Performance appraisal is the foundation of career planning. Through this process, employees work towards goals that support the needs of the business and their professional development.
The purpose is to build relationships and facilitate conversations between employees and managers throughout the year with regard to performance goals, career goals, and career planning.
Feedback communicated in a positive manner goes a long way to motivate the employees and helps to identify individual career developmental plans.
Based on the evaluation, employees can develop their career goals, achieve new levels of competencies, and chart their career progression.
Performance appraisal encourages employees to reinforce their strengths and overcome their weaknesses.
The latest mantra being followed by organizations across the world is “get paid according to what you contribute” the focus of the organizations is turning to performance appraisal and specifically to individual performance.
Performance appraisal helps to rate the performance of the employees and evaluate their contribution towards the organisational goals.
Performance appraisal as a career planning and development tool lead to the recognition of the work done by the employees, many times by the means of rewards and appreciation, etc.
It plays the role of the link between the organisation and the employee’s personal career goals.
Performance appraisal is also closely linked to other HR processes as it helps to identify the training and development needs, promotions, demotions, changes in compensation, etc.
The linking of appraisal to pay and/or promotion should not be seen as payment by results. Rather this linking is an attempt to ensure that informed decisions are taken about the career progression of employees.
In short, ‘decisions directly affecting career development within the current salary structure; Internal promotion and references for external promotions, e.g. Should be as well informed as possible.
This knowledge can best be acquired through staff appraisals that focus on performance. In matters of performance, ‘it remains the department’s view that a pay system which rewards exceptional performance in the organisation would be very much in the interests of the employees.
Thus, performance appraisals play a key role in several administrative areas such as promotions, job transfers, and legal protection.
With the data generated from employee appraisals, one is better able to make good decisions about a wide range of matters that directly affect the employees, department, and the company at large.
Objectives of Linking Performance with Promotion Policy
The objectives of linking performance with promotion policy are as follows:
- To integrate the growth opportunities of the executives with the fulfilment of the company’s objectives.
- To identify, train, and develop competent personnel with growth potential and to provide a policy environment for high levels of performance.
- To provide a system of equality in opportunity, equity in assessment, and uniformity in implementation among all the Units, Business Groups, Directorates, and Officers of the company in the matter of promotion.
- To seek and provide a continuous team of work sustained high levels of competence in the company.
Setting Groundwork for Promotion
One of the strongest motivators that many employees bring to the job is focused on being promoted.
As a manager, one can look back on an employee’s performance over a given period and have a general impression regarding his promotability.
However, if employer bases a promotion decision on feelings rather than findings, he actually generates difficulties in three distinct areas:
Problems for the Promoted Employee
Without accurate performance data, the employer is likely to promote the wrong person.
In such a case, the outcome is obvious; Namely, he is likely to fail. This creates an entirely new menu of problems that await him, such as extra time monitoring, coaching, counselling, disciplining, and perhaps terminating this individual plus, the organisation has lost an employee who probably was performing satisfactorily in his original position and became just a marginal person in the newly filled position.