Employee appraisal, or staff appraisal, evaluates an employee's performance and work behavior. Of course, the criteria for this will be determined before the interview. Used correctly, the appraisal interview provides a comprehensive overview of an employee's professional skills, abilities and potential. Therefore, the appraisal interview is an important management tool for superiors and a motivation for many employees.
If used incorrectly, appraisal interviews can also lead to employee frustration. For the appraisal interview to be effective as an instrument of Personnel Development , it must be accepted by all those involved and deliver objective results. Training and tools support these requirements.
Command & Control is long outdated today. Employee appraisals are about empowering and supporting employees. Openness and communication create a space that enables top performance.
Usually, an employee appraisal is carried out at regular intervals (usually annually). There is a uniform appraisal procedure for all employees and evaluation is usually carried out by the direct supervisor. In the case of target agreements, a self-assessment by the employee is often added. In addition, 360° feedback can also be carried out – primarily for specialists and managers. This means that the employee is evaluated not only by their supervisor, but also by third parties such as customers, project/team colleagues or external partners.
Examples of assessment criteria
Assessment criteria should relate to the employee's performance, behavior and competencies. In the case of managers, leadership skills should also be included accordingly, typical examples are:
- Apprehension
- Ability to delegate (for executives)
- Know-how
- Customer orientation
- Employee development (for managers)
- Teamwork
- Quality of work
- Commitment
- Ability to take responsibility
- Reliability
Scaling of assessment criteria
Good comparability results if a uniform scale is used for all evaluation criteria. These can be, for example, grade levels or an evaluation scale from very good to less pronounced. However, the extreme values of the scale levels should be neither too negative nor too positive.
5 Tips for Choosing the Right Assessment Criteria
- The criteria should relate to directly observable behavior
- Criteria related to the personality of the employee should be avoided
- The criteria should be clearly different from each other
- The number of criteria should be well thought out
- The criteria should be related to the employee's tasks, but at the same time be general enough to be applicable to (at least almost) all employees
Employee appraisal is a sensitive issue if it is not done professionally and the employee misinterprets the appraisal. Therefore, make sure that comprehensible and constructive criticism is expressed. Ultimately, the purpose of the performance appraisal is to develop the employee further and develop new potential.
