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Performance appraisals
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I have a team of nearly 20 creative professionals. They are into animation & special effects. I am working out the appraisal formalities for them. If someone can help me know what are the traits t
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Performance appraisals
posted at 10/23/2002 12:11 AM EDT
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Posts: 6
First: 10/17/2002 Last: 10/27/2002 |
I have a team of nearly 20 creative professionals. They are into animation & special effects. I am working out the appraisal formalities for them. If someone can help me know what are the traits that have to be measured for this type of employees. |
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Performance appraisals
posted at 10/25/2002 2:14 PM EDT
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Posts: 71
First: 7/19/2002 Last: 4/5/2011 |
Measuring traits sounds a bit like a personality assessment rather than assessing performance.
To me there should be no annual written performance appraisals without an agreed upon measurable plan first. Without this in place first, it is tantamount to spending an evening of bowling with a sheet covering the pins so that you can't see how well you are doing, and at the end of the night, as you leave, you are handed the score card! Not much fun to not get instant feedback as you go. The same is with assessing performance. Without a plan in place, the old saying goes that the boss doesn't sleep the night before giving this kind of appraisal, and the employee doesn't sleep for the three nights after! If you can avoid the assessment without a plan and measures, then help them put this into place. It may be harder to craft measurables with the kind of staff and work they do, but I am sure that there would be discrete measurable items that you could put in place for the boss to review with the staff, say quarterly. I have not developed performance plans for creative people, but I know it can be done. You might check the job descriptions to find the work to be done and certainly references to quality and meeting agreed upon time frames. Most job descriptions include other requirements such as: />working with a team/ability to work with others. />acceptance of direction. />meeting time requirements for jobs />ability to respond to changing priorities. />attendance (this can be controversial, however, I successfully negotiated the inclusion of this with a union. />ability to work effectively with clients and meet their needs. The key is to have the workers agree in advance as to what the targets are, not come as a surprise at year end. Also, you need to be very clear what the objectives of the system are, up front, as this may change how you approach this. I like perf. planning and review systems that are developmentally focused as well as feedback on the job. That is, you identify goals for development and how they will be reached. I hate it when they are written for the boss's boss. It should not be done that way. Assessment works best when supervisors regularly provide open and honest feedback on a day to day basis. They work horribly when the only feedback is the annual assessment and it comes as a surprise to the employee. It is even more of a joke when the boss has to find faults with the person, just so their boss will sign off the appraisal. This should not be part of the system. I never second guess my managers assessments, although I may raise an eyebrow or two in my discussion with them as to how they assess some people. I have heard it suggested that for some jobs that the only formal appraisals occur for new employees or those learning new skills, or for poor performers. Especially in companies where there is no money on the table for raises. The balance of the staff are told to assume that in the absence of a formal appraisal means that they are assumed to be meeting expectations. If an employee wants a formal appraisal annually, then he/she must first submit their own assessment first. I used to make all my staff do their own appraisals and then I would "correct" them. This is how I jokingly told them I was doing it. I found that people were more receptive to my feedback if I read their own assessments first and it became a conversation. Self assessment is one measure of people's ability to work at higher levels and accept a manager's role. Professionals are not only good at what they do, are good and getting better, they also have the ability to critique their own performance. This is the kind of professionalism you want to instill in people as individuals and in a team. As an example, I coach men's soccer where I have developed successful teams and where I always ask for feedback at half time on how we are doing and what we need to do to get on track. Granted, this is mostly for the captain and senior players to contribute to, but it works. As I don't play and therefore am not on the field, it is important that all the players are on the same page. That is, they know and agree on, what we need to do in the next half. After I listen to them for congruency with each other, and with my own views, I sum up, and give the direction as to what we are going to do. This works great as people accept responsibility for their comments and critique their personal and team performance comfortably in front of others. They do not direct any negative comments to others. This doesn't mean that the boss simply accepts the employees input and signs it off. It means that this is one input to the conversation and process. It provides the boss with the knowledge of what the employee sees as his/her priorities and sometimes the boss and staff member are different wave lengths. Hope this helps. |
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