Make appraisals an opportunity for personal growth of staff

Employees having a break after a performance appraisal. A manager should ensure that an employee's improvement in performance is rewarded. FILE PHOTO

What you need to know:

  • She celebrated everyone’s successes, no matter how small and emphasised the need for everyone to become engaged mentally, emotionally and physically in their work.
  • Each employee then came up with an implementation plan based on these areas. Mkurugenzi also asked if there was anything that the appraisee needed to perform better.

It was the end of the year. Mkurugenzi was busy preparing for performance appraisals. One of her duties was to ensure that employees were appraised on a quarterly basis each year.

Every member of staff looked forward to these appraisals because they were opportunities to showcase new learning and achievements in the year.
It had not always been this way.

Most previous managers had tended to use these appraisals as an opportunity to blame employees for poor overall performance. On their part, employees used to blame their bosses for not providing them with enough support.

Most employees dreaded performance appraisals. Managers felt it was a necessary evil that they had to go through each year. All this changed when Mkurugenzi took charge.

EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE
Mkurugenzi started by creating an inclusive work environment right at the start of each year.

She was conscious of the need to create team spirit and ensured that everyone realised that they would not succeed unless they worked as a team.

She celebrated everyone’s successes, no matter how small and emphasised the need for everyone to become engaged mentally, emotionally and physically in their work.

Mkurugenzi also encouraged them to set clear targets to be achieved in the year.

The actual appraisal was a private affair. To begin with, Mkurugenzi ensured she had all the necessary appraisal documents including the targets that each employee had set for themselves.

She also gathered evidence on the performance of each employee. This was not difficult since she regularly asked each employee to come up with reports on their achievements each quarter.

She also gathered information on how well an employee performed as a team player.

IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
Next, she invited each member of staff for an appraisal meeting. The appraisals were carried out in a quiet, informal setting in one of the meeting rooms.

One of the reasons for not using her office was to remove the threat of authority, which it represented. She also ensured the sitting arrangement was informal and that the employee was comfortable.

First, Mkurugenzi explained the purpose of the exercise and went through the targets the employee had set. Next, she discussed the employee’s performance and invited them to appraise themselves based on the evidence they had provided in their reports.

Mkurugenzi did more listening than talking.

Each employee then came up with an implementation plan based on these areas. Mkurugenzi also asked if there was anything that the appraisee needed to perform better.

Some of the employees asked for more resources and training opportunities.

Finally, Mkurugenzi made sure that each improvement in performance was rewarded. She gave employees bonuses for improved performance, something everyone looked forward to!