HRM 530 Discussion week 6: Performance Appraisals

Week 6

Discussion # 1

“Performance Appraisals” Please respond to the following:

Determine why organizations can have higher productivity when top managers encourage supervisors to set goals, assess performance, and provide feedback to employees. Support your answer with examples. Then, describe the experience you have had with performance appraisals and how your performance has been influenced by them. 

Discussion #2

• Performance appraisals are the review and evaluation of an employee’s performance at the organization. It involves setting goals by the supervisors; assessment of performance of the employees; and providing them with feedback on assessment. This process encourages higher productivity among the employees because employees are aware of the goals they need to achieve and are able to work on the measures required to improve their performance. The feedback provided to them enables them to identify their strengths and weakness in their performance which motivates the employee to address their weaknesses and/or areas of improvement. For example when an employee in the manufacturing department is told at the beginning of the period the number of units he/she has to manufacture, the employee is aware of the expectations he/she will be evaluated on. The feedback to the employee after assessment of the performance will motivate the employee either to continue the superior performance or improve it.
• Because I recently received a promotion around the same time my performance was due, I didn’t receive one this year however, for the past 4 years, all of my evaluations have been outstanding. Contractor’s performance evaluations are somewhat different because in addition to my company’s supervisor evaluating me, she also solicits input from our customers that I support.
• Go to businessballs’ Website and review the information regarding performance appraisals. Next, rate the importance of measuring performance and providing an opportunity for feedback. Support your position.
• Appraising the employee’s performance is beneficial to the organization. The methods of performance appraisal have evolved with time. The performance appraisal has become more comprehensive and the traditional methods of reviewing the performance have been replaced by methods like 360 degree type appraisals. The performance appraisal should be a positive experience for the employee and should not be used as an intimidating factor.
• It is very important to measure performance and provide feedback to the employees. In the absence of performance measurements and its comparison against set standards of performance, it will be difficult to evaluate the performance of the employees. The measurement of performance enables an organization and employee to identify their strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement.

“Performance Measurement” Please respond to the following:

Imagine you are working at an ice cream shop. It is the middle of summer, the shop’s busiest season, and the electricity goes out during a storm. Rank the actions that you should take in order of importance, as your performance will be measured regarding your immediate actions.

Assess the advantages and/or disadvantages of having more than one source of performance measurement within a company. Support your position with examples. Of the performance measurement sources you provided, select one that you believe your current or previous company could benefit from and explain why.

• If I were working at an ice cream shop and we lost electricity in the middle of the summer as a result of a storm, it would be somewhat challenging to save all of the ice cream since the shop relies 100% on electricity. My first thought would be to try to purchase and/or borrow some gas generators to use as an alternative until the electricity is restored because otherwise, our entire inventory will be loss; I would try to fill as many customer orders as possible while the ice cream is still solid; and as a last result, I would reach out to other areas within close proximity to see if I can store some of my inventory there.

Bottom of Form

• The advantages and disadvantages of having more than one source of performance measurement within a companyare: advantages – multiple sources could possibly reduce the chances of biases and the decision will be more transparent and beneficial for both the organization and the employees; and the disadvantages are the process could become very confusing, complex, and time consuming because lack of feedback could give the employee false hope by having them assume that they are performing at an exceptional rate since they haven’t been told otherwise.
• Due to lack of coordination among the raters, it could become difficult to compile all the reports in an effective/efficient manner. Lack of coordination could also impact the final decision since the results are coming from multiple sources. For example – if the company is receivingperformance measurementsfor the employee from his manager, peers, and subordinates, there are chances that they will submit the information sporadically, not follow directions, and submit final documents in various formats which will ultimately mean that completing the evaluation in a timely manner will be impacted because the individual that’s accepting the documents will have to compile the multiple reports into one cohesive and/or acceptable format for final submission to HR and the employee’s file.
• At my current employer, my appraisal is normally done by my supervisor. However, my supervisor solicits input from our customer and then merges her assessment(s) – attendance, complaints, etc. with the customers and enters it into one document prior to our face-to-face meeting. Technically, since I don’t directly “support” my supervisor, she has to rely on our customer to be her “eyes and ears because she’s not there to rate my performance. I think this is an effective/efficient way to conduct my appraisalsince she’s not aware of my performance and would be rating me in the blind and this wouldn’t be fair and/or beneficial to me.