Performance Appraisals have always been around and so has the methods used to identify the out performers. But the question arises as to whether the methods used provide justice to the outperformers?

With that being said, we @SourcingADDA conducted the WhatsApp. Wednesday discussion that addressed the, “New alternatives to the Bell Curve for Performance Appraisals and what are their merits and demerits?” Based on the suggestion of our Pune Group member Niveditha, we’ll be sharing the chats and right after we’ll be disclosing the key take away pointer so let’s begin…

Well that’s the end of another discussion and like always we’ve received a lot of insights that is sure to assist you in retaining what was discussed. So let’s begin…

Reason for alternatives to the Bell Curve

• Performance Appraisal is of interest and importance to Human Resource specialists
• The need for alternatives to the Bell Curve practice is due to the realisation that such practices are not suitable for high performing teams and underperforming teams.
• There is a logical connection between learning and growth with a better business process
• This connection is of value to the customer and it improves the financial performance of the organisation.

Alternatives to the Bell Curve

• Calibration is a face-to-face process where ‘easy graders’ and ‘tough graders’ help rate employees more realistically.
• 360-Degree Feedback is when feedback about the employee is taken from everyone the Employee interacts with (clients, co-workers, customers and direct reports)
• Management by Objective is where supervisors work with employees to outline goals and desired outcomes
• Peer Review – Require co-workers to comment about each-others performance
• Six – Sigma can be used to increase productivity and remove wastes and identify gaps
• Use OKR objective key results which is formulated by Google for performance

Trends in Performance Appraisals

• Elimination of ratings is needed since they distract the efforts of organizational improvement
• Identification of constraints and eradicating them
• Create internal performance consultants responsible to define performance standards and analyse performance.
• Conducting Self-Reviews provides an opportunity to every employee to comment on his /her perceptions and views on achievement of targets.
• There has been a shift from the collaborative approach (Management by Objective & Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scale) towards the traditional techniques that use graphic rating scale, paired comparison, ranking, checklist etc.
• Small firms rely heavily on trait-based approaches while larger firms rely on a combination of trait, behavioural and result-based techniques.
• Performance information is used for employee development or to administer merit pay
• Other administrative uses include promotions, lay-offs, transfer, termination etc.
• Common objectives identified are reviewing past performance, rewarding past performance, goal setting for future performance and employee development.
• Day-to-day feedback and bi-monthly feedback sessions
• Manager as a coach instead of appraiser
• Performance management as a function of training & development

Common Methods utilised today

• 90 Degree Appraisal: The employee evaluates himself and shows his strengths and achievements or his boss evaluates him. (Self or Boss)
• 180 Degree Appraisal: The employee and the boss evaluate his performance on a monthly basis. (Self and Boss)
• 270 Degree Appraisal: The method wherein the employee is evaluated by 3 persons, himself, boss and co-workers.
• 360 Degree Appraisal: It is also known as ‘multi-rater’ feedback, where feedback about employee’s performance comes from a Supervisor/superior, co-worker, client / customer, subordinates and the self-assessment of the employee himself)
• 720 degree Appraisal: The 360 degree appraisal method is practiced twice. First the 360 degree appraisal is done and again but with the boss who gives him feedback and tips on achieving the set targets.
• Rank & Yank Strategy: It is also known as ‘in or out policy’. The rank and yank strategy is one where employees are first ranked from best to worst and these rankings are used to identify and separate poor performers from the good performers.
• Balance Score Card: It is a tool to measure the performance of the employees along three aspects listed below…
  • Financial Perspective:That measures operating income, return on capital employed etc.
  • Customer perspective:That measures customer satisfaction, customer retention, etc.
  • Business process perspective: That measures cost incurred on the employee, quality of output etc.
  • Learning & growth perspective: That measures employee satisfaction, employee retention, skills, etc.

If you’ve been looking for alternatives to the bell curve for performance appraisals then we trust you’ve got quite a lot of them. And if you’ve found these insights relevant and would like to learn more about Perspectives on Layoffs in the IT Market then here’s what you can do in two steps; simply…

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