Type of employee performance appraisals

Type of employee performance appraisals
Introduction
Human resource management is one part of management that is mainly concerned with managing the welfare of the employee in an organization. The human resource department is involved in the formulating various strategies that help to support the employee to follow a certain direction of ensuring an organizations achieves its objectives. In relations to this the human resource manager is involved in formulating strategies to help the employee to encourage the employee working in the organizations to work according to their potential in order to improve the overall organizational performance (Venclová,2013,p.160).. In order to monitor the performance of each employee in an organization the human resource manager of the leading companies such as General Motors have introduce effective performance appraisal strategies that help them in assessing the performance of their employee (price, 2013,p.43). Moreover the human resource manager is also involved in the formulating the various reward strategies to motivate the employee to work hard. Considering companies such as British airways it is evident the company has implemented reward strategies that has helped to encourage the employee to work hard and deliver quality products to their customers. This paper discusses some of the contribution of the human resource manager in managing the employee performance. In addition this paper will also analyze the various quality assurance techniques that are used by various organizations in order to monitor the quality of goods and services they offer in the market. Finally this essay provides some of the possible recommendation that the human resource manager need to adopt in order to manage the employee performance effectively.
Employee appraisal
Performance appraisal refer to the various processes that managers of an organization evaluate their employee work performance through measuring their work performance against a certain already established standard (Venclová, 2013, p.160). Most of the organizations generally conduct the formal performance appraisals at the end of the year in order to evaluate the overall performance. The performance appraisals are also performed in order to encourage the employee to improve their performance in future. Through conducting performance appraisals the management of an organization is provided with an opportunity to discuss strength and weakness of an employee. With regard to indentifying the employee weakness the performance appraisals provides them with an opportunity to present some of their concern to the management. According Miah, et al., (2012, p.95) performance appraisal helps to improve the communication between the management and the employee in an organization. This can be linked to the fact that the performance appraisal provides an opportunity where the employees are able to discuss with the management issues affecting their work environment.
Moreover the performance appraisals allow the employee of an organization to indentify the various skills that they may be lacking and the one that they need to improve. In addition the performance appraisals provide the management with an opportunity for the manager to explain to the organizational goals and objectives to the employee hence helping to ensure that they participate towards achieving these goals. Implementing the performance appraisal in an organization can help to increase the liability among the stakeholder in an organization. This is because they provide the employee with an opportunity to comment on the conduct and performance of their supervisors. Most importantly conducting the performance appraisals helps to provide the management of an organization with an opportunity to implement rewards strategies in order to recognize the hardworking employee in an organization.
Type of employee performance appraisals
Various organizations use different performance appraisal in order to assess the strength and the weakness of their employee. The following are some of the common performance appraisals
360-degree feedback
This is a type of performance appraisal method, which allows other employee to comment on the performance of a specific employee performance in an organization (Venkateswara & Rao, 2005, p.6). This type of appraisal helps to provide the employee with an opportunity to get assessed by the people around them in organizations who include the supervisor’s coworkers among others. Use of 360-degree feedback method to assess the performance of an employee allows the employee to gain an understanding on the impact on interacting with other people in the organizations. According to venkateswara and Rao (2005, p.7) using the method to assess the performance of an employee can help to improve the relationships and trust among all the stakeholders in an organization.
Self-assessment
This is type of performance appraisal where the employees are given an opportunity to assess their own performance. Using this method the employee is given a form to fill out their own performance against a given scales (Kirkpatrick, 2006, p.3). The employees are given a chance to rate themselves according to the assessment provided by the managers. Allowing the employee to assess their own performance can help to give the managers an opportunity to establish the perception of the employee regarding their own performance.
Manager’s performance appraisals
This type of performance appraisal where the manager’s performance is assessed as well. In addition the manager performance appraisals aim at assessing the human resource skills. Assessing the performance of the manager can help to determine the overall performance of an organization. This is because in most cases the managers play a critical role in ensuring that an organization achieves it objectives.
