Employee appraisal methods

If you are finding a better method of evaluating, in full aspects, the company culture,
the accuracy of the job descriptions, employee performance and the effectiveness of
practices and business operations, you may consider applying 360 Appraisal Method.

This is an Appraisal Method based on the feedback from many points of view such as
of employees under other managers, direct managers, subordinates, Director Board
members or of customers and suppliers, etc.

This method requires no computer software to have an accurate appraisal result. Many
small enterprises have developed themselves "low-tech" programs that mainly use
paper, but still, have many advantages in appraisal process. According to Rim Yurkus
and Diane Irvin - directors of LISTEN Co. (a company with headquarter in Denver,
the US, which specializes in helping corporations to develop their human resource
and apply appraisal methods), when developing 360 Appraisal Method, a company
need to focus on the following:

1. Making agreement with the employees

It shall be necessary to hold a meeting in which the purpose, procedures to apply 360
Appraisal Method and people who will receive the appraisal results will be clearly
explained. If the purpose is to develop professionalism, the results should be shared
among the evaluated employee and his manager or instructor at work.

If the purpose is to consider the performance for bonus, it shall be necessary to

explain clearly the role (by percent) of the Appraisal Method of 360. For example, an
employee will get a bonus on considering his general performance (50%), fulfillment
level of the business goals (25%) and the result of 3600 Appraisal Method (25%).

It shall be crucial for the company to clearly explain to their employees about How
the appraisal process will be supervised, How the results will be collected, what the
next step is, when the next appraisal will be and about any training or instruction
course after evaluating.

2. Building up a Common Job Description

You should begin by establishing a professional board which consists of

representatives of different departments, to work out a description with skills,
knowledge and experience required for each job.
The description should consider the core value and strategy of the company as a
Lodestar and consider high performance employees as typical when establishing a job
description. When skills and professional qualifications for each job are unified, they
shall be divided into smaller, more specific and easier to observe behaviors.

3. Convert the behaviors above into appraisal questions

To have an accurate appraisal result, based on small behaviors as mentioned above,
appraisal questions must be extracted from so as to any evaluator can understand and
give the similar feedback when being asked with such question no matter when he is
asked (6 weeks, 6 months or 6 years periodically)
The important point is that these questions must be unified and suitable to the
company condition. Finally, the list of appraisal questions on the employee behaviors
will be revised by summarizing and adding more or less question (if necessary), then
submit to the Director Board for approval.

4. Holding Training Course for responsible People for evaluating

The evaluators shall be instructed about how to give a valuable and objective
feedback. They should as well be reminded of the importance of the accuracy and of
following the Information Privacy Principle. They will be pre-informed of the
employees, behaviors and score scale to be evaluated.

It will be appropriate to apply 1 - 7 appraisal score scale, in which 1 is "unacceptable"

and 7 is "excellent". A section of "Not Applied (or N/A)" will be applied as for the
appraisal not relating to the job or employee to be evaluated. In addition, there should
be some questions requiring feedback in writing, for example: "What do you think are
the benefits that Mrs. A has brought us?"; "What do you think Mr. B should do first to
improve his performance in the future?"

5. Action after Evaluating

The evaluated people may hold a meeting to give thank to all the evaluators for their
feedbacks, make future engagement to improve and do better with their help and
timely advices. Based on the appraisal result, the company may consider the
employees with high and outstanding performance at work and skills and the
opposites, for whom appropriate training shall be decided if necessary.

6. Calculating the score and Announcing the result

The score should be calculated for different jobs, departments and managers. These
results may be used in the interview for recruitment or for leaving off work. The
scores will be classified according to the relationship between the employee and the
evaluators (co-worker, subordinate, customer...)