Graphic Rating Scale is a type of performance appraisal method. In this method traits or behavior’s that are important for effective performance are listed out and each employee is rated against these traits. The rating helps employers to quantify the behaviors displayed by its employees.
Some of these behaviours might be:
- Quality of work
- Teamwork
- Sense of responsibility
- Ethics etc.
Characteristics of a Good Graphic Rating scale are:
- Performance evaluation measures against which an employee has to be rated must be well defined.
- Scales should be behaviourally based.
- Ambiguous behaviours definitions, such as loyalty, honesty etc. should be avoided.
- Ratings should be relevant to the behaviour being measured. For example, to measure “English Speaking Skill” rates should be fluent, hesitant, and laboured instead of excellent, average and poor.
Example of a Graphic Rating Scale question
How would you rate the individual in terms of quality of work, neatness and accuracy?
(i) Non-Existent: Careless Worker. Tends to repeat similar mistakes
(ii) Average: Work is sometimes unsatisfactory due to untidiness
(iii) Good: Work is acceptable. Not many errors
(iv) Very Good: Reliable worker. Good quality of work. Checks work and observes.
(v) Excellent: Work is of high quality. Errors are rare, if any. Little wasted effort.
Advantages:
- The method is easy to understand and is user friendly.
- Standardization of the comparison criteria’s.
- Behaviours are quantified making appraisal system easier.
Disadvantages:-
- Judgmental error: Rating behaviours may or may not be accurate as the perception of behaviours might vary with judges.
- Difficulty in rating: Rating against labels like excellent and poor is difficult at times even tricky as the scale does not exemplify the ideal behaviours required for a achieving a rating.
- Perception issues: Perception error like Halo effect, Recency effect, stereotyping etc. can cause incorrect rating.
- They are good at identifying the best and poorest of employees. However, it does not help while differentiating the average employees.
- Not effective in understanding the strengths of employees. Different employees have different strong characteristics and these might quantify to the same score.
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