If you have a performance appraisal system this is appraisal time.

Holiday season or Christmas Bonus. This is what all workers look forward to.

Even if you do not have one this is the time you decide who gets what bonus or salary increase.

There is sometimes excitement if the company had been performing well, however if business was not too good there are some concerned faces walking around.

Those who complete quarterly appraisals would have finalized this by now so staff are aware where they are with their performance and if this was not too good the race is on to improve this last quarter.

Even if you are a manager or supervisor in the company you will need to do an appraisal on yourself.

Appraisals can be so difficult if the process is not managed properly.

Whether you are assessing yourself or your team some things to bear in mind:

– Be sure the information is in the right category on the appraisal form – sales under sales and operations under operations.

– Your statements must be supported by facts e.g – how many new accounts did you or the individual team member bring in? how many times you had to be counselled about your behaviour towards customers or staff and what are the details?

– Be sure to remember all the good things that support your performance. We sometimes focus on the bad things. What about the customer you convince to stay with the company?

– If you or the staff member had been performing just satisfactorily or just meeting the expectations of the job it is difficult to attain an above average or exceeds expectations for the year.

– If you had been constantly supervising the staff member it is a challenge to state that the staff member meets the expectations of the job.

– Remember Friendship does not play a role in appraisals neither is not liking the person.

– If you decide that this staff member needs to move on because they are not suitable for the position it is sometimes tempting to give this person a high performance grade because you do not want to deal with the problem. You can also argue that if you record the weaknesses in the file it would scar the person’s record and no department would want to take them. Whatever you do every action must be done with integrity.

– After everyone receives their bonus and salary increases you still have to work with them so if you have been honest and open with your staff there should be no surprises in the performance appraisal.

– Even if you are not attached to a business and run your own business you need to perform some sort of assessment to provide your staff with an end of year bonus.

– This is also a great time to set the tone with regards to goals etc for the following year.

Good luck with your appraisals. If you need help or do not have an appraisal system send me an email.