Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

HR practiceAssessmentPerformance management

UK scores top marks for appraisals

by Personnel Today 8 Mar 2005
by Personnel Today 8 Mar 2005

As one of the main formal ways that organisations have of talking to individual employees, appraisal is an important and integral part of human resource management (HRM).

If it is true that ‘people are an organisations greatest resource’, and that the quality of HRM is related to bottom-line performance, then it is vital.

One of its most important functions is as a communication tool. It gives organisations an opportunity to communicate their priorities to employees by stimulating discussions about how the individual’s performance and training needs relate to the organisation’s requirements.

A second function is that it encourages dialogue on careers and should help to make employees feel they know what they have to do to progress in an organisation. Where 360-degree appraisal exists, it allows for multiple views of an individual’s performance to be obtained.

The Cranet International survey on HR practices provides useful data on these issues, allowing companies to benchmark their practices against others. The data is gathered from the most senior HR manager in each organisation.

The survey shows that very few organisations practise true 360-degree appraisal, as a very high proportion do not claim to have completed the process.

However, appraisal systems are used and the existence of a formal procedure implies that the methods used have been thought through sufficiently and that they are transparent to all of those participating in the process.

Cranet-1-8Mar05-100x100The results here are interesting because they provide an indicator of how common formal appraisal systems are in the UK, The Netherlands and Sweden. By showing the high proportion of managers covered by formal appraisal systems, it demonstrates the importance of appraisal in the UK and how widely accepted it is as a management practice.

While appraisal systems are common for non-managerial grades of employees, their existence among managers themselves underlines how entrenched such systems are for all UK employees.

 

Cranet-2-8mar05-100wide.jpgThis table focuses on the UK only. It shows how organisations make use of the information acquired during appraisals.

Clearly, it would be remarkable if the information were not used to identify training and development needs, and almost all organisations do so.

Similarly, many organisations use the information to manage employee careers. The third most important use is for HR planning purposes, probably mainly because of the developmental requirements identified through appraisal.

However, more than half of the organisations surveyed linked appraisal directly to rates of pay and to how work is organised.

While the latter is often considered a positive and relatively advanced use of the information, the second is frequently thought to be the opposite.

Appraisal linked to pay determination has been criticised, however, as it tends to raise expectations, and it tends to discourage employees from taking an honest look at their own development needs.

Appraisals are clearly alive and well and British organisations are often in advance of their European counterparts. However, the information acquired in appraisals could be used far more effectively.

Avatar
Personnel Today

previous post
Employers critical of threat to abolish UK opt-out on working time
next post
Union petitions minister to make public holiday to celebrate women

You may also like

Four-day week: what are the legal considerations for...

28 Jun 2022

Managing underperforming managers (webinar)

20 Jun 2022

Sickness absence rate in 2021 was highest in...

8 Jun 2022

Right-to-work: first digital identity check providers revealed

6 Jun 2022

Bank holidays: six things employers need to know

5 Jun 2022

Does a four day week work? Charlotte Lockhart...

1 Jun 2022

Hybrid working will ‘never be perfect’, finds report

31 May 2022

Employers must help employees ‘flourish’ post-pandemic

27 May 2022

Davos 2022: Upskilling workers necessary to overcome business...

26 May 2022

Lack of flexibility pushes half of women to...

16 May 2022
  • NSPCC revamps its learning strategy with child wellbeing at its heart PROMOTED | The NSPCC’s mission is to prevent abuse and neglect...Read more
  • Diversity versus inclusion: Why the difference matters PROMOTED | It’s possible for an environment to be diverse, but not inclusive...Read more
  • Five steps for organisations across the globe to become more skills-driven PROMOTED | The shift in the world of work has been felt across the globe...Read more
  • The future of workforce development PROMOTED | Northumbria University and partners share insight...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+