Nearly
half of HR managers believe that annual appraisals are badly conducted,
according to research published yesterday in IRS Employment Review.
The
survey also shows two out of three say their own organisation’s appraisal
process only works "quite well", with one in 10 admitting that it
does not work very well at all.
Seventy
per cent of the UK’s largest employers appraise staff once a year, although
many appraise new staff, or those who under-perform, more frequently.
But
there is a significant difference between the private and public sectors. While
many companies link the outcome of appraisals to decisions about pay and
bonuses, public sector bodies rarely do so, preferring to see the appraisal as
a forum for identifying and acknowledging good performance.
More
than nine in 10 appraisals involve only the immediate manager or supervisor and
the employee; this contrasts sharply with job interviews where employers –
conscious of potential accusations of bias or impropriety – have at least two
or three managers present.
Despite
misgivings about the appraisal process all of the HR managers surveyed agreed
that appraisals are "an essential management tool".Â
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