A performance appraisal and counseling structure for a Ukrainian company should utilize a variety of techniques tailored to the local business culture. Performance appraisals should be conducted every 2-3 months to evaluate employees based on qualitative and quantitative metrics. Counseling is most effective when using active listening, reflective questioning, and a mix of directive, participative and nondirective approaches. By combining multiple performance measurement and counseling strategies, a company can gain a well-rounded understanding of its employees' work and areas for improvement.

1. How would you design a performance appraisal and counseling structure for
a company based in Ukraine?
There are a lot of successful companies and a lot of not very successful ones.
Some of them manage to go international and become first leading international
companies not even in one sphere of business and some balance between bankruptcy and
profitability. As for me the results of the business performance of those companies
depends on their personnel. As once was said “Human resource capital decides
everything” this quote remains important and up to date even in the 21st
century. That’s
why in today’s business performance appraisal and counseling plays a great role and is of
great concern of all managers.
A performance appraisal, or service rating, is a written evaluation of the
performance of an employee over a specified time period which can be as short as several
months or as long as one year. Performance appraisals are designed to provide employees
with a knowledge of their performance over time; to identify strengths and/or areas of
concern in an employee's job performance; and to provide an opportunity for an
employee and his/her supervisor to meet and clarify job expectations.
There are a lot of techniques used to evaluate performance of the workers at
certain places. Some of them may be used in different work places some can be used
only in a certain working environment, though performance appraisal always goes along
with counseling. It is a useful tool which is used along with performance appraisal in
order to improve the workers’ performance. Counseling may be conducted by counselor,
a psychologist in the HR department or a professional from outside of the organization
and be very useful.
There are many techniques and approaches used in counseling. Some of them can
bring results in one sphere of business but have no use in another one. Also different
cultures may have different approaches to the work and to the counseling procedures. I
think in the company which is situated in Ukraine it is appropriate to use all kinds of
counseling techniques such as active listening, which involves trying to understand what
the other person is thinking and why. Reflected feelings and clarification techniques are
also very useful when the worker just started working. For example at the position which
involves responsibility a person starts having problems with the manager. Than
techniques of reflected feelings, which gives the employee an opportunity to relief his
emotions and questioning with open ended questions can give a way out of the problem
for the employee. It is imperative that supervisors point out an employee's area(s) of
weakness, counsel him or her regarding ways to correct the problem, and give an
employee a chance to improve.
Counseling approaches used in the business are different. Directive, nondirective
and participative counseling are widely used in all kinds of businesses. Though its hard
to define which of those approaches can be used in order to achieve the best result I think
the best way is to combine all of those approaches in one. While I was working in
Procter & Gamble with labeling I faced counseling several times. At the beginning of the
work it was a directive counseling where I was asked certain things and gave certain
answers. While working there for several months a participative counseling was used
concerning me as an employee. That was very useful and productive. Problems with
employees of others departments and suppliers which appeared were solved very
successfully.

2. There are a lot of performance measurement methodologies. Some are based on
the quantitative approach to the performance, some are based on the qualitative
performance. Approaches used to evaluate different jobs depend on the industry and type
of the performed job. For example comparative approach, where ranking of employees is
used may be done in the business where some kind of repetitive jobs are the main duties
of the position. Taxi drivers’ performance may be measured on the basis of the forced
distribution ranking them by groups according to achievements. That can be done taking
into account all other conditions are constant. On the other hand repetitive jobs’
performance, but those which require more attention and effort for the client, may be
evaluated on the basis of pared comparison. Such jobs’ performance as hair dresser or
other where clients want to see the quality and a concrete person working with them may
be evaluated with the help of this time consuming but very accurate method. Those
methods can include qualitative and quantitative characteristics on the basis of which
employees’ performance is measured. Unlike previous methods attribute approach uses
more qualitative characteristics and can be used for measuring qualitative side of the
employees’ performance. I think that in Ukrainian companies this approach can be used
but it is better to use more of a qualitative approach as most of the motivation strategies
in this country are based on the qualitative basis. It means that the better you will
perform the more benefits you will get for this.
Also behavioral approach and quality approach are present but they not used as
much as results approach. Results approach can clearly show how much a person earned
and how much he will earn based on the projections of present results. I think such
approach is the most effective in the sales sphere but also can be done in other business.
As we see that all those performance measurement approaches are very useful and
can be effectively used in different types of business. It’s hard to say which of these
approaches might be the most effective for the company working in Ukraine. I think that
results, comparative and attribute approach can give a more or less picture of what is
going on in the company and how the workers are doing. Counseling can be conducted
whenever it is needed and performance appraisal taking into account achieved results
every 2 or 3 months. Still you have to remember that you can not create a talent, you
have to find it and give it all the opportunities to deploy in order to get profit from it.
References:
www.hr.uconn.edu/perfapp.html
Managing Human Resources, Sherman, Bohlander, Chruden
Great Encyclopedia, 1989