Performance Appraisal Schemes

Performance appraisal schemes fall into the four generic classes shown below. 

The traditional appraisal scheme involves the manager appraising the performance of staff members on a one to one basis. These can be well-conducted conversations on an individual s performance but do have the capacity to become authoritarian and dictatorial. Competency based appraisals are those where performance is appraised against clearly identified competencies and are not concerned with personality or character traits. 360° appraisal, as its name implies, involves getting feedback on a person s performance from contacts all on fronts. Upward appraisal is a method used by managers basically to improve their personal performance. Getting the views from their own staff on their managerial skills does this. 

Each of these appraisal schemes has both benefits and drawbacks and these are summarised in Table A4 [A-10]. Which appraisal scheme that is used is usually decided at the highest level in the human resources department of the bigger companies. In small businesses the choice may will be up to the manager concerned whether they wish to operate via traditional command and control hierarchy or whether they are customer focused with members of staff self empowered. 

Traditional Performance overview achievable One to one review Records easily kept Action plans made Training needs identified Simple to operate Feedback can be one way Authoritarian temptation for managers Daunting if staff differential too large 

Competency Competencies easily identified High levels of management/staff input 

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