General appraisal
General appraisal refers to a type of performance appraisal that aims at assessing the ongoing communications in organization between the manager and the employee (Kirkpatrick, 2006, p.3). Assessing the performance the ongoing communication in an organization is important since it help to establish whether the business has been able to achieve its pre set goals and objectives. In addition assessing the overall performance of the organization at the end of the year helps to ensure that the organizations are able to set their new goals and objectives.
Uses of appraisal
The performance appraisal in an organization performs three major function in an organizations. First they help to assess the performance of the employee toward ensuring that they help the organization to achieve its goals and objectives. The second major function of the performance appraisals is the fact that they provide the employee with an opportunity to increases their skills and competencies. It is also evident that the performance appraisals help to provide a platform to integrate the various organizational activities toward ensuring that an organization achieves its objectives.
Organizational example of employee appraisals
Tesla Motors is one of the companies that have implemented the performance appraisals in order to assess the performance of their employee. The company is involved in production of all electric performance sport cars. The management of Tesla Motors has implemented the general appraisals that are conducted at the end of year to establish the organizational performance. Establishing the performance appraisal in the company has helped to ensure that the company continues to leading in terms of mass production of the electric vehicles. Another company that has implemented the performance appraisal methods in their management is the Virgin Atlantic. In this case the management of the company has implemented the 360-degree appraisal in order to assess the performance of the employee. In order to ensure that the method is effective the management of the company have further subdivided the employee into various teams which helps in assessing the strength and weakness of each employee in the organization. Implementing effective performance appraisal methods in the company have helped the company to provide quality services to its customer and at the same increase their market share.
Moreover Tesco being one of the leading companies in providing household retails products has also implemented the performance appraisal methods to help in assessing the performance of their employee. In this case the company has implemented the general appraisal method that is conducted at the end of year in order to assess the overall performance of the company. Implementing this type of performance appraisal has helped to ensure that the employees in company are committed towards offering quality services to the customers.
Role of human resource manager in employee appraisal
The human resource manager play a critical role in the implementing various performance appraisal methods in an organization. One of the major roles in the human resource manager is the communication of the various goals and objectives of an organization to the employee (Hernandez & O'Connor, 2010, p.226.)In relation to this the human resource manager is also involved in the setting of the performance target and at the same time clarifying to the employee the company expectations with regard to their performance. The line managers also play a critical role of informing the employee their progress and hence ensuring that the entire organization is committed toward achieving their set goals and objectives. According to Kirkpatrick, (2006, p.8) the human resource manager is also involved in establishing shared beliefs regarding the importance of having a continuous performance improvement among the employees.
In order to ensure that the organizations achieve their goals and objectives the human resource manager plays a critical role in providing leadership. Daley. (1992, p.137) notes that the human resource manager is also involved in maintaining simplicity in the performance management and reduces any unnecessary pressures on the employee from the line managers. Through establishment of an effective performance appraisal mechanism the human resource manager is able to build a culture where each team and individuals take responsibility for their own behaviors in the organizations. Most importantly the human resource manager is involved ensuring that there is an effective communication protocol in the organization which in turn help to ensure that the employee are able to presents some of the problems they may be facing in their workplace. After conducting the performance appraisals the human resource manager is also involved in the implementation of the various reward strategies. In relation to this the human resource manager is also involved in organizing training in order to strengthen the skills of the employee in the organization.
Employee Reward
The human resource management in the organization is responsible for motivating the employees through awarding both financial and non-financial rewards. Financial rewards in this case are the rewards that in form of money whereas non-financial can be both tangible and intangible (Brown, 2001, p.107). Employees are generally motivated by financial rewards and this increases their willingness to perform duties as required.
