The Perfect PM Appraisal…One Page
As software has revolutionized the way company’s do business by streamlining processes and eliminating paperwork, it has also made performance management much more complicated.
It’s easy to get excited about creating fully featured PM processes and documents that cover every possible HR facet. However, this only pushes us farther and farther from the true original intention of PM, which is to increase the productivity of our employees through constructive feedback in order to create a competitive advantage.
Employees and managers get easily overwhelmed by today’s PM software applications. Keep in mind that they didn’t go to school for HR, they don’t go to SHRM conferences, they don’t spend all day working in and discussing HR issues. In fact, most employees and managers cringe when they hear HR or see performance management.
With that in mind, HR departments should take one step back in order to take two steps forward. Start with the appraisal/evaluation document. This should be one page long. It should be hand written. It should be completed quarterly. It should have three sections:
- What do we expect from you this quarter? (completed by the manager and discussed with the employee at the beginning of the quarter)
- What did you do this quarter? (completed by the manager and discussed with the employee at the end of the quarter)
- What should you continue to do and what should you develop upon for next quarter? (completed by the manager and discussed with the employee at the end of the quarter)
Rinse and repeat. No ratings, no bonus calculations, no complicated objective weighting schemes, no confusing software, no time spent on the phone with the helpdesk and away from your job.
This would be universally accepted and understood by employees and managers. It would be extremely easy to administer for HR departments. It would win back some credibility with the line. And, most importantly, it would place the focus on constructive feedback and productivity increases.
