As a manager, we have conducted appraisals; midyear and year-end appraisals of our employees. We have tried to be fair to all of them, as the outcome of the appraisals will affect their rewards, bonuses and increments. There were events and occasions where one or two of our employees did not do a good job, and their quality of work were questionable. We remembered those occasions with clarity. We tried hard to recall the good work they have done, but fail to recollect the times when they did a good job.
I wonder how many other managers face this problem, and how they responded to the situation. The fact that some employees have been fairly good throughout the year is often forgotten.
When appraisals are looked at once a year, the most recent event are remembered by the manager. Employees also remember their most recent performance. If for the last half year, they have worked very hard and done well, (forgetting that they have wasted their time in the first half of the year), they expect a good bonus and increment due to their hard work. Some companies reward employees with large bonuses when the company did well, and reward low bonuses when the company performance was poor. There is not much to differences in rewards and bonuses to distinguish between the good performers and poor performance at work. As a result, promising employees who are good performers leave the company for better jobs, and the less promising employees stay on.
The manager continues to grapple with issues on fairness, on retaining talented employees and ensuring that they grow in their careers with the company and are suitably rewarded. Having a robust performance management system in place is the first step towards ensuring fairness and equity in rewarding employees for their contribution to the company.
Learn how to address all this and more in the coming workshop on ‘Managing Staff Performance’. Performance_Management_and_Appraisal
