Performance Appraisals – Much ado about nothing!

Management appraisals are much hyped and much abused.

I rely on my four decades of HR experience to make this statement, because nothing is more revered in words and more reviled in practice as the vital tool of appraisals. I will not easily budge from this view. There is tremendous hoopla in many companies on designing a really state-of-the art Appraisal Form, but very little intention is displayed in implementing it faithfully and sincerely. I myself have witnessed the fact that often no clear targets of a quantifiable nature have been set one year in advance; attempts are usually made to camouflage this serious lapse by scribbling something down just before the appraisal meeting. The process of target setting requires a fair bit of discussion and, as far as possible, mutual consent. More often than not, they are simply read out with no attempt to reach a consensus. There have also been a few cases of appraisal forms from managers reaching my HR table marked in pencil.

The appraiser has been too careless (or too unsure?) to ink over the writing. I even remember one particular case where the appraisal form came in duly signed by both parties but otherwise completely blank! Obviously, the signing ceremony had been done with a promise to do the appraisal at a later date and then left to vegetate in some folder. When the final date for submission came along, it, along with the rest, was forwarded to H.O. with this diabolical specimen in tow. So where does the fault lie? The answer is it lies with everybody! Sounds far-fetched? Let me explain.

Can anyone deny the statement, “What the CEO wants the CEO gets!”? How many of them are really hawkish about a process-driven appraisal system? Profits, yes. Revenue, turnover and the bottom line, of course! When it comes to appraisals what only seems to matter is timelines being met. They do not insist on processes and to that extent HR is discouraged from taking a tough stand given where the inclination exists. The CEO must be aware that his KPI’s are cascaded down to form the KPI’s of everybody down the line and integrated into a company-wide grid by HR. The CEO must be the first to know that KPI’s are absolutely critical to the focused growth of the company and that they must be quantifiable because what cannot be quantified, cannot be measured; what cannot be measured cannot be controlled; and what cannot be controlled is hot air! Does the CEO support HR in insisting that Training Plans must be specific? Will he support HR if a stand is taken against ludicrous inputs like “On the Job” or “Ditto Last Year”? I fear not. The CEO has not paused to think that data-based Succession Planning based on spurious appraisals is nothing but garbage in and garbage out. Will he ever allow a neutral observer to sit in the appraisals just to confirm that the process has been honored? Just guess.

These gentlemen, and I am one of them, are not exactly lily white. They happily collude with the boss and don’t exercise their counseling upwards role. Secretly they too are only too happy to chime in with the system and rush through with appraisals, promotions and increments and have everything nicely filed before the annual audit. In many respects, he is the guiltiest because the nurturing of the Human Resource is his prime function. It is his task to ensure that talent is identified, developed and grown in the system to ensure that the best people emerge as leaders. He cannot be a bystander when 75 percent of the population is rated ‘Above Average’ and the annual performance of the organization is average. He is allowing a situation to emerge where good people get frustrated and quit and the eminent mediocrities are promoted to fill the breach. He has abrogated his role as the ‘conscience-keeper’ of the human asset and that is sad and dangerous.

Often portrayed as the only villain (which is unfair), this person also has his share of sins of omission and commission. Such as?

• The appraisal is the least of his priorities and more a chore than a tool to be used to uplift the quality of the manpower at his disposal. He can afford to do that because unlike other facets of his job, he is unlikely to be seriously confronted.
• His primary focus is to keep his flock happy and because he has neither set meaningful targets, nor done a midterm appraisal nor collected hard data before the appraisal process, he can only mumble vague generalities and he does not have the wherewithal to confront an earring subordinate.
• Moreover, he is scared of people quitting due to a tough appraisal and he being asked uncomfortable questions on attrition levels in his domain. On the contrary, he would like to be seen as a ‘good guy’.
• He has, deep down, a disinclination for sending people for training because he does not want to be short-staffed for day to day work.
• He is totally alien to the concept of a free, frank and mature dialogue during the appraisal. He forgets that he is a boss and not a god. Any constructive criticism flowing back to him from below is assumed to be an affront to his authority and a harbinger of indiscipline.

Much maligned, this chap is also no saint. How come?

• As long as his increments are good and the regular promotion comes along, and as long as the rating remains at least ‘Above Average’, he sees no sense in rocking the boat.
• As a paid holiday, training programs are fine but why ask for something specific, particularly when the system calls for an immediate feedback and, worse still, with specific action plans flowing there from? ‘Lie low’ is the motto! If nobody is bothered just lie low! He forgets that at the end of the day, it is his life and his career.

Let it be said most emphatically that there must be many organizations which are very different and we must applaud them. However, there is definitely a need elsewhere to elevate appraisals from a routine chore to a very real and effective tool for building up the organizational manpower resources. There must be a conscious effort to protect the appraisal system from mere routine, buttressed by technological innovations like on line appraisals and a new form every now and again. If the process is held sacred, the results are bound to be there. The question is, “Are we prepared to go through the grind or are we still content to be a nation of gentlemen in a world of players?” The MCC has discarded this concept 50 years ago. Maybe we should as well.