The document provides information about performance appraisals, including: 1. Performance appraisals involve formally assessing an employee's strengths and weaknesses, establishing performance standards, measuring performance against those standards, and providing feedback to help employees improve. 2. The goals of effective appraisals include maintaining compensation records, identifying strengths and weaknesses to optimize job placements, assessing growth potential, and providing performance feedback. 3. The appraisal process involves establishing standards, communicating expectations, measuring and comparing actual performance, discussing evaluations with employees, and initiating corrective actions when needed. 4. Benefits of appraisals include career growth, improved performance, increased engagement, determining training needs, clarifying expectations, and addressing

1. StudentName: TezanaBekele
StudentNumber: 112669
Course: HR Management
AssignmentNo: #3
Marking Criteria:
We expectthe learnerstowrite minimumone well expressedpointinthree linesagainsteach
allocatedmark.Thismeansone needstowrite 15 lineswith5 well expressedpointstogethigh
gradesfor a 5 marksquestion.
For highgradesuse examplesandillustrationswhereappropriate.
1. Give short answers to the following questions:
I. What is Appraisal?
Appraisal is the official or formal assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of someone or
something.Appraisal ofteninvolvesobservationorsome kindof testing. Performance Appraisalis
the systematic evaluation of the performance of employees and to understand the abilities of a
personforfurthergrowthanddevelopment.Performanceappraisal isgenerallydoneinsystematic
ways.
II. Outline the goals of an effective performance appraisal.
The main objective of performance appraisals is to measure and improve the performance of
employees and increase their future potential and value to the company. Performance Appraisal
can be done with following objectives in mind:
 To maintainrecordsinordertodetermine compensationpackages,wage structure,salaries
raise, etc.
 To identify the strengths and weaknesses of employees to place right men on right job.
 To maintain and assess the potential present in a person for further growth and
development.
 To provide feedback to employees regarding their performance and related status.
Assignment Cover Sheet

2.  To provide feedback to employees regarding their performance and related status.
 It serves as a basis for influencing working habits of the employees.
 To review and retain the promotional and other training programmes
III. Explain the steps involved in the appraisal process.
The six stepsinvolvedinprocessof performance appraisal are asfollows:1.EstablishPerformance
Standards2. Communicate Performance ExpectationtoEmployee 3.Measure Actual Performance
4. Compare Actual Performance with Standards 5. Discuss the Appraisal with the Employee 6.
Initiate Corrective Actions.
1. Establish Performance Standards:
The appraisal process begins with the establishment of per-formance standards. The managers
must determine what outputs, accomplishments and skills will be evaluated. These standards
should have evolved out of job analysis and job descriptions.
These performance standardsshouldalsobe clear and objective tobe understood and measured.
Standardsshouldnotbe expressedinanarticulatedorvague mannersuchas“agoodjob”or “a full
day’s work” as these vague phrases tells nothing.
2. Communicate Performance Expectations to Employees:
Once the performance standardsare established,thisneedtobe communicatedtothe respective
employeessothattheycome toknowwhatisexpectedof them.Pastexperience indicatesthatnot
communicating standards to the employ-ees compounds the appraisal problem.
Here,it must be notedthat mere transference of information(relatingtoperformance standards,
forexample)fromthemanagertothe employeesisnotcommuni-cationItbecomescommunication
onlywhenthe transference of informationhastakenplace andhas beenreceivedandunderstood
by the employees.
3. Measure Actual Performance:
This isthe thirdstepinvolvedinthe appraisal process.Inthisstage,the actual performance of the
employee ismeasuredonthe basisof informationavailable fromvarioussourcessuchaspersonal
observation, statistical reports, oral reports, and written reports.
4. Compare Actual Performance with Standards:
In this stage, the actual performance is compared with the predetermined standards. Such a
comparisonmayreveal the deviationbetweenstandardperformance andactual performance and
will enable the evaluator to proceed to the fifth step in the process, i.e., the discussion of the
appraisal with the concerned employees.
5. Discuss the Appraisal with the Employee:

3. The fifth step in the appraisal process is to communi-cate to and discuss with the employees the
results of the appraisal. This is, in fact, one of the most challenging tasks the manager’s face to
present an accurate appraisal to the employees and then make them accept the appraisal in a
constructive manner.
6. Initiate Corrective Action:
The final stepinthe appraisal processisthe initiationof correctiveactionwhenitisnecessary.The
areas needing improvement are identified and then, the measures to correct or improve the
performance are identified and initiated.
The corrective action can be of two types. One is immediate and deals predominantly with
symptoms.Thisactionisoftencalledas“puttingoutfires.”The otherisbasicanddelvesintocauses
of deviations and seeks to adjust the difference permanently.
This type of action involves time to analyses deviations. Hence, managers often opt for the
immediate action, or say, “put out fires”. Training, coaching, counselling, etc. is the common
examples of corrective actions that managers initiate to improve the employee performance.
IV. What are the benefits of an appraisal programme?
Regularly completing performance appraisals can help companies keep their employees engaged
and motivated to work harder. Here are some benefits of conducting a performance appraisal:
Creates career growth
Performance appraisals help employees grow in their careers, particularly if they are looking to
eventually advance with the company to a higher role. A regular evaluation can help employees
create a plan for professional growth.
Improves performance
Providing feedback helpsmotivate employees to do well.Employees can work harder when their
manager shares positive feedback. Because performance appraisals are often used to determine
howto give bonuses,theycanhelpgive employees an incentive and reward for their hard work.
Increases employee engagement
Regularly involving employees in the performance review process can lead to more engagement
and a desire to stay witha companylong term.When employeescansee how theiractions affect
the companyoverall,theyare more likelytoperformbetter.Frequentperformance appraisalsalso
show employees that their manager cares about them and is willing to take the time to provide
them with the instruction needed to help them flourish.
Helps determine training
Performance appraisals allow companies to see which employees need more training and
determine what areas to provide training in.For instance, if multiple employees are struggling to

