The document provides guidance on crafting positive performance appraisal comments, emphasizing the importance of using specific and concrete language to communicate effectively during employee evaluations. It outlines various methods for performance appraisal, such as ranking, rating scales, and critical incidents, detailing their advantages and disadvantages. Additionally, it stresses the need to compliment good performance while addressing areas for improvement and setting future goals to motivate employees.

1. Positive performance appraisal comments
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I. Contents of getting positive performance appraisal comments
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When you conduct an employee evaluation, the best comments aren't necessarily the most
flattering ones -- this is an opportune time to identify areas in which an employee needs
improvement. Whether complimenting an employee's performance or noting things on which he
needs to work, you must use appropriate language and concrete terms. Otherwise, your message
may become confused, and your employee may be left feeling as directionless as before the
evaluation occurred.
Specificity of Terms
Specific, concrete terms make employee evaluations easier for others to understand. For
example, when you write, "Good customer service skills," you may be referring to your
employee's speed and efficiency, interpersonal skills, demeanor, customer reviews or all of the
above. If you write, "Personal appearance needs improvement," for example, your reader could
be confused -- the problem may be as serious as the employee coming to work exhibiting poor
personal hygiene or as simple as the employee wearing wrinkled ties. Using concrete terms
ensures that the employee and other managers are able to understand the specifics of your
employee's evaluation.
Complimenting Good Performance
Even when evaluating a "problem" employee, you should always try to identify areas in which
he excels and compliment him for that on his review. If your employee's evaluation is highly
critical, he may feel dejected, offended or unappreciated, and he can lose any motivation to

2. improve. If the employee feels like his good work is appreciated and rewarded, though, he is
more likely to be motivated to do more good work so that your approval and praise will continue.
If they fit, use positive comments like, "Actively seeks out opportunities to improve" or
"Responds to company communication quickly and efficiently."
Identifying Problem Areas
The employee evaluation is an appropriate time to address lingering issues your employee may
have, so be sure to note of any of her problem areas. If you are conducting an in-person
employee review, give the employee the opportunity to identify his own problem areas. If you
are preparing a written evaluation, identify areas of potential improvement delicately. For
example, don't write, "Bad customer service skills;" instead, write, "Loses patience with
customers." This is another example of why specificity is so crucial -- without it, your employee
may feel like he is doing a worse job than he actually is.
Creating New Goals
Good comments include goals for the future -- by creating new goals on the employee's
evaluation, you give him direction for how to improve. The evaluation may bring to light
problem areas that your employee did not realize he had, and setting concrete goals helps him
address those problems. For example, if your employee ignores e-mail communication, instruct
him to respond to e-mails within a certain period of time. Giving your employee direction gives
him a place to focus his energies in preparation for the next evaluation.
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III. Performance appraisal methods
1.Ranking Method
The ranking system requires the rater to rank his
subordinates on overall performance. This consists in
simply putting a man in a rank order. Under this method,
the ranking of an employee in a work group is done
against that of another employee. The relative position of
each employee is tested in terms of his numerical rank. It
may also be done by ranking a person on his job
performance against another member of the competitive
group.
Advantages of Ranking Method
i. Employees are ranked according to their performance
levels.
ii. It is easier to rank the best and the worst employee.

3. Limitations of Ranking Method
i. The “whole man” is compared with another “whole man”
in this method. In practice, it is very difficult to compare
individuals possessing various individual traits.
ii. This method speaks only of the position where an
employee stands in his group. It does not test anything
about how much better or how much worse an employee
is when compared to another employee.
iii. When a large number of employees are working, ranking
of individuals become a difficult issue.
iv. There is no systematic procedure for ranking individuals
in the organization. The ranking system does not eliminate
the possibility of snap judgements.
2. Rating Scale
Rating scales consists of several numerical scales
representing job related performance criterions such as
dependability, initiative, output, attendance, attitude etc.
Each scales ranges from excellent to poor. The total
numerical scores are computed and final conclusions are
derived. Advantages – Adaptability, easy to use, low cost,
every type of job can be evaluated, large number of
employees covered, no formal training required.
Disadvantages – Rater’s biases
3. Checklist method

4. Under this method, checklist of statements of traits of
employee in the form of Yes or No based questions is
prepared. Here the rater only does the reporting or
checking and HR department does the actual evaluation.
Advantages – economy, ease of administration, limited
training required, standardization. Disadvantages – Raters
biases, use of improper weighs by HR, does not allow
rater to give relative ratings
4. Critical Incidents Method
The approach is focused on certain critical behaviors of
employee that makes all the difference in the
performance. Supervisors as and when they occur record
such incidents. Advantages – Evaluations are based on
actual job behaviors, ratings are supported by
descriptions, feedback is easy, reduces recency biases,
chances of subordinate improvement are high.
Disadvantages – Negative incidents can be prioritized,
forgetting incidents, overly close supervision; feedback
may be too much and may appear to be punishment.
5. Essay Method

5. In this method the rater writes down the employee
description in detail within a number of broad categories
like, overall impression of performance, promoteability
of employee, existing capabilities and qualifications of
performing jobs, strengths and weaknesses and training
needs of the employee. Advantage – It is extremely
useful in filing information gaps about the employees
that often occur in a better-structured checklist.
Disadvantages – It its highly dependent upon the writing
skills of rater and most of them are not good writers.
They may get confused success depends on the memory
power of raters.
6. Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales
statements of effective and ineffective behaviors
determine the points. They are said to be
behaviorally anchored. The rater is supposed to
say, which behavior describes the employee
performance. Advantages – helps overcome rating
errors. Disadvantages – Suffers from distortions
inherent in most rating techniques.
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