Appraisals and Their Impact in HR and Training

Video Transcription

Hi, I'm Jeff. And in this lesson, we'll learn how the appraisal process works in business, including performance appraisals and the role employees play in their own appraisals. We'll also talk about how training is impacted by the appraisals.

So let's get started. A performance appraisal is a review in which an employee's job performance is formally evaluated. HR managers are often responsible for coordinating performance appraisals, along with those managers who have individuals reporting to them.

Performance appraisals are often based on goals for the individual and for the company. These goals are often set at the previous appraisal or when a new employee is hired. The results of a performance appraisal can impact promotions for the individual, raises, demotions or disciplinary action, and even firing.

Managers might work with other managers with whom the individual also interacts in order to create an appraisal that represents all of an employee's work. These performance appraisals will include objective and judgmental criteria.

Objective measures are those that are concrete and quantifiable, such as sales goals or production performance. Judgmental measures are subjective. And these can include items such as personal behavior and communication skills.

Sometimes, these measures are rated according to a numeric scale, such as a Likert scale. For example, a one to five rating might be given to an employee for the way they work on a team.

During the development of an appraisal, a manager must be careful to avoid errors. Some common errors to watch for are the recency effect where recent issues or successes skew the appraisal. For example, a manager shouldn't weight the last month's performance too highly when compared to the previous months, especially on a yearly review.

Any bias or discrimination, or any area where personal preference impacts the appraisal.

Unequal emphasis, where too much weight is given to one area of the appraisal. And appraisal should be balanced across all the areas.

And in an ideal situation, performance appraisal should be a shared responsibility between an employee and a manager. For example, an employee might provide a self evaluation before the appraisal is created to provide input to the manager about the employee's beliefs about their performance. And the manager may need to observe the employee in specific tasks so they can be fully aware of the employee's performance and skill set.

The advantage to this cooperation is that the employees can provide constructive feedback. They can get full recognition of their efforts. And an employee is able to express their thoughts and feelings about the role. In addition, this allows the employee to discuss opportunities for future development.

The disadvantages are the time that is required from the employee and the amount of organization required. There is the stress from being evaluated. And sometimes there is confusion or even objection to being numerically rated.

Once performance appraisals are complete, the results can also drive the creation or modification of training programs. Since appraisals can show areas where multiple employees are having difficulties or where employees have provided feedback for areas of improvement, an organization can use the information from these appraisals to fill in gaps of knowledge or process.

Training can occur at all levels of the organization. And a few of the training methods that can be used are on-the-job training, which includes any onsite activities, or off-the-job training, which are offsite activities. There are also a wide variety of ways by which employees can be trained.

This can include simulations where the work or skill is part of a simulated reality, role playing, where participants pretend to have the role of other individuals, instructional sessions, which might be given by a stand-up instructor or through online training, conferences, presentations, and even discussions where employees and managers can learn from each other through conversation.

OK, great job. In this lesson, we learned about performance appraisals and the impact those have on an employee's workplace. We warned about errors that can occur during these appraisals. We talked about the role employees can play in the appraisal process. And we learned about training based on the results of appraisals.

Thanks for your time, and have a great day.