Performance Appraisal of Employees

As the production supervisor for Sweeney Electronics, Nakeisha Joseph was generally well regarded by most of her subordinates. Nakeisha was an easygoing individual who tried to help her employees in any way she could. If a worker needed a small loan until pay day, she would dig into her pocket with no questions asked. Should an employee need some time off to attend to a personal problem, Nakeisha would not dock the individual’s pay; rather, she would take up the slack herself until the worker returned.

Everything had been going smoothly, at least until the last performance appraisal period. One of Nakeisha’s workers, Bill Overstreet, had been experiencing a large number of personal problems for the past year. Bill’s wife had been sick much of the time and her medical expenses were high. Bill’s son had a speech impediment and the doctors had recommended a special clinic. Bill, who had already borrowed the limit the bank would loan, had become upset and despondent over his circumstances.

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When it was time for Bill’s annual performance appraisal, Nakeisha decided she was going to do as much as possible to help him. Although Bill could not be considered more than an average worker, Nakeisha rated him outstanding in virtually every category. Because the firm’s compensation system was heavily tied to performance appraisal, Bill would be eligible for a merit increase of 10 percent in addition to a regular cost-of-living raise.

Nakeisha explained to Bill why she was giving him such high ratings, and Bill acknowledged that his performance had really been no better than average.

Bill was very grateful and expressed this to Nakeisha. As Bill left the office, he was excitedly looking forward to telling his friends about what a wonderful boss he had. Seeing Bill smile as he left gave Nakeisha a warm feeling.

Source: Quoted from R. Wayne Mondy, 2008, 10th Edition –Prentice Hall. Pg 237.

QUESTIONS:

1. From Sweeney Electronics’ standpoint, what difficulties might Nakeisha’s performance appraisal practices create?

2. What can Nakeisha do now to diminish the negative impact of her evaluation of Bill?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

According to Gary Dessler, performance appraisal is evaluating an employee’s current and past performance relative to his or her performance standards. Based on the case, we don’t agree with the performance appraisal format followed by Nakeisha because it does not completely follow the performance appraisal procedure effectively.

From Sweeney Electronics’ standpoint, there are several difficulties that Nakeisha’s performance appraisal practice created. Firstly, the goals and the strategic planning of the company will not be achieved. The goals and the strategic planning in the company are important in order to ensure the company will survive strong in the industry. The company should only recognize the workers who sacrifice their efforts and time in order to assure the company can get their profit and they will be rewarded in returned.

Secondly, the standard of the quality product and the company will be low. The company must ensure the quality of their product will always at the top level in order to get the customers confidence. As the quality of product produce at the top level, the standard of the company also will be at the same position. The quality product produce will start from the quality people worked to produce the product. Thirdly is wasteful in term of compensation and incentives benefits. One of the benefits in performance appraisal by the company to the employees is they will get benefits in term of compensation and incentives value.

Besides they will be recognize by the superior in front of others employees, they will also been awarded the special compensation compared to their workforce that contribute to the company’s profits. The recognition to the employees by giving the special compensation and incentive will increase their motivation to be the best among them. Fourthly is creation of unhappiness working environment in the company. The supervisor should play a fair role in supervising all the subordinates in order to maintain the peacefulness in the workplace. The supervisor should evaluate the performance of the employees and should not take any consideration in handling the quality and the standard of the job. He or she must ensure that the employees achieved the goals and targets that have been targeted to them. Besides the supervisor must be accountability to the company. The existence of the unhappiness in the workplace will lead to the low motivation among employees and also can lead to the additional percentage of the turnover rate in the company.

There are several things that Nakeisha can do now to diminish the negative impact on her evaluation of Bill. The first step is standardization. Standardization is means that using the same evaluation instrument method or be same to the all employee in the same job category who work for the same superior. Secondly is qualified appraiser. Everything is relies on the appraiser hand. If the appraisers are qualified one, then she/he can make a very good decision on the performance appraisal without having any difficulties, bias and prejudices but if the appraiser is not qualified enough to conduct the appraisal system then there will be a huge problem. Another effort is documentation. Documentation is one type of skill which is needed by every supervising manager.