Financial rewards
Some of the financial rewards include bonuses which explain the onetime payment that augment the progressive wage payment. They are generally provided in terms of salary increment. Premium pay is another type of financial rewards whereby this maybe offered as a voluntary wage increment for overtime work and these generally motivate the employees towards completing their work on time (Brown, 2001, p.107). Commission is another type of financial reward whereby this maybe calculated in terms of percentage of business that a sales representative might bring or in terms of flat rate that is generally based on performance. In this case, other companies decide to pay reward employees in terms of retirement plans, or employee stock plans which in this case represent financial rewards (Brown, 2001, p.107).
Non financial rewards
Non –financial rewards are generally to congratulate the employees for their amazing performance in executing a certain task. Promotion is one of the common non-financial rewarding whereby the employee is given more authority (Brown, 2001, p.107). In other cases employees are given day off or taken to outings in order to reward them for their good work. For the day off or leave, the employee enjoys some days off work. The human resource management can also decide to sponsor the employee training other than work related. In other cases, cards, notes, or even certificates are also applicable as part of non-financial rewards.
The importance of reward in driving behavior
Rewarding generally plays a major role in improving the behavior of the employees since the employees feel recognized and appreciated but the management and develop the desire to achieve more (White & Druker, 2013, p.100). Through rewarding, employees are able to maintain a substantial behavior whereby they aim towards achieving the goals and objectives of the organization. Rewarding in organization is a strategy to retaining employees since they feel that whatever they do in the organization is great work towards the right direction. The managers who often reward the r employees ensure that the organization maintains a cooperative and a focused culture in the organization. The only way to fulfill the vision and mission of the organization is having the employees focused and having the required standard of behavior (White & Druker, 2013, p.100). Rewarding them generally increases their focus and competency in achieving better levels.
Assessment of the motivational benefits
Motivational benefits are generally the influences of someone’s action towards a certain direction, for example, Latham (2007, p.255) explains that behavioral sciences generally predict understanding as well as influencing one’s owns actions together with the actions of other people. One of these behavioral sciences is goal setting theory whereby Latham, (2004, p.255) explains that the underlying premise of the theory is that one’s conscious goal affect what they achieve since a goal is the object or aim of an action. Rewarding theory also facilitate the idea that the employee will work harder to achieve more or better position as well as focus on the goals and objectives of the organization. Nelson & Quick, (2012, p.87) explain that the expectancy theory of motivation for instance reflects a personal intensity or desire to achieve a certain goal and a belief in the possibility of achieving a specific goal. In this case, when one exhibits self confidence to succeed, he/she has the belief that they are worthy and capable of achieving a certain goal. In this case, rewarding increases the assurance as well as the motivation of a person in achieving a certain goal since they believe that if they are capable of achieving such a recognizable level, then they can achieves a higher position. However, motivation is also associated with certain problems following the fact that if one develops disbelief between effort and performance and failure to recognize the significance of the reward given, they cannot be focused in achieving a better position. This implies that improved performance is one of the benefits an organization gets from motivation. However, Nelson & Quick, (2012, p.87) explain that when the motivational problem is associated to the belief of the person that performance will not result in rewards, the solution of such problem generally lies in altering the belief of that person. The motivational theory for instance incorporates three major aspects which include valence, expectancy, and instrumentality whereby valence explains the value or significance of a certain reward given to a particular person whereas expectancy remains to be the belief that effort input results to performance. As Nelson & Quick, (2012, p.87) remark, instrumentality is one essential component of motivation and it holds the position that performance is related to rewards and one deserves a reward one they improve or display an outstanding performance. In this case, the motivational aspect creates a culture that improves the performance of the organization.
