Performance appraisals are very useful tool to determine how effective an employee is at work. These appraisals usually happen once a year, but in recent times, companies have been putting into effect evaluations every three months or six months. As such, the need to interact with the staff more becomes even more necessary. While this may be a very taxing job for a manager, it would lend a more credible evaluation of the employees. This means that the appraisal will paint a more accurate picture of the performance of the employee.
The interaction part is just part of the entire appraisal process. What’s even more dreadful at times is the actual writing of the appraisal. With a handful of employees, this should not be a problem, but more than five can be a daunting task. Managers make the mistake of making the appraisal a little too generic, and as such, it becomes inaccurate. The problem is not so much of lack of interaction with the employees, but more of difficulty in writing the appraisal report. In situations like this, managers need to know the phrases for performance appraisals.
There is a huge list of phrases to use to evaluate the employees and if managers are familiar with even just half of them, they can end up writing some of the most effective and accurate performance appraisals. While the list of phrases is long, they share several characteristics – specific, behavior-centred, objective, and performance-focused, among other things.
Writing a very general appraisal report can be detrimental to the organization in general, and to the employee in particular. This is because the evaluation is not able to capture the actual performance of the employee. This will not sit well with the employee in question and may even be disputed. The last thing that managers need is to have the issue escalated to the upper management, hence, defeating the purpose of the entire evaluation process.
This problem can be avoided if managers use effective phrases for performance appraisals. We already know what these phrases have in common, now we get to the specifics. These phrases are as specific as they come and do not focus on the character, but rather on the behavior of the employee as he or she goes on to do her daily tasks and functions.
An example of an appraisal is: “(Name of employee) failed to complete five of the six projects in the agreed due date, which resulted in a $1000 loss to the department”. In this situation, the employee will be made aware of his or her weaknesses and strengths. With specific situations being mentioned, it would be much easier to have the facts checked by other parties.
Performance appraisal becomes effective when there is less subjectivity in the words and phrases used. A specific evaluation avoids possible disputes and can even help the organization re-define job functions and criteria for evaluation. This also helps adjust and manage expectations so that employees do not end up failing in criteria deemed to be immeasurable or unreachable.
David Russell
David A. Russell is the author of the Phrases for Performance Appraisals Resource Guide, which helps professionals prepare and submit well-written performance appraisals. More information about the resource guide is available at: http://www.PhrasesForPerformanceAppraisals.com
Performance Appraisals 
Performance Appraisals – Guide to Better Writing
Middle and upper management use performance appraisal to gauge how effective the staff are in their job functions. Over the years, this management tool has evolved from a simple employee evaluation tool a powerful method of improving the overall performance of the organization. Needless to say, performance appraisal has become a very important periodic event that leaves managers scrambling to provide the most accurate appraisal for their staff. Truth be told, it is not something managers look forward to considering the paperwork that it entails. However, evaluating employees doesn’t have to be a painstaking activity. In fact, there are tools available that will help managers be as specific as possible in writing down the appraisal in the corporate pro-forma form. Managers should be very specific with their performance appraisal comments so that the employee being appraised will have a clear idea of how he or she is faring up against the criteria set up by the company.
It has long been argued that performance appraisals are more subjective than objective, but if the company designs a rating system, then the managers will be able to balance the subjective and objective aspects of the process. This is why effective performance appraisal comments are designed to capture the employee’s performance without being too subjective. The more specific the comments are, the more it shows how involved the manager is in the process. This means that if the manager uses comments that are spot on to the employee’s actual performance, then it would appear that the manager is in constant interaction with the employee throughout the year. Such involvement shows how the manager is committed to improving the employee’s performance, consequently boosting the entire organization’s chances of hitting the corporate targets.
Effective performance appraisal comments contain details that would show that time and effort are spent in evaluating the employee. It is not enough to say that a particular employee is not doing his or her job; the specific situations that led to the conclusion should be mentioned so as not to invite untoward incidents, caused by questionable insinuations. In this regard, it is important to note down the situations, whether good or bad, which greatly affect the performance of the employee. With specific situations being recorded or noted, then it becomes easier for the manager to answer and quell disputes.
If there are specific criteria that have been set up where the employee performance can be evaluated against, then it becomes much easier for the manager to come up with specific and accurate comments. Such accuracy contributes to a more effective evaluation process that is able to capture the actual performance of the employee and subduing possible disagreements between parties involved. Performance appraisal is one of the more sensitive aspects of management, but it is indeed a very important tool in keeping staff at bay. It also provides upper management a quick and condensed version of the overall performance of the organization. As such, the appraiser needs to utilize this tool to keep all parties involved in a harmonious co-existence.
David Russell
David A. Russell is the author of the Phrases for Performance Appraisals Resource Guide, which helps professionals prepare and submit well-written performance appraisals. More information about the resource guide is available at: http://www.PhrasesForPerformanceAppraisals.com
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