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
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 underperform, more frequently.
There is a significant difference between the private and public sectors,
however. While many companies link appraisal outcomes to decisions about pay
and bonuses, public sector bodies rarely do so, preferring to see the appraisal
as a forum for identifying good performance.
More than nine in 10 appraisals involve only the immediate manager or
supervisor and the employee – in sharp contrast with job interviews where
employers, conscious of potential accusations of bias or impropriety, have at
least two or three managers present.
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Despite misgivings about the appraisal process, all those surveyed agreed
that appraisals are "an essential management tool".