This skill is vital to ensure the efficiency of performance appraisal done by them. Application of documentation system can help reducing errors during the appraisal process. In order to do the documentation well, the person needs to obey to a reasonable standard and also some practice. Documenting will help the appraiser to save more time. This is because the process will become easier if they need to refer back to the appraisal, they already have the document. They do not have to sit and start to remember how they evaluated the person.

Last but not least, is the preparation. Preparation is essential to ensure the productive and effectiveness of the performance appraisal. The appraiser might need to make some preparation in terms of job analysis and the work habits. This is because these are the key points that will help the appraiser too gather information regarding the employee’s thought and also to focus on the area that the appraiser might want to emphasize during the performance appraisal. As a conclusion, a supervisor needs to follow the procedures of the performance appraisal very well. It is to ensure the satisfaction among all workers and give a bright future for the company itself. According to this case, Nakeisha must change her attitude and develop an effective performance appraisal to prevent the case of Bill will happen again.

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

Performance appraisal is a formal system of review and evaluation of individual or team task performance (R.Wayne Mondy & J.Bandy Mondy, 2012). Snell and Bohlander defined performance appraisal as the process of creating a work environment in which people can perform to the best of their abilities. It is the system where the organization evaluates the performance of its employee to make sure that they achieved the targeted goals in order to accomplish the organization vision and mission. Other than that, performance appraisal also a method to determine the employees contribution to the organization and also to measure the employee efficiency and effectiveness in carrying out the task given. Performance appraisal also a chance for the employees to get salary increment. The employees that performed well in their performance appraisal will get chance to get salary increment, while those who are not performed well will not get the increment.

CHAPTER 2 ANALYSIS

THE CHALLENGES OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

1. The goals and the strategic planning of the company will not be achieved As we know the function of the performance appraisal is to recognize the workers who achieved the goals that have been targeted to them. The evaluation mostly will depend on the on the behavioral of the workers in facing their job tasks and the successful in making the job complete. The goals and the strategic planning in the company are important in order to ensure the company will survive strong in the industry.

The company should only recognize the workers who sacrifice their efforts and time in order to assure the company can get their profit and they will be rewarded in returned. In this case, Bill Overstreet is classified as the below than the average worker get the recognition by the company as the ineffective performance appraisal by his production supervisor. This situation will lead to the company loss as the company did not achieve their goals and strategic planning in order to stand till in the industry. This is because the company recognized the work done by the ineligible employees.

2. The standard of the quality product and the company will be low. Sweeney Electronics is the company based on the production of the quality product rather than service given to the customers. The company must ensure the quality of their product will always at the top level in order to get the customers confidence. As the quality of product produce at the top level, the standard of the company also will be at the same position. The quality product produce will start from the quality people worked to produce the product.

In this case, Nakeisha rated Bill Overstreet as the outstanding in all categories in her performance appraisal. This will involved the rate in term of the production of the Bill Overstreet in his workforce. As we know, the standard performance by him is below than average workers. To compare the performance of Bill Overstreet, the company will faced the productivity produce by him is at the low quality level. This reflection will affected the company as the Bill Overstreet’s performance is not achieved the standard quality benchmark of the product and this will lead to the major impact which is the reduction of the confidence of the customers as well as the reduction of the quality of the company.

3. Wasteful in term of compensation and incentives benefits One of the benefits in performance appraisal by the company to the employees is they will get benefits in term of compensation and incentives value. Besides they will be recognize by the superior in front of others employees, they will also been awarded the special compensation compared to their workforce that contribute to the company’s profits. The recognition to the employees by giving the special compensation and incentive will increase their motivation to be the best among them. In this case, Nakeisha was touched by the unlucky situation that faced Bill Overstreet.

As the production supervisor, she felt that she must help Bill Overstreet by giving high rate to get the compensation value in the performance appraisal. The action taken by Nakeisha is not align with the purpose of the performance appraisal which to recognize the person who work hard through the year. The company will suffer loss because recognize the person who did not perform well in the year and did not contribute much to the profit of the company. The incentives and the compensation must go to the person who is actually performed well. The action taken by Nakeisha might change the performance of the Bill Overstreet to the higher level after this and maybe might not.

4. Creation of unhappiness working environment in the company The supervisor should play a fair role in supervising all the subordinates in order to maintain the peacefulness in the workplace. The supervisor should evaluate the performance of the employees and should not take any consideration in handling the quality and the standard of the job. He or she must ensure that the employees achieved the goals and targets that have been targeted to them. Besides the supervisor must be accountability to the company. The existence of the unhappiness in the workplace will lead to the low motivation among employees and also can lead to the additional percentage of the turnover rate in the company.

