• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Performance appraisal – goal setting

Performance appraisal

This year has started off with quite a fast pace. Many people are doing business and the Christmas buzz still seems to be in the air. I love Nigeria and Nigerians for our sheer resilience. I am sure many countries would buckle under the weight of our lack of infrastructure, just to mention just one thing.

What have you decided to do this year? Anything new? Remember one of the tenets of TQM (Total Quality Management) is continuous improvement. Gone are the days of the saying “if it is not broken, don’t fix it”. Now even if it is not broken, you may want to break it yourself and re-mould it in a much better way.

Today we are going to be talking about one of the main pillars of HR Management. Performance Appraisal. It is part of a larger system known as the Performance Management System. This system is the approach to the management of people using performance, planned goals and objectives, measurement, feedback and recognition to motivate people to realise their maximum potential. To begin a performance appraisal, you must set clear quantifiable goals and objectives which will be a basis for assessment.

These goals should be set once the member of staff starts work. Clearly each individuals’ goals must cascade down from the departmental goals which is in-line with the company goals. The goals must be set at the beginning of the appraisal period or at least reinforced at the beginning of the appraisal period.

Why and how should we set goals in the work place? The purpose of goal setting in the workplace is to show employees what they need to focus on most during the appraisal period which can be quarterly or half yearly which then helps them to prioritise their tasks for maximum effectiveness. For managers or the people with the appraisal responsibilities, the goals help them decide which major projects to focus on and how best to delegate responsibilities to their subordinates. The goals help both parties see clearly where things have been done wrong or right and, in most cases leaves all parties in no doubt about measurement of effectiveness and excellence.

Many organisations appraise people and skip this process. There was a young man whose employment was terminated because he was watching pornography at work. They wanted to put that in his termination letter. My advice was that an employment cannot be terminated on an offence never communicated to the employee. You can go into the argument that he was wasting company time by not working when he should have. That I believe is another issue entirely.

Goals ensure that staff are not just working but that they are working towards company success. Goals ensure staff are committed in terms of the tasks they are completing. It is also a helpful way to understand how each employee’s role impacts the overall success and goals of the organisation.

Goals also keep staff motivated. If you are like me, being able to tick off my achieved goals can be motivating. If for any reason I have not achieved the goal, I am motivated to go ahead and finish the task, unless of course I am not sure what I am supposed to do (this will be the case if the goals were not well articulated in the first place). The goals keep people motivated especially during the times the employee may not feel like working. (This can happen sometimes because the human being is different from a machine even though they are both factors of production). If you don’t feel like working, knowing that a reward of finishing a task lies ahead, motivates you. This helps to get the employee off his behind.

Goal setting fosters team work as the goal makes everybody work together to achieve it. If there is a group reward in place, people are encouraged to work together, since they can’t earn the reward on their own.

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With an increase in teamwork comes an increase in morale. No goals mean no end in sight which just tires people out. So besides increasing teamwork goals especially the achievement of goals makes people feel good and this motivation can increase workplace morale. Please let us not think motivation and morale building are the same. I will be talking about this in another article but one is more about emotional intelligence than the other.

Most importantly however well thought out goals will help you measure your individual, departmental and company’s success in amazing ways especially compared to not setting goals. Setting performance goals therefore in a nutshell, boosts performance by motivating people to increase their efforts, inducing stronger focus while helping them prioritise.

However, it can be questionable how useful and well thought out some goals can be. If goals are either too challenging or not challenging enough, this can cause numerous issues among team members in terms of their motivation and drive. Unrealistically high goals are incredibly demotivating in the same way goals aimed too low are also. Goals must be attainable, yet challenging. When goals are not clearly outlined, there will definitely be problems trying to set them in action.

More importantly, I am sure you must have heard in the last year or two how so many people seem to be dropping dead. Male and female. Many of the professionals working in high powered organisations. As I don’t have the statistics, I can’t say for sure that unrealistically high goals were the cause of all those deaths but we can’t rule it out. Those who are not dropping dead are getting auto-immune diseases, all stress related.

The goals must be, specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely. Goals should suit both employee and employer’s needs and expectation. The goals should both help provide you with a clear purpose and lead to successful goal completion that feels straightforward and stress free. Most definitely an employee performance goal must lead to the employee’s development and success and that of their work mates.

To conclude, I realise I did not have the time to give you the ‘how to’ of goal setting only the “why”. I will do that next week. In the meantime, begin to look at your appraisal system and it may give you an insight into why you have some issues. Welcome to the weekend. As usual I say, take a break.