers - See actual behavior
c. Subordinates - Difficult to obtain
d. Customers - Evaluation Forms
Secret customer - undercover
e. Self-appraisal not common

4. Select the Best Appraisal Methods

• What dimensions will be appraised?
A. Trait-focused
- honesty, punctuality, courtesy; poor feedback
B. Competency-focused
- KSAs; easier to provide feedback
C. Task-focused
- Categories of tasks with various competencies
- Easier to evaluate difficult to specify feedback

Ex: Tasks of a psychologist

Psychological Assessment
Clinical Diagnosis
Report Writing

D. Goal-focused
- Achievement of set goals/standards
Ex: Goals of a psychologist:
Accomplish psychological reports in a timely manner
E. Contextual Performance
- Effort to do tasks that are needed but not necessary
Ex. Do they clean up after themselves?
Try to make friends with coworkers?
Market the business?

• How should the dimensions be weighed?

How will the scoring be distributed a. Long the appraisal dimensions?

E.g. Beauty Pageant Tasks:

- Swimsuit Competition (10%)
- Evening Gown Presentation (20%)
- Question and Answer (70%)

How will the employees be appraised?

1. Employee Comparison
A. Rank Order - Easy to use with few employees
B. Paired Comparisons - Comparing every possible pair of employees –n(n-1)/2
C. Forced Distribution

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 C. Forced Distribution
• Predetermined percentage of employees are placed in five categories
• Rank and yank
• Assume normally distributed performance

2. Objective Measures (Hard criteria)

Used for inconsistent workload
A. Quantity of Work
Not ideal for every job
B. Quality of work
Number of errors made/any deviation from a standard
C. Attendance
Absenteeism, tardiness, tenure
D. Safety
Employees who are often involved in accidents/safety issues are a liability

3. Ratings
Graphic Rating Scale
- Most common rating scale with 5 to 10 dimensions with labels at the ends

Behavioral Checklists
- Assign rates to a list of all behaviors, expectations and results of each dimension

How will the employees be appraised?

Contamination
• Performance of employee is not appraised properly due to forces outside of their control

Example:
The shift to online classes during the pandemic brought challenges to evaluating teachers

The best approach to rating employees would be the extent so they meet organizational goals

Management by Objectives (MBO)

1. Define company goals
2. Derive targets for employees
3. Monitor performance and progress
4. Provide feedback and motivate
5. Reward Success

5. Train Raters
Frame-of-reference Training

• Rates should be on the same page, working on the same criteria

• Provides a standard of evaluation, and practice identifying good, bad, or average performance

6. Observe and document performance

• Often use critical incidents purpose:
A. Focus on behaviors and not on traits
B. Recall behaviors when evaluating
C. Useful in legal defense

Note:
Bias, stereotyping or outright slurs in an evaluation can lead to serious legal trouble

7. Evaluate Performance

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 7. Evaluate Performance
• Refer to objective data and critical incident logs

Common errors in evaluation:

• Leniency - tendency to give high ratings
• Severity - tendency to give poor ratings
• Central Tendency - tendency to give neutral ratings (no interpretation)
• Halo - failure to discriminate between attributes due to one positive behavior/trait
• Forktail - failure to discriminate between attributes due to one negative behavior/trait
• Proximity - ratings affect those that immediately follow
• Contrast - Evaluation is affected by the rating of the employee who preceded
• Assimilation - rating is copied from a previous rating of the employee
• Low interrater reliability - ratings are inconsistent between different rates
• Primacy/Recency Effects - recollection of behaviors are affected by their position of
presentation
• Infrequency - Behavior is not observed thoroughly
• Cognitive limitations - cognitive and emotional functioning may affect ratings

8. Communicating appraisals
Tell and Sell Approach
• Supervisor 'tells' an employee about poor performance and then 'sells' ways to improve

Feedback sandwich
• Positive feedback is generally given first, followed by negative feedback, and positive feedback
to finish

Preliminaries:
1. Role and purpose of appraisal
2. Conduct of appraisal
3. Accomplishment of appraisal
4. Participation of employee
5. Emphasis on goals of improvement

X Fundamental Attribution Error

• Conclude with meaningful recommendations

9 & 10 Personnel Decisions and Legalities

Employment-at-will doctrine
• Allows for employers to fire an employee without reason

Limitations:
• Prohibited by law
• Employee is exercising a legal duty or refusing to violate the law or professional ethics
• Contracts (written or implied) specify a period of employment
• In good faith and fair dealing
• If you resign willingly, you are no longer allowed to get separation pay
• If you went awol, you need to pay 1 month worth of salary to the company

Reasons for Termination:

1. Probationary Period
2. Violation of company rules
3. Inability to perform (consecutive poor performance appraisal)
4. Reduction in force (layoffs) in the best economic interests of the organization

