How Appraisals can Help Your Employees
For many employees, job satisfaction has become a significant element of staying with their current employer. Annual appraisals have become increasingly important to keep in touch with what your employees are thinking and feeling. Enabling managers to set common goals, and development. However, the appraisal process can often be a last minute rush and may not be well-thought-out. Leading them to be an empty process with no results. With the right tool, appraisals can enhance the relationship of an employee and their manager and become a benefit to the company overall.
What are 360-Degree Appraisals?
360-degree feedback is a performance appraisal method that gathers feedback on an individual from several sources. The idea of the process is that it gives managers and individuals a better overview of skills and performance. As well as working relationships of the employee, rather than relying on the single point of view of the line manager.
The theory for gathering 360-degree feedback is that, in some organisations, managers will not fully understand the contribution of the people they manage. This may be due to the fact the employee is in multiple teams, for example. There is, therefore, a strong argument for obtaining wide-ranging information to form an accurate picture of performance.
Who Should Take Part in the Process?
Feedback gathered for a 360-degree review is usually obtained from between eight-ten people. The chosen people to take part will be given a questionnaire or provide structured feedback. Reviewers should represent different types of working relationships with the employee, for example, senior colleagues or customers. The employee will take part and give their point of view on their performance.
360-degree questionnaires can consist of statements the reviewers will be able to rate the employee against the statement, for example, one-five with one ‘poor’ and five ‘excellent’. There will often be an option for further comments within the questionnaire.
Before the review process takes place, it’s essential to establish a clear and consistent understanding of excellent performance across the organisation, as well as to ensure that the organisational culture enables individuals to give and constructively receive feedback.
Old methods of collecting 360-degree feedback have been using paper processes. This is not efficient and does not secure. To gain full insight into what people think for the reviews, you need to ensure a secure method, this will give the reviewers the freedom to write exactly what they feel without it being broached.
CIPD have cited these benefits of using appraisal software:
‘Many employers now make use of online systems for a 360-degree appraisal, which can bring the following benefits:
- Recipients can choose the competencies on which they wish to receive feedback.
- Confidentiality is improved, as questionnaires and reports can be protected by passwords.
- Accuracy is enhanced as online system settings can ensure that essential data is provided.
- Data entry settings can also improve the quality of feedback by, for example, requiring that a minimum number of questions are answered and stipulating minimum percentages of critical and positive feedback.
- Reports are available online; answers can be collated instantly, so reports are immediately available and up-to-date, while they can also include a comparison with previous feedback.
- The amount of administration required is much reduced as individuals can be responsible for managing their feedback, requesting feedback and chasing late questionnaires.
- Demographic information can be collected and fed into the production of summary reports.’
This post was written by Novative. They are an exhibitor on the HRTech247 Payroll, Time & Attendance floor in the Technology Hall here.
