BHR 3301 Unit 5 Assessment Questions

Unit 5 Assessment Questions

#2:

Performance appraisals are evaluations on an individual, or a group, within an organization, and measures the amount of success or amount of deficiencies within said organization. The book states, “performance ratings – the things we enter into an employee’s permanent record – are influenced by a host of factors besides the employee behaviors observed by raters.” (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). When someone is evaluated, it is placed into the permanent file for future reference on promotions, job positions, or in the need for firing circumstances. The raters look at individuals and evaluate according to the organizational values, competitive nature, work performance, etc.” (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). The problem with this is that it is subjective and is determined by an opinion of the rater, who may not necessarily see everything going on. The Army is like this. Sometimes the raters don’t really do anything but sign evaluations that the evaluated Soldier writes themselves, so its not really a valuable assessment. Also, with the pay-for-performance plans and appraisals, evaluating in a subjective manner can hurt employees and make some of them not want to stay with the company any longer.

Reference:

Newman, J. M., Gerhart, B., & Milkovich, G. T. (2017). Compensation (12th ed.) [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104

#3:

“A good performance evaluation doesn’t begin on the day of the performance interview.” (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). This is 100% accurate. When it is time to conduct the performance appraisal, you should not be doing so the moment the employee enters the room. You need to have started this long before the meeting is conducted. The Army has the leadership open a word document for every Soldier they will be evaluating and take bullet notes throughout the year on every major impact they did for the unit or for themselves and write it down. This will help them when its time to write the yearly evaluation by looking back at what they did. Sometimes remembering instances from 10-11 months ago is difficult, so having a reference sheet is beneficial. The organization should implement the same thing and be well prepared prior to the day of the interview. You also need to make sure the job descriptions are up to date, employees know what is expected of them, and get feedback from the employees of any barriers that they face. (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). “Feedback should also be timely.” (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). Evaluations should not be drug out. Get to the point and have them often. That way people can change, and they can know what they are doing wrong when they are doing it. Sometimes people act the way they do because they think it is okay, and when they get a back eval, they may ask, “why did no one say anything earlier?” Evaluations do not only have to be on paper.

Reference:

Newman, J. M., Gerhart, B., & Milkovich, G. T. (2017). Compensation (12th ed.) [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104

#4:

The pay-for-performance does affect the employee’s behavior, and they have voiced it. The textbook states, “Is it any wonder then that employees often voice frustration about the appraisal process? A survey of 2,600 employees nationwide yielded the following rater disheartening conclusions: 39 percent felt their performance goals weren’t clearly defined, 39 percent felt they didn’t know how their performance was evaluated, 45 percent didn’t believe their last performance review guided them on how to improve, 45 percent didn’t think the reviews could differentiate among good, average, and poor performers, 48 percent didn’t think doing a good job was recognized.” (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). If that context from the book does not state it, then I don’t know what does. A bad evaluation (layout, job description, description of company goals, expectations, etc.) means you get a bad employee. An organization needs to take the time to layout a detailed evaluation that will benefit the employee. The evaluation does not have to be good, as far as the employee performance, but the details and the layout, and the context of what is expected needs to be on point. Some people said that that did not know what they could improve on. That should be listed in the evaluation. If it were me being evaluated, and that is not listed, how would I know how to perform, and how can you evaluate me without giving me guidance on anything? The poor quality of the evaluation will be what effects the overall behavior of the employee.

Reference:

Newman, J. M., Gerhart, B., & Milkovich, G. T. (2017). Compensation (12th ed.) [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104

#5:

Merit pay is the amount of percentage increase annually based off their performance evaluations. The book has a table with a typical merit pay setup and states a performance rating of 1 through 5 with percentage merit pay increases, and is as follows:

Well Above Above Below Well Below

Average Average Average Average Average

Performance Rating:12345

Merit Pay Increase:5%4%3%1%0%

The information above was in the book and can be found on page 352, reference (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). A risk to this is that people may not want to accept jobs that have their performance tied to their pay. (Newman, Gerhart & Milkovich, 2017). A risk of not having a merit pay system would be employee’s not having a driving factor to necessarily perform at a top-notch standard. Money talks a lot of times. A risk with having a merit pay system is the expensive cost it causes the company. Also, the employee’s financial future and stability is now in the hands of another person’s opinion, in a sense. When evaluating someone based of performance, even when you have a scale to go from, not one person may agree. Everyone will have a small amount of unconscious bias, which is an opinion toward something without knowing it. People are still people. You like some and you do not like the others. Yes, you are evaluating based off of performance, but when you are evaluating someone and a merit pay is included, and that employee has rubbed you the wrong way numerous times, those will be in your head during the evaluation process, and some may use that against them, even though they may be the best of the best. That will cause them to not get a high percentage increase, when they performance deserves it. So, risks are on both sides of having a merit pay system and not having one. If a company does not have a merit pay system, maybe having a reward or leave time, or something with no cost to the company as an incentive will work at increasing the behavior of the evaluations with employees.

Reference:

Newman, J. M., Gerhart, B., & Milkovich, G. T. (2017). Compensation (12th ed.) [VitalSource Bookshelf version]. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781259738104

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