Employee appraisals: how they promote individual Personnel Development

The annual performance review is the "linchpin" of Personnel Development at employee level. The prerequisite for this is that the discussion actually focuses on the employee. This enables line managers to obtain important information on the skills and targeted development of their employees.

Possible questions for a development-oriented appraisal interview:

• Where do you see your strengths?
• Do you know the company's goals and what goals do you derive from them for yourself?
• How can you possibly contribute even better to the company's success?
• Can you do that in your current position and with your current skills?
• What tasks are you currently supervising and which ones would you like to see in the future?

See the appraisal interview as an opportunity to develop your employees in a targeted manner, to motivate them and to bring them into the position in the company where they can make the best possible use of their skills. For example, 360-degree feedback can be helpful for preparation. Obtaining feedback for the appraisal interview can also be supported and simplified by means of a software solution. This enables you to quickly and systematically obtain feedback from third parties.

For employees, an appraisal is about two questions:

• Where do I stand? (Performance)
• Where are I headed? (Development)

If these two questions are dealt with in one outline, it quickly has a demotivating effect: the individual assessments receive too little attention and they influence each other. For these reasons, it can make sense to carry out the two appraisals separately from each other and divide them into two appraisal interviews – ideally one in the middle, one at the end of the year or as needed.

1. Performance appraisal – end of year:

Where do my employees stand? What went well? What could go better?

2. Development Assessment – Mid-Year:

The employee development interview – where are my employees headed? How does he or she want to develop further?

Both interviews require thorough preparation – especially on the part of the employee! A number of questions should be clarified in advance. This is the only way to expect concrete results from which you can jointly derive future-oriented measures. For 360-degree feedback, also include feedback from colleagues or even customers. You can do this, for example, in the form of a questionnaire or an app-based evaluation platform.

The following questions are used for the employee's self-assessment:

Assessment:

• What does my job look like? What should it look like?
• How do I assess the quality of my work? How do I attach them?
• What goals do I see for the organization? How can I contribute?

Discuss these questions against your own reviews and those of other employees.

Development Assessment:

• What are my strengths? How do I determine them?
• How can I make even better use of it?
• Do I have any weaknesses?
• How can I work on these?

Discuss the results with your employee – again in comparison with your own evaluation and that of other employees. Based on this, they can decide together where development potential lies and what their future career can look like.

Eight steps to an employee-oriented Personnel Development

1. Develop or update your business goals and strategy.
2. Based on this, you create a diagram with current business processes and functions.
3. Together with employees and managers, you will derive or update a functional matrix with requirement profiles.
4. Appraisal interview part 1: In dialogue with the employee, you will compare the requirements profile with the competencies and strengths of the employee.
5. On the basis of the target/actual comparisonand taking into account the wishes of the employees, an individual development plan is created.
6. HR and managers define the necessary measures together. This can be a classic training course, but also new or different tasks.
7. Once the measures have been carried out, you document them in the personnel information system, in the personnel file or in your talent management software.
8. Employee appraisal part 2: Check whether the measures have led to the desired success and define together with the employee whether and which additional measures are necessary.

Note: When Personnel Development and (promoting) employees, you should observe the prohibitions on discrimination in the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG). A promotion decision, for example, must be demonstrably and documented non-discriminatory, i.e. it may not be based on the employee's race, ethnic origin, gender, religion, ideology, disability, age or sexual identity.