This article throws light upon the seven measures which can help to make appraisals effective.
1. The barrier to subjectivity can be overcome by framing explicit performance criteria against which performance judgments will be made. Managers can also make a number of appraisals instead of one to rule out bias in ratings.
2. The appraisal targets and techniques should be reviewed from time to time and modified according to circumstances. No system can be perfect, however, changes can make it close to objectivity.
3. Appraisal should not be based on personal assumptions as it leads to bias. There should be accurate evidence and facts to support appraisals. It should be based on formal procedures for which appraisers can be given necessary training.
4. Employees’ resistance to appraisals should be reduced to minimum. Rather than viewing appraisal as a check, it should be viewed as a positive change agent. After rating the employees’ performance, the raters should sit with the appraises and discuss the performance parameters with them; where they are wrong, how they can improve, how can their weaknesses be converted into strengths, what are organisation’s expectations from them and how they can fulfill them etc.
Employees should be provided constant feedback on their performance. Rather than making appraisal a fault finding system, it should promote employees’ performance by telling them where and why deviations occurred and how they can be removed. Timely feedback helps the employees in timely correction of errors and adopting methods that reduce occurrence of errors.
5. Appraisals should not be viewed as a block to psychological satisfaction of appraisers. They are required for organisational success rather than personal satisfiers. Irrespective of personal relationships amongst appraisers and appraises, performance appraisals should contribute to organisational productivity.
For organisational success, it is extremely important that all undesirable effects of appraisals are minimised. There should be a completely objective analysis of performance highlighting both successes and failures of appraises. Appraisers can help the employees by continuously guiding them informally through personal observation so that deviations in performance are not highlighted in the formal appraisals.
6. Performance criteria should be as clear as possible. However, to overcome the ambiguities, the same person can be rated by two or more appraisers. Even if he is rated by one appraiser, the rating should be repeated after a period of time. Comparing the ratings by two persons or same person at two points of time can improve the reliability of the rating system. No rating system can be perfect as it deals with many intangible aspects of human performance. It should, however be as satisfactory as possible.
7. Rating errors should be reduced by training the appraisers to evaluate the employees’ performance.