Employee Ranking Systems LO17144
JAMES_H_CARRINGTON@HP-Westford-om1.om.hp.com
Mon, 23 Feb 1998 11:52:49 -0500
Fred Nickols wrote in Employee Ranking Systems LO17107
>It helps also to understand that people do not fear performance
>appraisal systems per se. They fear instead the consequences of
>appraisals.
Correct, they fear the implementation of the system.
>Short-term, the consequences generally tie to some piddling little
>pay raise called the merit increase, a sad substitute for a cost of
>living increase or more genuine recognition.
This type of pay increase has very little to do with a PA system and
everything to do with the business as a whole. If the company has
implemented a wage freeze, then no type of PA system or lack thereof
is going to get a stellar employee more money. Fred seems to forget
that any PA system has a salary range increase function. Good
performers will get better raises, provided of course that the boss is
not an asshole (bad implementation of an otherwise good system).
>Longer term, however, performance appraisals affect assignments and
>opportunities for promotion, both of which carry big-time
>consequences. It is the "record" created by performance appraisal
>systems that people fear, not the system itself.
Why is this necessarily bad? Why would one fear a record of a PA if
the PA is good? Good PAs HELP getting raises and promotions, I have
even taken good appraisals on job interviews!
An anecdote: At a previous job, I had several good performance
appraisals over a couple of years. Then, my boss got a promotion to
head up the production facility at a larger site. The guy that was
hired to replace him was a complete ass. All of a sudden, I (and
several other people who had been getting good reviews) were problem
employees. According to the new supervisor, it seemed that we all had
bad attitudes, our output was low, and our job knowledge was weak. I
took this bad appraisal, along with all of the ones from my previous
boss into human resources. It seemed that some of the other employees
had done the same. Several of us were given individual meetings with
the next level manager (our boss' boss) and the HR rep. Not only did we
get the raises that we deserved but the new supervisor was reprimanded.
He quit two months later. We were able to do this because we had
written evidence of our past performance. There was evidence of the
performance of the department as a whole both under the new supervisor
and the old. It was clear that the new supervisor was the wrong man for
the job. The boss was bad, not the system.
This system, which has been so hopelessly derided by many on this
list, saved our butts, and actually increased the morale and
camaraderie of the entire department.
Fred was good enough to put me in contact with the VP of a company
that got rid of their appraisal system. They have replaced it with an
informal system (no documentation) but it is none the less a
performance appraisal system.
During our correspondence, This gentleman was good enough to attach a
couple of documents. One is titled
"Competencies for performance assessment and salary increases" for
exempt employees
It lists Twenty-three (yup, 23) bullets by which the manager can
"assess performance"
the other is titled:
"Competencies for performance assessment and salary increases" for
non-exempt employees
It lists Twenty-six bullets.
The good news is that they have a system that every one seems to like
and agree with. More power to 'em! The bad news (for the opponents of
PAs on this list) is that they are still using a performance appraisal
system.
It has been proven to me that documenting ones performance CAN and
DOES work.
Roxanne Abbas wrote in Employee Ranking Systems LO17131
(RE: Corning)
>Our solution was to have a mutually developed performance
>summary paragraph by the employee and supervisor.
Once again, this is an appraisal system, with documentation.
Semantics.
JHC
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