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Talent Management & Development of Career

• How we consider someone for a certain position

• Succession of company heir

Talent Management
• Having the right people at the right time before we even need them
• Human resources are a scarce resource. Hence, a 'war for talent'
• Developing existing employees for future needed relation | harnessing potential of an
employee | win-win
• Passive recruitment
• Knowing how to recruit internally and externally

Organizations must:
• Emphasize employment stability and develop talent internally
• Buy or acquire talent as needed (utilization of both internal and external recruitment)
• Define appropriate strategies for talent management
• Forsee the needs and how best to manipulate the resources within the company

Need for Talent Management

1. Human resources are part of competitive advantage (what sets you apart from others and
what drives your company)
2. Job seekers want career devopment and mobility (avoid stagnation of job positions)
3. High retirement rate and shortage of youth entering the workforce (younger generation tends
to be self-employed and avoid corporate job) plan succession for high position job and a good
recruitment plan for low position jobs
4. Make plans to address competency gaps of those entering the workforce (don't assume)

Talent Management (more general)

• Take a high-level view to determine which skills and talents are needed
• Focuses on the entire journey of the employee through recruiting, onboarding, training, and
promotions
• Long-term

Performance Management
• Measuring employee performance based on metrics and engaging employees

Components of Talent Management

1. Acquisition - recruitment / selection
Process:
○ Training
○ Career Planning
○ Succession Planning
○ Development
○ Performance Management
Results:
Talent Management
Key Talents (outstanding individuals)
Retention (maintaining position for a length of time)

Scope of Talent Management

Target Jobs
Which jobs are likely to be needed in the future?
We will be needing an external relations officer when we start to expand our linkages
High potential Individuals
Who shows potential or is manifesting the right behaviors/characteristics
Competency Models

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 Competency Models
What KSAs are present and what are lacking?
○ Strategic Planning, Negotiation, Records Keeping
Talent Pools
Repositories of high-value individuals
Includes people that you could hire externally
Career Tracks
Progressive steps of employees
○ Associate, Specialist, Team Leader, Nanager
Assessments
○ IQ, Personality, Aptitude, etc.
Development Risk Sharing
Both employer and employee rake risks in terms of development
No guarantee that the talent management will lead to successful succession
○ Graduate studies, Volunteer Work, Overseas Training

Succession Planning
• Planning for orderly replacement of key employees
• Having a reserved employee
• There's no guarantee for the position
• Strategic and proactive
• Goal is long-term stability and developing potential

Replacement Planning
• List of replacements for eventual vacancies
• Efficient and sound risk management tool
• Tactical but reactive
• Goal is to keep positions filled

Succession Planning Process

1. Strategic Integration - define crucial positions and competencies
2. Involve Top Management - as mentors, coaches, and scouts
Training their replacement for when they want to leave or retire
3. Assess Key Talents - those ready for promotion/development
4. Follow Development Practices
5. Monitor or Evaluate - check the progress of the key talent and ensure as much as possible that
they won't leave or retire halfway

Outcomes of Succession Planning

1. Identifying emergency replacements for critical positions - standby in the event of urgency
2. Potential successors (protege) with development

Succession Planning Decisions

• Make vs Buy Talent
Time, availability, quality of work
• Potential vs Performance
Safest is balanced
• Metrics and Succession Planning

Career Planning and Development

Career - series of work-positions
Individual-Centered - personal initiatives
Organization-centered - workshops, counseling, mentoring and coaching

Organization-centered Career Planning

1. Career paths
Logical progression of career is ideally communicated to employees

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 Logical progression of career is ideally communicated to employees
2. Employer Websites
Facilitate internal recruitment/movement
3. Accommodating Individual Career Needs

Individual-Centered Career Planning

1. Self-assessment
Take advantage of assessment opportunities through self-report inventories, test, etc.
2. Reality Feedback
Through performance appraisals or career development activities
3. Goal Setting
Short and long-term goals that are achievable and time-bound

Career Choices
Interests - not predictive of success
Self-image - self-awareness; realistic
Personality - Traits and personal needs
Social background - circumstances and resources

McClelland on Personal Needs

1. Affiliation
2. Achievement / Challenge
3. Power / Control

Career Stage
Characteristics
Early Career
Mid-Career
Late Career
Career End

Global career Issues

• Repatriation - reassignment of global employees back to their home countries
• Global development - socio-cultural concerns with global leaders and local employees;
culrueal

Individual Career Issues

• Technical and professional workers di not want to do administrative work
• For women; sequencing and flexibility
• Glass ceiling - (on minority groups) you can see the top, but blocked by a glass ceiling
• Dual-career couples - when one of the couple has to move, the other would move as well

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