Performance Appraisal
Blues: How To Make The Most Of Your Annual
Review
Nan Knight
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It's time for your annual performance appraisal.
Despite the fact that you get along well with
your supervisor and have performed your job admirably
over the past year, you're inexplicably anxious.
You make a list of your accomplishments and aspects
of your work and workplace that could be improved.
You even practice what you will say. The door
opens. Your normally relaxed supervisor seems
strangely rigid. Your performance description
is read aloud like a laundry list, and you learn
that you've been "good" or "outstanding"
in almost every category, with a minor criticism
about the way you leave your research space at
the end of the day. You receive a general rating
of "good," the same percentage raise
as everyone else in the company, a handshake,
and then you're out the door. You haven't said
six words.
You ask yourself, "What was THAT all about?"
Ideally, performance appraisals are an opportunity
for the supervisor and employee to communicate:
to review the past year and share ideas and thoughts
for the coming year. Because the traditional format
tends to put the supervisor in the role of judging
how well the employee did-or didn't-perform, the
communication tends to be one-sided. The employee
feels defensive and without some control over
the situation. It's a process that reinforces
a hierarchical structure, rather than a team environment
that many companies want to achieve.
Authors Tom Coens and Mary Jenkins would say
that the performance appraisal you just went through
was an empty and outdated ritual designed to cover
the company in the event of future legal action.
Even more distressing, your company may actually
think that this annual process makes you feel
better and elevates the general tone of the workplace.
But, as Coens and Jenkins make clear on their
Web site and in their widely reviewed book
Abolishing Performance Appraisals: Why They
Backfire and What to Do Instead (Berrett-Koehler
Publications, Inc., 2000), almost no one is really
happy with a business-as-usual approach to the
annual performance interview.
Coens and Jenkins argue that the problem with
the standard appraisal is that it attempts to
do too much and ends up doing nothing at all.
"No one form or process can accomplish all
the things the appraisal is supposed to accomplish-coaching,
feedback, fair compensation, promotion decisions,
employee development, and legal documentation,"
they say. They recommend eliminating appraisals
entirely and creating alternative approaches based
on "healthier assumptions about people."
These approaches would involve allowances for
different management styles, varying individual
employee capabilities and needs, and provisions
for year-round feedback and counseling.
These authors are not alone in their dissatisfaction
with traditional performance appraisals. A 1997
survey by Aon Consulting
and the Society
for Human Resource Management found that only
5% of HR professionals reported being "very
satisfied" with their performance management
systems. A number of companies have dropped performance
appraisals, only to replace them with similar
interview processes called by different names.
Coens and Jenkins contend that these cosmetic
approaches are still based on fundamental "myths"
about appraisals. In debunking these myths, they
provide compelling evidence that traditional performance
appraisals do not motivate employees or improve
performance and are as likely to result in legal
action as to prevent such consequences.
The Management Perspective
Although the federal government and some state
and local governments require regular performance
appraisals for their employees, such regulations
do not exist in the private sector. Yet the practice
is firmly engrained as a routine and reliable
system in which managers can prove that employees
have been informed, on an annual basis and within
the constraints of various laws and regulations,
about the ongoing status of their employment.
A vigorous print, consultation, and Web industry
serves the performance appraisal needs of HR and
management staff in companies large and small.
Much of the literature offering advice on performance
appraisals is direct if not blunt about inherent
problems in the process. Robert Bacal, author
of Performance
Management
(McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing, 1998)
describes "ten stupid things managers do
to screw up performance appraisal." Among
these are some of the very aspects of the process
that most discourage employees: evaluating all
employees by the same measures, comparing one
employee unfavorably with another, forgetting
that appraisal is about improvement and not blame,
and incorporating the trivial and petty into the
process. Bacal, who, along with Roger Fritz, authored
The
Complete Idiot's Guide to Dealing with Difficult
Employees (Alpha Books, 2000), offers
strategies through which the appraisal process
can be more beneficial for both employers and
workers.
Others offer advice on constructing elaborate
performance appraisal rubrics that reflect a more
broadly based assessment of an employee's work.
Check out the sample performance standards and
weighted evaluation recommendations for a hypothetical
"staff team scientist" on the Zigon
Performance Group employee management Web site
at (free registration is required to view the
examples). With more than 50 elements for judging
the scientist and his or her team, the complex
rubric emphasizes results-based goals for the
individual, team, and management throughout the
year. Although perhaps more equitable than the
traditional one-employee single-set-of-goals list,
such an approach seems to require much higher
commitments in time and record keeping by employees
and managers at all levels.
Coens and Jenkins suggest that much of this advice
is excellent, but that many companies simply fit
such programs into a pre-existing rote structure.
The fact that many managers have-and need-books
with titles such as Effective
Phrases for Performance Appraisals (by
James E. Neal and now in its 9th edition) suggests
that the feedback most employees receive may be
anything but personalized and useful. The notion
that your supervisor, with whom you were chatting
amiably yesterday about upcoming research projects,
is busily copying phrases such as "optimally
utilizes all channels of communications"
into your appraisal can be discouraging.
What Can You Do?
You can't single-handedly reorient your company's
approach to performance appraisal. But experts
recommend that you can work toward such a change
by taking several steps.