Organizational examples of applied in motivational benefits
Walmart is one of the organizations that have realized the potential benefit of motivating employees whereby the company has been able to maintain an improved performance following the strategy of motivation. The company provides its employees with health and financial benefits including health, dental and insurance cover whereby the employees also enjoy the 401(k) plan whereby they can purchase stock at reduced prices or discounts and sell it to their own profit. Google is another company that has realized the potential benefit of rewarding employees and it provides both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards to their employees. This led to the development of the culture Czar as one of the motivational cultures that help the business achieve improved performance whereby some of these rewards include, insurance covers as well as health and financial benefits. Apple incorporation also introduced employee motivation for both extrinsic and intrinsic rewarding whereby this aspect has kept the company being ranked amongst the top companies. Its performance also has been improving progressively. Employees in Apple get salary bonuses of about 3% to 5% following their good performance. This explains why these three companies have been ranked amongst the best companies in the world as well as achieving continued performance.
Role of line Managers & HRM
Managers have a number of roles they have to perform in the organization. According to Mintzberg, (2007. p.20) the roles of manager in an organization can be categorized into three, interpersonal, informational, and decisional roles. Line managers in this case have the responsibility of coordinating all the activities of the organization to ensure that there is a progressive and smooth flow of operation as required. Line managers are the managers of whom employees as well as groups report directly and they have a responsibility of reporting to the top management. Front line managers for instance have the responsibilities of daily management of people, managing the operational costs of the organization, providing technical expertise, organizing work rotas and allocation, monitoring the progress of work, checking quality, dealing with customers, as well as measuring the performance of operations (Armstrong, 2008, p.108). The HRM has the responsibility of dealing with the activities relating to workers and industrial relations. In essence, the line managers and HRM have the key responsibilities that foster improved performance in the organization. HRM deals with the issues of managing people as well and this includes recruiting, training, employing, dismissing, as well taking care of all issues concerning employees together with controlling funding of some activities which involve the company.
Quality Assurance
What do we mean by Quality
Quality generally refers to the standard of a certain product as compared to similar products from other organizations (Oakland, 2012, p.200). Quality has everything to do with meeting the expectations and the needs of the customers in a certain product. It is a notion that underlies the satisfaction of customers in accordance to their level of expectation.
Various approaches
Individual responsibility/ quality circles
Quality circles are groups of people who come together in order to evaluate a certain operation or procedure thus determining how well that certain operation functions as well as seeking ways to improve its functionality (Oakland, 2012, p.204). Quality circles have certain objectives which include contributing towards organizational or departmental development and improvement, overcoming barriers existing in current organizational structures together with fostering exchange of ideas openly. Quality circles also aim at improving the quality of products or services, reducing costs, ensuing efficiency as well as customer satisfaction and developing a sense of attitude together with a sense of involvement in decision making within the organization. The benefits of incorporating quality circles in HRM is achieving social development, enhancing communication skills, improving job satisfaction together with exercising leadership skills.
Benchmarking
Benchmarking in management facilitates performance improvement in the organization through application and demonstration of operation practices (Oakland, 2012, p.200). It helps managers compare their products or processes externally with those from the competitor companies. The major aim of benchmarking is to help reach for a superior performance and facilitate the notion that underlies that great performance. In this case company is bale to improve its performance not through copying but through innovating strategies to achieve that performance. In this case, benchmarking helps the organizations achieve strategic advantage as well as improve the rate of organizational learning.
Kaizan
Kaizan entails a philosophy of continuous improvement of working practices that motivate total quality management and just-in-time business techniques (Fletcher, 1999, p.102). Kaizan helps the organization reach for improvement strategies since it focuses on certain aspects such assuring that he management understand that idle investment is wasteful, shifting from forecasting demand to just-in-time approach, meeting demands of customer now and on-time and eliminating all the activities that does not add value t the final product (Fletcher, 1999, p.101).
Kitemarks
Kitemarks refer to a British product and service quality certification mark and are essential procedures of ensuring quality is maintained in certain products and services which demand for paramount quality such as electrical installation and car services (Fletcher, 1999, p.100). This is one of the quality assessment approaches and ensures that companies follow the right protocol and procedures in product and service delivery.