4. meet a daily quota, an employer could provide a workshop on how to work more efficientlyor
consider lowering the quota for employees.
Clarifies expectations
Duringperformance appraisals,managerscanreiteratetheirexpectationsforemployees.Thishelps
individuals to understand what their daily job responsibilities are and what their manager wants
from them.
Allows for conversation
Performance appraisalscreate a structured,set time for managers to discusshow each employee
is doing overall and allows for a flow of discussion with no distractions. During these meetings,
managerscan coachstaff and offertipsforhow toimprove theirperformance.Thisscheduledtime
alsoprovidesemployeeswithachance to askquestionsandclearupany concernstheymay have.
Evaluates goals
Employerscan evaluate howwell anemployee reachedtheirgoalsandprovide feedbackforwhat
sorts of goals to set for the next period. Creating a system with continuous goal-setting helps to
ensure employees are improving and contributing to the overall mission of the organization.
Addresses areas for improvement
When employers hold performance appraisals frequently, they can spot areas that need
improvement before they affect the company or become irreversible.Often employers provide
suggestionsandmeasuresemployeescantake in the future.This allowsemployeestocontinually
grow and become the best that they can be.
V. Write short notes on the following appraisal methods:
a) Critical incident methods
Thismethodof appraisal,whilemore time-consumingforthemanager,canbe effective atproviding
specificexamplesof behavior.Witha critical incidentappraisal,the managerrecordsexamplesof
the employee’s effective and ineffective behavior during the time period between evaluations,
whichisin the behavioral category.Whenitistime forthe employeetobe reviewed,the manager
will pull out this file and formally record the incidents that occurred over the time period. The
disadvantage of this methodis the tendency to record only negative incidents instead of positive
ones. However, this method can work well if the manager has the proper training to record
incidents (perhaps by keeping a weekly diary) in a fair manner. This approach can also work well
when specific jobs vary greatly from week to week, unlike, for example, a factory worker who
routinely performs the same weekly tasks.
b) Behaviorally - anchored rating scales

5. A behaviorally anchored rating scale (BARS) is a system for measuring staffs’ performance. It
measuresthemaccordingtodefinedbehavioral patterns.Itoffersbothqualitativeandquantitative
data foryourappraisal process.BARSincludesthe combinationof quantifiedratings,incidents,and
narratives.
When you compare the employee’s performance against specific behaviors, you can appoint a
numerical value to them according to the anchored rating scale bars. You will write out critical
incidenttechniques(CIT) whichare the specificbehavioral patternsyouwanttosee.Thenyoucan
compare the person’s behaviors against these to add a numerical rating.
BARSis a greatway tomake it clearto bothmanagersandemployeeswhatthe jobrequires.Italso
defineswhatthepersonshouldbe doingandhow theyshouldbe doingit.It’s essentialforstaff and
their managers to be on the same page, so this is very useful.
The behaviorally anchored appraisal process uses a vertical scale. The points on it are from 5 – 9,
goingfrompoor tomoderate togood performance.The managermustfirstnote all of the tasksan
employeemustdo.Thentheycanwrite outthe behaviorsthatgoalongwiththose.Afterthat,they
can rate the individualonthosebehaviors.A ratingscaleiscreatedforthetasksbyaddingbehaviors
to grades between five and nine.
Every employee receives their own individual behaviorally anchored rating scale, each with
behaviorsrelevanttotheirposition.Ratingsare givenforeachbehaviorforeachemployee.Rather
than having universal criteria such as ‘smiles at customers’, each position will have different
behaviors. So, a salesperson in a store may have ‘makessmall talk and is friendly withcustomers’
while someone who stocks the shelves may have ‘smiles at customers’ as a behavior.
The BARS wascreated because manypeople don’tthinkthattraditional waysof rating employees
are accurate.The mainissue withconventional methodsisthattheycanbe highlysubjective.So,if
your manager doesn’t like you, you will receive a bad rating. This new method aims to eliminate
that risk by being more objective.
Case Study
Lookingfromabove issues,the annuallymade performance reportmustincorporate targetsfor
employees’turnoverrate,total revenuerealization(sales) andemployee morale initiatives.
 To increase themfollowingperformanceobjectivesare tobe charted as KPI
 Achieve 35%additional salestargetswithinfirst9months
 Deployemployee engagementprogramme toreduce turnoverrate to10%
 Reskill andretrainmanagerswithin2months’time frame
 Benchmarkindustriescompensationandofferupmarkedsalarybandstomaintain
employmentmorale

6. Recommendationsto achieve plans:
 Offerlongtermstockoptionsbasedonemployee productivityandperformancetoboost
employee’smoraleandsalesoverall
 Deployadditionalbenefitsandreskillall new managementthroughinductionprocess
 Increase compliance rulesandlevypenaltiesfornon-compliancetoappraisal process
 AdoptflatterHierarchical structure
 Redeploytalentsacrosslocationsandjobprofilestorotate new talents acrosseach
geographical location.
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By submittingthisassignment,Iconfirmthatthisis myownwork.
StudentSignature: Date: 26/05/2022
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