A STUDY ON METHODS OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL IN RELIANCE COMMUNICATION

A STUDY ON

METHODS OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL IN RELIANCE COMMUNICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This Project has been made possible through the direct and indirect Cooperation of various persons, who have inspired me at every step of my work. It is a matter of pride for me to acknowledge my profound gratitude to all those persons.

I am highly obliged and thankful to my esteemed Project Guide Sir Satya N. Vegi and Internal Supervisor Dr. Pradeep Kulshreshtha for his valuable Cooperation and Guidance.

Isha Bajpai

PREFACE

The research provides an opportunity to a student to demonstrate application of his/her knowledge, skills and competencies required during the technical session. Research also helps the student to devote his/her skills to analyze the problem to suggest alternative solutions, to evaluate them and to provide feasible recommendations on the provided data.

The research is on the topic “METHODS OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL IN RELIANCE COMMUNICATION�. Although I have tried my level best to prepare this report an error free report and every effort has been made to offer the most authentic report with accuracy.

DECLARATION

I here by declare that the following documented Project Report titled “METHODS OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL IN RELIANCE COMMUNICATION” is an authentic work done by me.

The Study was undertaken as a part of the course curriculum of PGDM full time Program of GALGOTIAS BUSINESS SCHOOL, Greater Noida.

Isha Bajpai

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL A formal system of review and evaluation of individual or team task performance.

The history of performance appraisal is quite brief. Its roots in the early 20th century can be traced to Taylor's pioneering Time and Motion studies. But this is not very helpful, for the same may be said about almost everything in the field of modern human resources management.The focus of performance appraisal in most firms remain on the individual employee.Regardless of the emphasis, an effective appraisal system evaluates accomplishments and initiates plans for development, goals and objectives.

Performance appraisals are essential for the effective management and evaluation of staff.Appraisals help develop individuals, improve organizational performance , and feed into business planning. Formal performance appraisals are generally conducted annually for all staff in the organization.Each staff member is appraised by their line manager.Directors are appraised by the CEO, who is appraised by the chairman or company owners ,depending on the size and structure of the organization.

PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT A management system consisting of all organizational processes that determine how well employees,teams and ultimately ,the organization perform.

The process includes HR planning, employee recruitment and selection,training and development,career planning and development and compensation .

Performance appraisal is especially critical to its success .An organization must have some means of assessing the level of individual and team performance in order to make appropriate developmental plans.While performance appraisal is but one component of performance management,it is vital in that it directly reflects the organization’s strategic plans.

As emphasized before global competition affects virtually every American business firm. For survival and success, it is imperative that these organizations remain competitive in this environment. Organizations maintain continued competition only through ceaseless development of human resources. Employee performance appraisal is a potential mechanism for its growth.It is vital for managers to realize that performance appraisal must be comprehensive and that it is a continuous process; definitely not a periodic event.

OBJECTIVES OF PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL •

To review the performance of the employees over a given period of time.

• • •

To judge the gap between the actual and the desired performance.

To help the management in exercising organizational control.

Helps to strengthen the relationship and communication between superior – subordinates and management – employees.

To diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of the individuals so as to identify the training and development needs of the future.

To provide feedback to the employees regarding their past performance.

Provide information to assist in the other personal decisions in the organization.

Provide clarity of the expectations and responsibilities of the functions to be performed by the employees.

To judge the effectiveness of the other human resource functions of the organization such as recruitment, selection, training and development.

To reduce the grievances of the employees

• • • • • •

FEATURES OF AN EFFECTIVE APPRAISAL SYSTEM Performance appraisal system should be effective as a number of crucial decisions are made on the basis of score or rating given by the appraiser, which in turn, is heavily based on the appraisal system. Appraisal system, to be effective, should possess the following essential characteristics:

RELIABILITY AND VALIDITY: Appraisal system should provide consistent, reliable and valid information and data, which can be used to defend the organization – even in legal challenges. If two appraisers are equally qualified and competent to appraise an employee with the help of same appraisal technique, their ratings should agree with each other.

Then the technique satisfies the conditions of inter-rater reliability. Appraisals must also satisfy the condition of validity by measuring what they are supposed to measure. For example, if appraisal is made for potential of an employee for promotion, it should supply the information and data relating to potentialities of

the employee to take up higher responsibilities and carry on activities at higher level.

JOB RELATEDNESS: The appraisal technique should measure the performance and provide information in job related activities/areas.

STANDARDIZATION: Appraisal forms, procedures, administration of techniques, ratings, etc., should be standardized as appraisal decisions affect all employees of the group.

PRACTICAL VIABILITY: The techniques should be practically viable to administer, possible to implement and economical to undertake continuously.

LEGAL SANCTION: Appraisals must meet the laws of the land. They must comply with provisions of various acts relating to labor.

TRAINING TO APPRAISERS: Because appraisal is important and sometimes difficult, it would be useful to provide training to appraisers viz., some insights and ideas on rating, documenting appraisals and conducting appraisal interviews. Familiarity with rating errors can improve rater’s performance and this may inject the needed confidence in appraisers to look into performance ratings more objectively.

OPEN COMMUNICATION: Most employees want to know how well they are performing the job. A good appraisal system provides the needed feedback on a continuing basis. The appraisal interviews should permit both parties to learn about the gaps and prepare themselves for future. To this end, managers should clearly explain their performance expectations to their subordinates in advance of the appraisals period. Once this is known, it becomes easy for employees to learn about the yardsticks and, if possible, try to improve their performance in future.