Organization examples
Coca-Cola Company is one of the organization that have widely incorporated benchmarking and this has led wide marketing of their product as well as ensuring that customers are aware of the right product from the company. This has also ensured that the quality of the product from the company remains high and avoiding any counterfeits that might lower the market of the company’s product. The Honda of American Inc is another company that has greatly incorporated quality circles in improving the quality of service and products to the customers and this has seen the company reach great improvement in performance. The general electric company has greatly depended on kitemarks to ensure that consumers get quality products, services, and this reduced complaint from customers in regard to electric installations.
Role of Managers and HRM in achieving performance
The managers in these companies have played a predominant role in ensuring that the organizations achieve quality of operation and production. Initially, the role of a manager is to monitor and evaluate performance in terms of quality assessment as well as proposing and implementing the strategies that might ensure that the company improves its performance. The HRM in this case facilitate and coordinate the employee activities such as training and ensures that the required resources are facilitated to accomplish the tasks in the organization (Bratton & Gold, 2012, p.120). The HRM managers also facilitate industrial as well as stakeholder relations thus ensuring that the requirements of the customers are well known in order to support production and delivery of products in accordance to the needs of the customer. Through supervising, managers ensure that the required process has been incorporated in production and delivery of product and services to the customers thus maintaining the required level of quality. The HRM foster a culture that promotes cooperation and coordination thus ensuring that the employees are focused towards achieving the goals and objectives of the company. Through a facilitating a healthy environment, the HRM ensure that all the employees are provided with the requirements they need in effectively executing their duties and responsibilities thus reaching for required level of performance in the organization.
Conclusion
The HRM plays a crucial role, in ensuring that the organization achieves is objectives through performance improvement. The HRM is also responsible for ensuring that the employees are motivated apart from facilitating the resources required and promoting the relations required in supporting quality improvement in the organization. However, the performance of employees cannot be determined without incorporated the appropriate employee appraisal which help in determining the employees who have improved in performance and reward them of their good work. Therefore, it remain the responsibility of the management especially the HRM to ensure that that the appropriate employee appraisal approaches have been incorporated and the best employees are appreciated through rewarding in order to motivate them towards achieving greater positions. Quality management systems are essential and majority of the companies have achieved progressive success through incorporating quality measures such as benchmarking, Kitemarks and quality circles. Through improving the quality of the products and services, a company is guaranteed that its performance will also improve accordingly.
Recommendation
Managing employee performance is important since it helps to ensure that the organization is able to achieve their organizational objective. The human resource managers therefore need to ensure that they implement the employee appraisal methods to help in assessing the performance of their employee. One of the best method employee appraisal method suggested by this paper is the 360 – degree method (Venkateswara & Rao, 2005, p.6). Implementing this method can help to improve relationships and trust among the employee since it provides a platform where the employee is able to get the feedback on how he or she is viewed by their coworkers. With regard to the implementing the employee appraisal this paper suggests that there is need for the human resource manager and the line managers to ensure that they act as role model in terms of achieving their own goals and objectives.
Moreover this paper recommends that there is need for the human resource manager to ensure that they implement various reward strategies to help in motivating the employee to work hard. One of the best reward strategy recommended by this papers is offering incentives to the best performing employee in an organization. This can be linked to the fact that some of the world leading companies such as Tesla Motors have implemented this strategy in order to reward some of their best performing employee. This paper also suggests that there is need for the human resource manager to ensure that they adhere to the principles of rewards strategies to ensure that the whole process is transparent. In addition this paper suggests that there is need for the human resource manager to implement quality assurance strategies. In this case implementing of the quality assurance techniques can helps to ensure all employee are committed towards producing quality goods and services. This paper suggests that training is one of the best strategies that can help to improve the knowledge and skills of the employee on the quality assurance methods.
References
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Price, B. (2013). Preparing for your annual staff appraisal: part 2. Nursing Standard, 27(21), 42- 48.
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White, G & Druker, J.2013. Reward Management: A critical text. London: Routledge.

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Type of employee performance appraisals

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