Maximize your advantages
in the status quo. For the time being,
you probably still have to go through a traditional
performance appraisal. The following steps can
help you get through it without that "what-the-heck-just-happened-to-me"
feeling:
Make sure you have an up-to-date copy of
your position description. This should be
available from your supervisor. If he or she
cannot produce it in a timely manner, your human
resources contact should be able to provide
a copy.
Make lists, and check them twice. Using
your position description as a guide, list your
accomplishments and the ways in which you performed
your assigned tasks. Be specific (including
dates and names) about the ways you've gone
beyond the basic requirements. Try to get in
the habit of keeping this list current throughout
the year. You won't have to struggle to reconstruct
past events just before your appraisal, and
you'll be prepared in the event of any "surprise"
appraisals or disciplinary actions.
Get an appointment. Some managers can't
seem to organize their required performance
appraisals until the last minute. They end up
calling employees in on an ad hoc basis, sometimes
with only a moment's notice, to hurry them through
what is presented as a purely bureaucratic formality.
Don't allow yourself to be rushed. This is the
most basic paperwork your company has on your
ongoing performance-you deserve to be heard
and you ought to be prepared. Ask for an appointment
and find out how long your manager expects the
appraisal to take. If the answer is "five
or ten minutes," make it clear that you'll
need a little longer.
Practice. Sure, the sight of yourself
in the mirror pretending to talk to your boss
may seem a little embarrassing and perhaps unnecessary.
But many employees who think they have a well-codified
and coherent list of accomplishments, comments,
and criticisms find themselves tongue-tied in
a process that gives the manager the controlling
voice. Be prepared to be concise, clear, to
the point, and as brief as possible.
At the appraisal. Be a professional.
That means be courteous and be prepared to listen.
Accept criticism gracefully but don't be shy
about responding with facts and counterpoints
if you think the criticism is off target. Make
your own critiques without pettiness and, as
much as possible, without saying negative things
about managers and co-workers. When you do offer
criticisms, propose possible or hypothetical
solutions that your supervisor may want to consider.
Speak up. Your supervisor may go through
your performance appraisal, shake your hand,
and rise to see you out of the office. That's
the time for you to say, "I have a few
more points I'd like to discuss before we finish."
If you're told that others are waiting for appraisals,
then don't leave the office without a firm return
appointment, preferably within the next one
or two business days.
Don't sign that paper unless you're satisfied.
Most companies require signatures from employees
on their performance appraisals. First, you
should read carefully to see whether the text
above your signature says simply that this was
presented to you on a certain date OR implies
that you both understand and agree with the
evaluations. If you haven't said what you came
to say or if you're not satisfied with the results
of the performance appraisal, you're entirely
within your rights to say, "Thank you,
but I'd prefer to take a copy of my appraisal
home to look at overnight." If your company
gives employees the option to add comments to
the end of the annual review or on a separate
sheet of paper, by all means do so. This is
your opportunity to put your side of the story
in writing and be added to your personnel file.
Don't leave the office without a copy.
Whether you're happy or dismayed by your appraisal
and whether you sign it or make a return appointment,
don't leave your supervisor's office without
a copy. Performance appraisals have been known
to mysteriously mutate, and you want to have
proof of the document as it was originally presented
to you.
Leave them smiling. Perhaps the toughest
task in this process, especially if you're fundamentally
dissatisfied with the performance appraisal
process, is to go through it in such a way that
you speak up for yourself AND remain polite,
professional, and nonconfrontational. A handshake
and a heartfelt "thanks for taking the
extra time to deal with my requests" can
go a long way toward restoring any bad feelings.
Look to the future: changing
the appraisal structure in your organization.
Although you're not usually one of the decision
makers in your company, you may have several opportunities
to affect the approach to performance appraisals:
Use the suggestion box, virtual and otherwise.
Most companies and organizations have some mechanism
by which employees are encouraged to offer suggestions
for better management and other innovations. One
large Washington, DC, insurance company even makes
a monthly "suggestion for improvement"
a requisite part of its employee's yearly performance
appraisals. Whether your suggestion is on hard
copy or through the company's internal electronic
network, you'll want to be informed, offering
references like the Coens and Jenkins book and
specific comments on the current performance appraisal
structure.
Be prepared for other feedback opportunities.
Some companies have regular employee section
meetings, "town hall" sessions, or
retreats at which employees are encouraged (and
sometime required) to come up with suggestions.
Make sure that you emphasize the positive aspects
of any innovations you propose in appraisals.
Don't be afraid to show that you've done your
research and know what you're talking about.
Use specific examples of workplaces in which
alternative approaches are working to everyone's
advantage.
Take it with you when you rise. In today's
rapidly changing workplace, you may be grousing
about your performance appraisal today and find
yourself in the manager's seat tomorrow. Work
toward creative changes with your management
colleagues and the administrative structure
of your company or organization.
Granted, the performance appraisal system isn't
perfect. These tips should help you feel more
in control the next time you meet with your
manager for your annual review.
Nan Knight is a freelance science writer and
editor whose credits include Smithsonian exhibits,
Discovery Channel Web sites, and a wide range
of publications on radiation in medicine.
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