From The Straits Times
Robin Chan & Dhruv Velloor
Published 20 Sept 2010
THE employee appraisal is, perhaps, one of the most overused yet least understood of management techniques.
Still, for better or worse, it has come to lie at the very heart of modern career development, even though many employees - and some bosses too - quietly shudder when appraisal time comes around.
While the core concept - assessing an employee's strengths and weaknesses and mapping out career progression - has been around for ages, methods and systems have evolved over the years.
And it is not everyone's cup of tea as the process is time consuming and rather confrontational, while the benefits are not always clear cut.
What started out with managers filling in an almost examination-like multiple-choice form, where employees were rated from one to 10 or 'Poor' to 'Excellent' on several performance criteria, has evolved to what is essentially a 'career chat' with the boss.
Other terms have cropped up too: key performance indicators, management by objective, behaviourally anchored rating scales and 360-degree feedback.
Mr Josh Goh, The GMP Group's assistant director for corporate services, told The Straits Times that employee appraisals now involve the staff and internal and external stakeholders to a greater extent, while also taking stock of 'soft skills'.
Mr Roland Ruiz, Asean business leader for Mercer's Human Capital business, said appraisals are moving beyond just goal-oriented competencies to focus on personal development as well.
For recruitment firm Kelly Services, appraisals involve short forms, but crucially, also include discussions with managers, said Mr Dhirendra Shantilal, senior vice-president of its Asia-Pacific arm.
When appraising mid-level and senior management, SingTel spokesman Andrienne Tho said the company chooses to focus on 'people objectives', which refer to staff engagement, talent development and succession planning.
Conglomerate Sembcorp Industries utilises 360-degree feedback - gathering the opinions of superiors, colleagues and subordinates.
Often, feedback is tied to training programmes intended to address an employee's weaknesses and bolster his strengths.
A critical change in appraisal methods has been the shift from documentation on paper to putting everything online, which is proving beneficial.
Ms Sue Olivier, regional head of talent and development at Ogilvy Public Relations, said: 'Since we've gone to an e-appraisal system, there is very little push back (or excuse) for not doing it.'
A SembCorp spokesman told The Straits Times its online employee performance appraisal system allows transparency to the employee, 'who can see comments given on his performance, and can click a button to agree or even disagree with the assessment'.
But experts say online appraising is less important than a face-to-face chat with the manager.
Mr Ruiz said that importance comes in the form of dialogue between the manager and the employee. Here, a deft touch is needed to produce the right climate for a fruitful and open discussion. Of course, both the employee and manager must come prepared for the discussion, to make it worthwhile.
He also pointed out that while documentation is important so both manager and employee can remember what to follow up on, sometimes the manager can focus too much on recording what happens, so it becomes a distraction.
There have also been criticisms of employee appraisals.
Ms Lucy Kellaway, in a recent column for the Financial Times, wrote that although she was appraised three dozen times in the course of her career, 'never have I learnt anything about myself as a result. I have never set any target that I subsequently hit'.
Encouraging businesses to abolish appraisals in their entirety, she said that 'even for those whose managers did nothing to fill the gap, time and energy would be saved and the only two things lost would be cynicism and paranoia'.
One employee told The Straits Times he quit his job because his appraisal did not match what he thought of his performance.
Others share Ms Kellaway's views, describing the process as 'useless' in some cases, and 'a waste of time'.
Mr Ruiz said a common mistake is companies wanting to copy an appraisal system wholesale from another outfit.
'There's not much sense in doing that, because it has to be specific to the company. The appraisal should serve a specific purpose for the company.'
While there are many detractors of appraisals, most agree that the benefits far outweigh the costs.
Ms Olivier said: 'We always joke that performance appraisals are like cleaning a teenager's room. Everyone wants the result, but no one wants to do it.'
But she added: 'Most consider it a fair assessment process. Where you have many Gen Ys (as we do), you have no choice but to give feedback', as they like to be appraised on their work.
Mr Ruiz said the whole point is to get employees to talk about their goals and aspirations, and that is supposed to take a lot of time.
Mr Goh said: 'If conducted properly, performance appraisals can motivate employees to perform better.'
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