Performance Appraisal

May 20, 2021

It is this time of year when once again we have to appraise the staff that are under us.

Our Human Resource wants us to evaluate the performance of our staff twice a year or semi-annual. First appraisal happens every May and the second is every November.

A performance appraisal is a review of our staff’s job performance and their contribution to the company. This is also used to justify any pay increases or bonuses if management is willing to give one. But this can also be the basis as terminations decisions.

We have two types of appraisal in our company.

Top-down appraisal – This means that the managers or supervisors evaluate their staff with no input from the said staff.

Self-assessment appraisal – This means that the staff rate their job performance and behaviour. This will then be submitted to the manager or supervisor for their basis in appraising the staff.

As each section or department of our company has different kind of tasks, each head of the different sections were tasked to create our own performance indicators.

As head of Finance and Accounting Division – Accounts Payable (FAD-AP) Section, I have to consider what are our main concerns and outputs before creating the performance indicators.

The following are what I have submitted and was subsequently approved by our FAD Director:

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS:

QUALITY – 30%

Quality defines the percentage of errors made by the staff. The staff must pay attention to details to avoid errors. I give this indicator the highest point as task has to be clean of errors. One error on our part will have a domino effect in other functions of accounting.

QUANTITY – 25%

Quantity defines the number of processed documents versus the requested documents. We have to monitor requests from all departments and divisions of the company and ensure that we will be able to process everything in a week's time.

TIMELINESS – 25%

Timeliness means we have processed everything on time especially payments to utilities and telephone companies. If unpaid, there might be a consequence of having our lines being cut-off.

COST EFFICIENCY – 10%

Cost efficiency is the result of good quality performance and on time processing. If work is of good quality and no errors were made therefore there won’t be a need to redo the processing and therefore saves on time and supplies. If processes were on time, we won’t incur any penalty for late payment, therefore we are cost efficient.

INNOVATION – 5%

Innovation is when the employee has created something, it may be a report or a process that will hasten her task. Usually the grade I gave to my staff for this indicator is only 1% as we already have a system in place.

Hmmm… I think I need to change this indicator. Will think of something to replace this. Something that will help my staff gain a higher score.

SAFETY AND HOUSEKEEPING – 5%

This indicator is added to keep my staff from leaving their work place with all the documents on their table top. Some of our processing are confidential and anybody that can get inside the office might see what they left on their table.

Although I already let them attend a 5S seminar, there are still some who doesn’t care.

5S is derived from Japanese words seiri (sort and remove), seiton (arrange), seiso (clean), seiketsu (standardize) and shitsuke (sustain).

Aside from the Performance Indicators, our Human Resource added into the appraisal form Competencies and Personal Attributes. These are the 2nd and 3rd part of the appraisal form.

COMPETENCIES such as:

Job Knowledge and Skills – Is the familiarity or adequacy of work, understand technical issues and applies proper procedures to achieve peak performance.

Decision Making / Problem Solving – Anticipates, identifies and analyses problems, generates alternatives, foresees consequences and makes sound decisions in a timely manner.

Communication – Expresses ideas effectively, both verbally and in writing. Is clear, concise and easily understood.

Planning and Organizing – The process of making, arranging work into a coherent unit and carrying out methods to effectively accomplish objectives and anticipates future problems.

Leadership – The ability to influence, motivate, mentor and lead by inspiring people and gaining their confidence and enthusiastic support towards the goal achievement.

Customer Focus – Effective utilization of time to meet commitments and work deadlines as scheduled. Has high sense of urgency. Listens and understands customers and anticipates their needs to provide high satisfaction.

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES are:

Initiative / Energy – Self-starter, initiates new methods, resourceful, creative, and actively involves in company initiated programs

Commitment – The capacity to work independently and with the least supervision in carrying out work assignments in a trustworthy and reliable manner.

Reliability – Dependability of a person to others because of his truthfulness and trustfulness.

Attendance – The physical presence of an employee at work and in company initiated programs.

Interpersonal Skills / Teamwork – The ability to get along and work harmoniously with others, effective in giving and receiving feedback and handles criticisms objectively and maturely. Manages conflict constructively and considerate of the feelings and needs of others.

Integrity – Has not committed any infraction. Maintains and promotes ethical and organizational norms in their daily business activities.

Resiliency to Stress – Handles disappointment or rejection while maintaining effectiveness and continues to maintain stable performance under pressure.

The last part of the appraisal is the evaluator’s remarks. The evaluator can make comments about her observation of her staff. This is also the part where we can recommend the staff for regularization or promotion.

Me and my staff are scattered during this time of pandemic. Some are working at the office while others are working from home. Me too is working from home. It is very difficult to appraise our staff in this kind of environment. I have not seen them for a while now. I don’t know how they work at the office or their home. Where they committed 100%? This query and more runs through my mind.

This is where the self-assessment is very useful. I am glad that our Human Resource is initiating this self-assessment as this will help us in evaluating our staff. But in order for me to give an accurate evaluation, the staff also has to be truthful in her self-assessment.

I have to evaluate directly five of my staff. And these staff have to evaluate those who are under them, and I approve their evaluation.

Evaluating staff really takes time and effort especially if you have a staff that really is not in conformity with the performance indicators. Because I don’t only evaluate based on their performance but also with my heart. And that is the difficult part.

Thanks for dropping by.

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Lead image by Unsplash.