The Performance Appraisal Question and Answer Book. . - Bookshelf: Books in Brief - Brief Article - book review

HR Magazine, July, 2002

By Dick Grate

AMACOM, 2002

240 pages

List Price: $17.95

ISBN: 0-8144-7151-X

Do you wonder about the effectiveness of your organization's employee appraisal process? If so, you're not alone. Consultant and author Dick Grote has collected some common questions in The Performance Appraisal Question and Answer Book. Subtitled A Survival Guide for Managers, the volume describes how organizations can transform reviews from a once-a-year drill to a process that benefits workers and supervisors.

Grote notes there are no laws that require employee reviews. Rather, most employers use appraisals to:

* Set and measure goals.

* Facilitate both promotion and layoff decisions.

* Encourage improvement in employee performance.

* Motivate workers.

* Counsel poor performers.

* Determine changes in compensation.

* Identify employee and organizational training and development needs.

* Provide legal defensibility for personnel decisions.

* Improve organizational performance.

The only way these myriad goals can be achieved is if the employee appraisal is part of an overall performance planning process. That process should begin with a brief meeting with the worker that identifies key job responsibilities and goals, and the competencies needed to achieve them.

After employee goals have been identified, the performance execution phase begins. Key responsibilities for managers include:

* Maintaining performance records.

* Updating objectives as conditions change.

* Providing feedback and coaching.

* Identifying employee development opportunities.

* Conducting midyear reviews.

This lays the groundwork for an effective performance appraisal, says Grote.