by Gabe Willows

Created on: April 16, 2008

The secret to fair objective performance appraisals for employees is having a clear set of expectations that are based on measurable performance indicators.

Many would argue that there are many jobs that require a trained ear or eye to properly assess the performance. A good example of this is the measure of customer service agents on their ability to interact with the customer. That is to say how they are speaking to a customer. This unfortunately cannot be measured through a consistent objective statistic; it is quite subjective and based on the supervisor's experience. As a result, many employees feel that it's a matter of style, or a matter of 'being friendlier' with the supervisor.

There has been a tremendous amount of time and resources invested by corporations to eliminate this type of necessary subjectivity from performance appraisals. In a lot of circumstances, the subjectivity is turned over to the customer. This is in the form of quick surveys asking the customer how they felt about their interaction on a scale from one to ten. Performance is then based on an average of customer interactions. Again in this example we find that the subjectivity has been taken away from the leaders who give the performance appraisals.

The expression 'you can't manage what you can't measure' is true on two levels. Firstly; it is much easier to pull statistical indicators from a computer program than it is to base crucial business decisions on speculation or gut feeling. Secondly; when there are cut and dry performance indicators in place, employees know what they are expected to do consistently and work happier knowing that expectations will not change, even if the boss is in a bad mood. When having to balance an important resource like employees and the needs of the business, it is better to have a means of objectivity to do it with.

Performance appraisals are invaluable to both the employee and the managing staff. With fair, measurable expectations in place, consistent feedback will help foster happier and more confident employees. When employees are satisfied, the quality of their work also improves. All this is accomplished by simply appraising performance objectively.

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