Center for Professional Training

Questions by Antonella de Cristofaro, HR Director at ADP Employer Services

Performance Appraisal: is it an essential part of management development and management practice? Do you use this tool? Is it a central value in the management development process?

Comments:

Jon Naphin
Vice President of Sales at TalentQuest

I would agree that if it is done effectively, it is an essential practice to periodically calibrate to a common understanding of performance levels and performance objectives. …
When you have alignment, then performance gaps should direct the manager to development activities that will have the greatest impact on success of the business.

Patrick Zimmer
Marketing Manager

All successful performance-based organizations actively provide regular forums and opportunities (formal and informal) for mutual feedback. Employees today demand it!
Special note: Whether there are raises or not, annual performance evaluations must continue to occur. "What gets measured gets done." Measuring people is as fundamental as measuring sales and income.

Jim Schultz
President, Pretty Good Consulting - Public & Private Workforce Development

Antonella,
A Performance Appraisal system isn't mandatory but a direction and feedback system is hugely productive. Typically, when Pretty Good Consulting works with an organization or group, we work toward building a long-term structure to support Human Capital Development.

In general, it looks like this:
For each job there is:

• a job description that defines the work to be done and communicates that information to both the hiring manager and the applicant
• a recruiting & screening system that can find candidates with the skills and abilities to perform the job
• a new hire orientation system to facilitate the early socialization process and reduce early turnover
• a skills training system to provide the knowledge necessary to perform the job
• a performance management system that provides both direction and feedback

And then we would put people into a work environment where they have the tools, time and resources needed to accomplish their objectives. Within the resource environment we include systems that are friendly and functional and work processes that are safe and efficient.

Top that off with:

a Compensation & Benefits system to keep you competitive or ahead of the market,
an organizational communication system to keep people informed and involved,
a development system to prepare people for future jobs and you are going to be in pretty good shape from the individual's point of view

From the organization’s side you need to have a human resource strategy that meshes with the business strategy. We do supply and demand forecasts for critical jobs, estimate recruiting needs, define succession and replacement plans, and work with Emerging Leaders to insure that you have the right people, with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time for the right cost.

See full discussion here
This discussion is taken from in the Linked In professional network web system.