Performance appraisal (PA) is one of the most important methods an organisation can guarantee the continued performance of its employees and support their future development. As the last fiscal year ended just a few months ago (i.e. at mid-July), many organisations are now conducting performance appraisals in order to evaluate the yearly performances of its employees. In this context, Real Solutions organised HR Kurakani on ‘Ways of appraising employees’ in order to discuss how to conduct appraisal effectively.
HR practitioners from diverse fields discussed the ways of appraising and the different ways that it can be accomplished:
PA Methods
Every organisation has its own method of appraising an employee’s performance but some of the popular methods used by various organisations in Nepal are 360 degree appraisal, observation basis and balanced scorecard among others. The performance appraisal forms are filled either manually or through use of certain software packages developed for the purpose. Filling the PA forms should not be biased; but in practice, favoritism does exist within organisations. Therefore, PA should be transparent in order to bring out best results.
PA Forms
The participating HR practitioners highlighted on designing questionnaires as per respective job descriptions and found it necessary that they are associated with organisational goals. The questionnaire should be able to analyse different aspects of an employee like communication skills, punctuality, competence, knowledge and overall behaviour among others. Another aspect to be considered while designing the PA forms is the language. The language should be simple, clear and must include both English and Nepali languages and sometimes in other language(s) too, in order to make PA process easier.
Trend
It was felt that most of the organisations in Nepal do not carry out appraisals while some others do it just for the sake of doing it. The organisations that conduct appraisals systematically and effectively include multinational companies and international nongovernmental organisations (INGOs).
PA Outcome
If an organisation conducts PA and takes no action based on the result received, then there’s no point in going through the entire process. The action as a result should not always be an increment in terms of monetary compensation even though it is one of the major aspects. Besides monetary reward, the appraisal outcome can also include non-monetary rewards such as providing holiday packages, training facilities, appreciation and rewarding best employee among others, based on their performances. An increment in salary is expected on a yearly basis when PA is conducted.
The HR Kurakani participants discussed salary increment criteria such as performance based increment, increment as per government norms, increment as per inflation rate and increment considering an organisation’s values and growth. It was also discussed that yearly PA is not the best way of judging and rewarding employees. If a system can be introduced to appraise employees on a monthly basis, it could be more effective. The participants discussed the possibilities and practicality of such an arrangement. Since it requires greater time investment, the participants suggested conducting biannual PAs and pointed out different ways that can assist appraisals such as critical incident recording, electronic tracking system, introduction of cards for warnings in the event of mistakes committed and encouragement in case of perfect job, external evaluation etc. (The write up is based on an ‘HR Kurakani’ discussion on the topic ‘Ways of Appraising Employees’ conducted by Real Solutions Pvt Ltd.
The participants at the discussion included representatives from NGOs & INGOs, Hotel Industry, IT and Communication, Automobile Companies, Trading and Service Industries as well as a freelancer. Shailendra Raj Giri, Managing Director of Real Solutions acted as the moderator for the discussion while Nibha Shakya, HR Executive of the company coordinated the event).