EMPLOYEE ACCESS TO RESULTS: Employees should know the rules of the game. They should receive adequate feedback on their performance. If performance appraisals are meant for

improving employee performance, then withholding appraisal result would not serve any purpose. Employees simply cannot perform better without having access to this information. Permitting employees to review the results of their appraisal allows them to detect any errors that may have been made. If they disagree with the evaluation, they can even challenge the same through formal channels.

DUE PROCESS: It follows then that formal procedures should be developed to enable employees who disagree with appraisal results (which are considered to be inaccurate or unfair). They must have the means for pursuing their grievances and having them addressed objectively.

Performance appraisal should be used primarily to develop employees as valuable resources. Only then it would show promising results. When management uses it as a whip or fails to understand its limitations, it fails. The key is not which form or which method is used (Mathis and Jackson).

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL TECHNIQUES 360- DEGREE FEEDBACK EVALUATION: A common approach to assessing performance is to use a numerical or scalar rating system whereby managers are asked to score an individual against a number of objectives/attributes. Employees are also allowed the opportunity to assess the person (manager) at the same time. This is known as 360째 appraisal.

The biggest risk with 360 degree feedback is confidentiality. The information is very sensitive and in the wrong hands ,could impact careers.

RATING SCALES: A widely used appraisal method that rates employees according to defined factors.The scale includes several categories ,normally five to seven in number, defined by adjectives such as outstanding, meets expectations or needs improvement.One reason for the popularity of the ratings scale method is its simplicity, which permits quick evaluation of many employees.The factors chosen for evaluation are typically of two types: job related and personal characteristics.

The rater (evaluator) completes the form by indicating the degree of each factor

that is most descriptive of the employee and his or her performance.Evaluators total and then average the points in each part. Then they multiply this average by a factor representing the weight given each section. The final score for the employees is the total of each section’s points.

CRITICAL INCIDENTS: A performance appraisal technique that requires a written record of highly favourable and highly unfavourable employee work behaviour.

When such an action –a critical incident-affects the department significantly, either positively or negatively, the manager writes it down .With this method , the appraisal is more likely to cover the entire evaluation period and not focus on the last few weeks or months.

ESSAY METHOD: A performance appraisal method in which the rater writes a brief narrative describing an employee’s performance.

Ratings of this type depend heavily on the evaluator’s ability. Supervisors with excellent writing skills, if so inclined, can make a marginal worker sound like a top performer. However, some managers believe that the essay method is not only themost simple but also an acceptable approach to employee evaluation.

WORK STANDARDS: A performance appraisal method that compares each employee’s performance to a predetermined standard or expected level of output.

Several methods are available to determine work standards, including time study and work sampling. An obvious advantage of using standards as appraisal criteria is objectivity. However, in order for employees to perceive that the standards are objective, they should understand clearly how the standards were set. Management must also explain the rationale for any changes to the standards.

RANKING: A performance appraisal method in which the rater simply places employees from a group in rank order of overall performance.

A difficulty occurs when individuals have performed at comparable levels (as perceived by the evaluator). Paired comparison is a variation of the ranking method in which the performance of each employee is compared with every other employee in the group. Overall performance, is often the basis for the

comparison. The employee who receives the greatest number of favourable comparisons receives the highest ranking.

FORCED DISTRIBUTION: A performance appraisal method which requires the rater to assign individuals in a work group to a limited number of categories similar to a normal frequency distribution.

Because of slowing economy and an increased focus on pay for performance, many firms have instituted some rankings or gotten tougher with their existing systems. Proponents of forced distribution believe they facilitate budgeting and guard against weak managers who are too timid to get rid of the poor performers.

They think that forced rankings require managers to be honest with workers about how they are doing.

RESULT BASED SYSTEMS: A performance appraisal method in which the manager and the subordinate jointly agree on objectives of the next appraisal period.

Since organizations exist to achieve goals, a result-based system has obvious value.A distinct advantage of this approach is that it provides a measure of achievements against predetermined objectives.

BEHAVIORALLY ANCHORED RATING SCALES: A performance appraisal method that combines elements of the traditional rating scale and critical incident method.

BARS differs from rating scales because, instead of using adjectives at each scale point, it uses behavioral anchors relate to the criterion being measured.

The approach facilitates discussion of the rating because it addresses specific behaviours; thus overcoming weakness in other evaluation methods.

BENEFITS APPRAISAL

OF

PERFORMANCE

Sharon Armstrong takes us through the benefits of conducting a downward performance appraisal - the benefits to the organization, to the supervisor, and to the employee himself or herself.

Organization

Supervisor

Employee

Communicates corporate goals

Builds management skills

Finds out how they’re doing

Provides management with decision-making Develops and improves Provides recognition information on human rapport with employees accomplishments resources Provides basis for promotions, and other actions Builds stronger relationships

for

objective raises, Allows for two-way Identifies and rewards high training, communication on goals and performers personnel performance

working

Identifies performers Encourages taking needing improvement for responsibility for their coaching/training performance and progress

Improves overall Improves individual Helps set goals and direct organizational productivity employee productivity efforts Provides documentation for inquiries on general Provides opportunities for Identifies general training promotion policies or career development and needs individual claims of improvement discrimination Demonstrates

fairness

to Assures

fair

individual

employees Improves group morale

evaluations