Battling the performance appraisal – Part 1

Howard Lake | 19 November 2008 | Blogs

• Tagged with:
• Management
• Recruitment / people

It’s the time of the year when HR departments (or at least those individuals responsible for the ‘people stuff’) are pursuing line managers the length and breadth of the country to begin the formal performance appraisal process for their respective teams.
I have to confess that this whole process used to frustrate me intensely. If I’m upholding my end of the bargain by ensuring team objectives are both realistic and aligned to the organisation’s strategy and we have a culture of ongoing feedback between team members and leaders, why do I need to spend two weeks form-filling and conducting ‘interviews’?
My experience within the charity sector to date has shown me that there are probably three main reasons why this is potentially even worse for managers here:

1. Charities seem to love having, and then diligently following, robust processes for each and every facet of their operations.
2. Charities pride themselves on being better at people development than the commercial sector (I’ve heard this sentiment reiterated from the platform at two recent events)
3. Unlike huge tranches of the commercial sector, charities often experience a peak in activity rather than a trough in the run-up to Christmas; the appraisal process then just adds to the workload

I’ve even seen this positive obsession incorporate separate interviews, forms and follow-up procedures for both appraising performance and for planning personal development. Imagine you are the manager with a team of 23 call centre helpline operatives to cover off before Christmas!
A timely survey from BNET shows that the biggest issues with a formalised process seem to be that if managers are doing their jobs properly, the end of year pressures wouldn’t be a factor.

The obvious solution is probably to ensure we maintain the open and constructive dialogue with sensible (but not anal) record-keeping during the course of a year. This way, the annual review can be a much simpler affair.
As a communications specialist and working with like-minded teams, an unexpected pain was often wordsmithing the final documents. Communications skills are a lot like football management; everyone has an opinion and everyone thinks they can do a better job than the person whose responsibility it actually is. I did not enjoy debating how to articulate a development area with a copywriter for over an hour!
So what’s to be done?
I’m afraid you’ll have to pop back next week for my suggestions on how to make the process as effective and painless as possible.

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.