In this case, Nakeisha was evaluate Bill Overstreet based on the personal consideration and not depend on the quality of work and the behavioral of him in the work task. Nakeisha as the Production Supervisor made a mistake by evaluate and award the high rating to the Bill Overstreet based in his personal problem. This manager attitudes in evaluating the employees will lead to the unsatisfied among workers. Besides, the rater bias and prejudice will lead to the unharmony condition in the workplace. When the Bill Overstreet tell other employees about his boss, a little bit the image of Nakeisha as the Production Supervisor who work with Sweeney Electronics will dropped and the employees who heard what Bill Overstreet said will be depressed because of the misevaluation by their production supervisor.

CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE APPRAISAL SYTEM

1. Standardization Standardization is means that using the same evaluation instrument method or be same to the all employee in the same job category who work for the same superior. Superior also should conduct appraisal covering similar period for those employee (R.Wayne Mondy & J.Bandy Mondy, 2012). Supervisor should standardize to all employee to make sure fair and equal performance appraisal. Employee must be told earlier about the standards that used in the appraisal system. They must be cleared about what the superior expect from them so that they can perform well without having confusion about their job and task.

How to make sure that the standards are good are not. Here it goes whereby the good standards must first, can be monitor or measurable (William Hughes, 2005). The appraiser must set a standard that can be monitored or measurable. A standard that cannot be measured or monitored is not appropriate as the appraiser don’t know what to be evaluate and how to evaluate it. It also to make sure that the employee knows what the expectations of their superior towards them are and they will work hard to fulfill the standards. In this case, Nakeisha should briefly explain to her sub-ordinate about what she expects from the sub-ordinate.

For example is set the standards on the production of the product in the company. Set how much should an employee should produce. The standard is measurable as both can really know what the performance level as looking to the production numbers. Next is standards should relate to results over which the employee has complete control to produce (William Hughes, 2005). Standards are essential statements of employee accountability. The appraiser has to make sure that the standards that have been set up are related to the employee accountability. Employee is in control of all factors that lead to the results defined in the standards.

If the employee is does not control over the factors, they can’t be held responsible to the results as they doesn’t have the control towards the results. For example, the organization can’t make standards that make the security guards of the company to be liable to the rate of turnover in the in company as it’s not under security guards control, the security guards only have the control over the matter regarding the safety and security of the company only. Nakeisha have to make sure that the standards that she set is under the sub-ordinate control if not the sub-ordinate can’t be held responsible for the results.

Furthermore, standards must be stated clearly and adequately understand by the employee (William Hughes, 2005). Appraiser must clearly state the standards to their sob-ordinate and have to make sure they are completely understood the standards. It is to make sure that the employee is not get confused with the standards and misunderstanding in carrying their job and task. Nakeisha have to tell her sub-ordinate clearly about the standards of the company and make sure that they are well digest about standards to make the smooth run of the system.

2. Qualified appraiser It is very crucial to the organization to choose the most qualified person to be the appraiser. Everything is relies on the appraiser hand. If the appraisers are qualified one, then she/he can make a very good decision on the performance appraisal without having any difficulties, bias and prejudices but if the appraiser is not qualified enough to conduct the appraisal system then there will be a huge problem. First of all, the appraiser must be sent for training. Training is one way to improve and develop the appraiser skills and knowledge. So that he/she will carry out the evaluation without having any biasness toward the employee and also know the ethics as an appraiser.

This training should start with a focus on providing the manager with a systematic approach to the practice of effective people management (Goff and Longenecker, 1990). Appraiser involved in the appraisal process should also be evaluated on how they conduct performance appraisals. This will help to make sure that evaluations are performed in a similar and consistent manner throughout the organization. This training should include how to set objectives, how to keep accurate records, and how to communicate all aspects of performance. Nakeisha must attend training to make sure she fulfils the entire requirement to be an appraiser. In Bill’s case she takes a bias decision whereby she gives high ratings for him even though she knows that Bill’s performance not more than average.

