The importance of employee appraisals

Employee appraisals play a crucial role in the performance and professional development of your employees.

If a performance appraisal is done well, with the right preparation and management training, you can conduct performance reviews that support the success and growth of your team.

Looking for information on how they work? See our article that breaks down exactly how to hold performance reviews.

Appraisals and performance management

From identifying employee training needs, to spotting your company’s rising stars, employee appraisals have many important uses, including:

• Improving the performance of employees

• Measuring and rewarding performance

• Supporting employee development

• Spotting potential within the team

• Managing changing roles

• Giving employees a voice

As part of the important performance management process, employee appraisals provide a formal setting in which employees and managers can discuss performance. Both reviewing the job performance of an employee over a particular time frame and planning future objectives and goals.

This style of meeting, although not a legal requirement, is carried out in a range of businesses and industries. Used to gain an oversight of how an employee has performed in their role and what can be done to improve output in line with business objectives.

Using appraisals to measure and reward performance

The first and most obvious purpose of employee appraisals is to measure employees’ performance. Your organization might need to do this for several reasons:

• To make sure employees are working to the required standard

• To gauge which employees are performing the best and therefore eligible for bonuses, pay rises and other rewards

• To address performance issues where necessary such as underperforming employees

The performance of your staff will of course have a direct impact on the success and growth of your business. Therefore, the value of employee appraisals, not just for individuals, but for the business can be huge.

Using appraisals to spot potential

Appraisals aren’t just for remedial action. They’re also a moment to sit down with your best-performing employees and to map out their career path. Rather than addressing skills gaps, this may include offering training to develop skills required for promotion.

Using appraisals to manage changing roles

Almost every job role changes over time, whether because of new technology, new products and services your company introduces, or changes to the size of your team. Employees often need help to understand these changes and how their role is affected. Appraisals are an ideal time to manage this, by:

• Explaining new responsibilities clearly

• Setting clear goals related to the new responsibilities

• Arranging training in latest technology or products

Using appraisals to improve performance

The goals you set in employee appraisals don’t just have to be about staff development. You can also challenge employees to improve their performance and increase your team’s productivity as a result.

Performance goals must be fair and achievable, or they could have a negative impact. Use performance data to set goals where possible — for example, if an employee’s performance has slipped below a previously recorded level, you can use that data to remind them they can do better.

SMART goals are a universally applicable methodology for setting goals and objectives. Making sure goals can be clearly understood by the employee and applied within their job role. 

Giving your employees a voice

Finally, don’t forget that employee appraisals aren’t a one-way street. When they have worries, questions, or ideas, the one-to-one setting of an appraisal meeting is a great chance for employees to speak up.

When line managers listen to employees and address their concerns, the result can be a happier workforce. It’s yet another reason appraisals can be important to your organization.

The benefits of employee appraisals

While they can be time-consuming, the benefits to individuals and your organization, make it well worth the investment.

• Improves productivity and engagement

• Better communication between managers and employees

• Enhances workplace culture

• Provides clear documentation and actionable steps for employees to follow

• Highlights opportunities for development and employee training

• Helps to identify and praise top performers within the company

Get help with performance appraisals with BrightHR

While it may seem like a daunting and time-consuming process, employee appraisals can be made easier with the use of performance management software.

Helping you to create structured agendas for your meetings, store documentation in an easy-to-access platform, and track the progress of employee goals over time in just one screen.

Book a free demo today and see for yourself how BrightHR’s performance management software can streamline your performance management. Making your employee appraisal process a breeze.