Top Tips to Make Your Appraisals Effective

For many businesses the annual appraisal process is approached with a kind of dread, as it can be seen as time consuming and ineffective. For busy managers and business leaders they will avoid it or put it off until a later date or in some cases never get around to it.

The bottom line is that it can be seen as costly, bureaucratic, and a waste of resource. And this can be true if your appraisal process is no more than a paper exercise.  

However, those businesses that get it right reap rewards. They enhance the personal performance of their people and hence the performance of the business, putting them ahead of their competitors. In addition, by setting goals for the business they are giving direction, focus and motivation to their staff to deliver their vision.

Managers should see the appraisal process as an opportunity to leverage their time, rather than being a drain on their time, because appraisals are a means of positively influencing the performance and motivation of your employees, which is to the benefit of the business and individuals.

What are the benefits of putting in place a good appraisal process?

• Improved business performance and return on investment
• The opportunity to set goals for performance linked to the business goals ensuring that staff are more productive and engaged
• Focus, motivation and direction for staff
• Providing training and personal development will ensure that staff can do their jobs quickly, to a higher standard and more efficiently
• Offering staff development is a great staff benefit and staff retention tool

Top Tips

1. Be clear about what you want to achieve from your appraisal process
2. Set a clear business direction and business goals
3. Share business goals with your team through the appraisal review process
4. Discuss and encourage staff to share their thoughts and ideas on how to achieve the business goals
5. Keep the appraisal process simple, keep paperwork to a minimum
6. Ensure Managers are trained on how to conduct appraisal and how to get the most out of the appraisal meeting
7. Ensure Managers know how to communicate with and develop their staff
8. Set goals at team and individual level and ensure staff are trained to deliver them.

Would you like to find out more?

If you would like to find out more, why not attend our appraisal workshop on 19th March 2020 at our offices in Great Wakering. This event is FREE for Practical HR or YourHR.space clients. There is a charge of £45 for non-clients.

To book, simply book via the Events Page, send us an email to admin@practicalhr.co.uk or call 01702 216573.

Blog by Angela Kimberley (contact@angelakimberley.co.uk).