For person being appraised, staff appraisal day can feel like judgement day. All of a sudden, someone you work with or work for gets an opportunity to sit in judgement on your performance. (At least that is how it can feel.) And who likes being judged?

On the other side of the table, many managers don’t like doing staff appraisals to the extent that they may put them off for long periods of time or avoid doing them altogether. This in itself can lead to disenchantment as the person waiting to be appraised may well be hoping for a pay raise as a result of a good appraisal!

Large organizations and government departments go to great lengths to de-personalise the process, which has resulted in an over complicated, bureaucratic process which creates avoidance behaviour and often produces a lacklustre result.

The real purpose of the staff appraisal

The real idea behind the staff appraisal is to provide a regular method of helping each staff member focus on development of their career and consolidating their place in the team over the long term.

What often goes wrong?

Often the big picture objective of the staff appraisal is lost because of personal beliefs or undue focus on minor details by either or both parties. This happens because we are all driven by our emotions, our beliefs and our feelings and it is extraordinarily difficult to remain completely objective when dealing with a colleague whom you work every day.

The other thing that often goes wrong is that after the staff evaluation process has been completed, it is very rare that many of the action items identified are actually carried out. In fact, in my experience, most people who get this far are usually so relieved at the process being over that they put the paperwork away until next time they are called up for a staff evaluation.

The benefits of a 3rd party staff appraisal?

The first thing you need to ask yourself is ‘how serious am I about my staff, their welfare and their performance?’ If the answer is that this is very important to your business, then you should consider utilising the assistance of a professional performance coach in your staff appraisal process.

An external performance coach is trained to help get the best from your staff and they can either sit in on your staff appraisal process or conduct the interviews on your behalf.

Because your coach has no emotional connection with the staff member or your organisation, they can more easily maintain an objective viewpoint. Furthermore, a performance coach is very experienced in consultation of this type.

In our experience, most staff members open up to their coach, revealing what are often buried interpersonal issues, thereby providing the coach and the organisation the opportunity of dealing with issues that could well be costing the organisation dearly.

To find out how this could help you

To discover how you can benefit by working with a performance coach, contact Chris at Life7 to discuss your unique circumstances.