performance appraisal in hr

1. Performance appraisal in HR
Performance Appraisal for HR Professionals
Introduction and Purpose
Today, on 12th Nov. 2006 as I am sitting in my study-room, a thought just passed
through my mind. The thought was that what will happen:
1. If the HR Team is evaluated by the employees of the company (Read: Appraised by
those who are directly getting affected by their work?)?
2. If the employees are asked to decide the "percentage increment" and "promotions"
for HR Staff?
3. If at the time of appraisal, employees are asked to decide as which HR person is
professional and competent enough stay with the company and who need to be shown
the exit-door? Or should be sent for training?
By doing so,
1. Will there be any change in the quality of work of HR Person?
2. Will there be any change is the attitude and behaviour of HR Person?
3. Will they be able to concentrate on actual work rather than bullying around?
In my opinion, I think it will help in changing not only the quality of work, attitude
and behaviour but also the way in which most of the HR people work. Through out
my career I have advocated that my appraisal has to be done by the employees ...those
who are directly affected by my performance (or non-performance) rather then going
for Self-Appraisal or a Appraisal done by my boss (my superior).
Need for such system
1. Marketing department is appraised by revenue generated by them (Number of Unit
Sold)
2. Production department is evaluated by number of units produced and the quality of
each unit (Number of units returned)
3. Efficiency of a Customer Service Department can by known by the number of
customers retained by them and number of customers lost.
4. IT professionals are judged by the number of projects handled by them, time they
have taken to complete each module and of course the quality (which, is judged by
clients)

2. 5. The efficiency of a lawyer is known by the number of cases won by him.
6. The market value of a Movie Actor can be evaluated by number of hits or flops of
his movies and revenue generated by each of his movie.
7. Players of any game are judged by number of matches won by them. (In India,
success rate in the fiekd also decides the endorsement assignments for these players)
8. The efficiency of a teacher can be known by the number of students passed or
failed in his or her subject.
9. Even politicians (whether they like or not) at least once in five years (in India) they
are appraised by public and need to get elected by public votes.
So, how HR Department, which is a "Service Center" for "internal customer" (read as
employees) can run away with just Self-Appraisal or one-to-one appraisal done by
their bosses (or superiors)?
Readers may think that such practice of "appraisal by employees" is impossible or is
difficult to administer. For some it might look funny. But, it is possible and not "so
difficult" to handle.
Proposed Process and Step-by-step Path
To start with we can divide companies into following categories
1) Small Companies (with less than 500 employees)
2) Mid-Size Companies (more than 500 employees but less than 2000 employees)
3) Large size Companies (more than 2000 employees but less than 10,000 employees)
4) Mega-large Companies (more than 10,000 employees)
It is understood that all mid-size, large-size and mega-large companies are also multi-
national, multi-location and multi-central organizations and each center or location
they don't have more than 500-700 employees. Ideally speaking each center is
managed by one HR-Manager (Call by any name, HR-Head or General Manager or
just Manager) along with a team of 5-7 HR personnel taking care of various functions
of HR (HR-Operations, Employee Relations, Recruitment, Training and Development
etc etc).
Step-1: Prepare an Appraisal form (or format or questionnaire) based on the role of
the HR person handling particular function...listing the grades, evaluation criteria etc.
It should clearly specify that people with so and so rating will get this much of
increment and people above X rating will be considered for promotion.
Step-2: Take a random sample based on the size of the employee strength at that
particular center. Ideally speaking there should be one representative for a group of 10
employees.

3. Step-3: Collect the filled appraisal forms. Tabulate the data and analyze the same by
using simple statistical tools.
So, here you are, with the end result and this will decide as who will stay in the
company and who will move out. Who need training? Who will get increment and
promotions?
Involving more people in Appraisal Process
Not only employees but your team-members should also appraise you, because your
performance (or non-performance) also affects the productivity of these functions. For
example; the work done by HR-Operations team directly affects the work of
Employee Relations Team; in a similar manner the data supplied by recruitment team
affects the speed and efficiency of HR-Operations Team.
We can give different weightage for different "evaluation center" and it should we
such that it should not dilute the actual purpose.
I propose that the weightage should be as follows:
1) Employees or Clients - 45%
2) Team Member or internal Customers - 25%
3) Self-Appraisal - 10%
4) Appraisal by boss - 20%
Explanation: If total marks are 10, employees can give you marks out-of 4.5; your
team members can assign of marks out-of 2.5 and your boss...out of 2.
Evaluation Criteria (Just an Example)
Like our schools and colleges lets keep 35% as passing marks.
So, anybody who is getting less than 3.5 on a scale of 1-10 need to be shown the "Exit
Door".
Person whose score is between 3.6-5.5, need a lot of improvement in his work and
hence need to given "Functional Training" and cannot be considered for Increment or
promotion.
Anybody who scores between 5.6 - 8.0 can be given increment from 1% - 50% of
their salary.
Only those whose score is more than 8 should be considered for promotions.
Conclusion
Such system can bring transparency in the system.
1. It will remove the "favoritism" or "buttering" practice from the system.
2. It will increase the "team-spirit" and "team cohesiveness".

4. 3. It will increase the "need to learn" and update themselves.
4. It will also increase the quality of work.
5. And last but not least, it will take out (change the psychology of) some HR people
from the position, where they consider themselves as GOD and think that they can
"make or break" the career (or in large sense, the life) of anybody.
I know that many HR personnel don't like to have such system. That is the reason why
processes like "Balance Score Card" or "360-Degree Appraisal System" has not been
implemented by most of the HR-Departments and are just used for study purpose. I
understand that majority of HR-Personnel's are not even aware of various HR-
Metrics, which are applicable on HR department.
These are my views and it will be nice to have your comments and feedback on the
same. What do you think?
Awaiting your comments and feedback
Regards
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