For the better...? (The Process of Performance Appraisal)

Recently, I have been engaged in discussion with my feiend and colleague Dale Weeks, about best practices in performance appraisal. The reasons commonly given by organizations for doing this, are well known. We want to assess worker strengths and weaknesses; we want to help make good plans for individual development; we want to reward superior performers; we want to document bad performers in case we have to take punitive action.

The debate of course, is whether the traditional systems of appraisal do more harm than good. Do the bad truly get punished? Do those getting rewards really deserve them? Are such rewards more divise then motivating? Do supervisors really have tough conversations to help the weak and encourage the strong?

My own experience over more than 30 years inside several organizations, is that these traditional systems do in fact do more harm than good. In this, I tend to agree with Dr. W. Edwards Deming, and those who followed him (Peter Scholtes; the Coens and Jenkins book on abolishing appraisals etc.).

In my recent correspondence with Dale, I noted my six years in a good sized and diverse public organization. I was responsible for training all supervisors about appraisals every year, and for coaching them through the annual process. Almost all of them hated having to do this. But worse than the work of generating the appraisals, were the consequences of what they did. Without overt conspiring, there were the common issues of upward "grade creep" and "range compression" that often afflict traditional appraisal systems. Fewer than 2% of the supervisors actually used the annual assessment meeting to shape development plans for subordinates. to make themselves look better, supervisors tended to increase ratings for their group, so they would not suffer coercive comparisons to their own colleagues. Oops.

There are better ways.

Coens and Jenkins may have been the first to use real data to refute and address the traditional reasons for appraisals. Moreover, they offer alternatives to address each reason/excuse. there is a recent book by Samuel Culbert with a similar title. Hopefully it will reach more people, and continue to influence thought and action in a more helpful way.