Next is can used peer appraisal system (Snell & Bohlander,2013), whereby the employee will be evaluated by the employee colleagues that work together in the same department. It can be done since they colleagues do the same job as the employee do and they can evaluate the performance of their friends in order to give an appropriate rate for their friends according to their performance. It is because the friends are the one that spend time more with the employee and they know well how their friends carrying out the task. Sometimes the employees tend to be pretend in front of their supervisor in order to give good impression to their superior. In this case, Nakeisha can ask Bill’s colleagues to evaluate him in order to make sure the evaluations that she made is in line with Bill friends.

3. Documentation Documentation is one type of skill which is needed by every supervising manager. This skill is vital to ensure the efficiency of performance appraisal done by them. Application of documentation system can help reducing errors during the appraisal process. In order to do the documentation well, the person needs to obey to a reasonable standard and also some practice. Documenting will help the appraiser to save more time. This is because the process will become easier if they need to refer back to the appraisal, they already have the document. They do not have to sit and start to remember how they evaluated the person.

Documentation may show the reasoning that may lead to necessary decision, though it may be unpleasant at the same time. The decision may consist of terminating or take discipline action towards the employee. Written documentation can be a memory jogger for performance reviews, justification for moves, promotions, raises or rebuttal to EEO complaints involving work performance (Baird L., W.Beatty R & Schneier C.E, 1982). This means that written document is vital as a reference if any issue occur later on regarding the appraisal done. It is much easier to refer to the document than to manually remember about the appraisal done which is very hard.

The appraisal should not seek to produce either positive or negative documentation. This means that the appraisal must document the performance naturally, without focusing on which sides they want the document to be. Once the employee’s performance being documented, the appraiser is able to talk from facts, not from memory. Both the positive and negative documentation can help the supervisor to motivate an employee to improve his or her performance. For example, when an employee hears that the work he or she is doing is appreciated, chances are good that the individual will work harder to achieve even better results but for the poor performer, he or she may be unaware of the problem. This is where the document plays it role as accurate and unbiased documentation can help a supervisor explain precisely what an employee is doing wrong, thus giving him or her chance to change and improve. Only with documentation, supervisor cannot be accused of prejudice and this is considered as the benefits of documentation.

In the case, Nakeisha should have documented the performance appraisal towards Bill in order to prevent her from rating Bill more than what he really deserves. Besides that, documentation will also prevent Nakeisha from being bias as the record can be referred back in the future and it can also be argued.

4. Preparation Preparation is essential to ensure the productive and effectiveness of the performance appraisal. The appraiser might need to make some preparation in terms of job analysis and the work habits. This is because these are the key points that will help the appraiser too gather information regarding the employee’s thought and also to focus on the area that the appraiser might want to emphasize during the performance appraisal.

The appraiser needs to really understand what his or her employee’s scope of work is. And this is basically done with preparation. This is to ensure that the appraiser rate his or her employee according to the job task fairly and without doubt. For example, a supervisor cannot rate a secretary with lower marks if she seldom cleans the pantry because it is not included in her job task.

It is important to review last year’s appraisal to find areas of consistency of employee. The appraiser can always refer to the last year’s appraisal in order to compare the performance of employee. Reviewing last year’s appraisal would help the appraiser to see the overall written record that the company is creating and communicating regarding this individual’s performance. It is useful when there is a situation where an employee were ever to file a lawsuit over a job performance matter, this is exactly what a lawyer would do, which is to look at the current and past performance reviews side by side in the effort to distinguish overall trends and patterns (Falcone P., Sachs R, 2007).

Nakeisha should have been prepared before the performance appraisal. She should have known well what is Bill’s job scope and his last year’s appraisal to enable her to evaluate him better with justice and not bias as she will be able to see the consistency of Bill’s work.

CONCLUSION

As a conclusion, performance appraisal is a method to determine the employee’s contribution to the organization and also to measure the employee efficiency and effectiveness in carrying out the task given. A supervisor needs to follow the procedures of the performance appraisal very well to ensure the satisfaction among all workers and give a bright future for the company itself. According to this case, Nakeisha must change her attitude because her attitude will lead to some issues, which are the goals and the strategic planning of the company will not be achieved, the standard of the quality product and the company will be low, wasteful in term of compensation and incentives benefits and also creation of unhappiness working environment in the company. Nakeisha must develop an effective performance appraisal to prevent the case of Bill will happen again by implementing standardization, qualified appraiser, documentation and also not to forget is the preparation.