Introduction
Performance appraisal is the process by which a company provides rewards and appreciation to the employees who have put in their efforts in achieving the objectives of the business in the previous year (Dusterhoff et al. 2014). It is an assessment of the skill, talent, knowledge and cognitive inputs that the employee has provided in doing his or her job. The performance of an organisation is collectively based on the performance of the people who are associated with the company. As there are positive aspects of performance appraisals like increment in remuneration, promotion in position, improved motivation to put in the best efforts etc there are also a number of negative aspects as well. People may be disheartened and de-motivated if their appraisal is not as per their expectation; the results of the appraisal may also give rise to conflict situations leading towards an unhealthy work environment (DeNisi and Smith 2014). The human resource department of an organisation is responsible to developing the policies and framework of performance appraisal. There are a number of tools and frameworks that are developed over the years which help the management in deciding the performance of the employee. 360 degree feedback, graphic rating scale method, ranking method, essay method, Field review method, BARS, Management by objectives etc are some of the common methods (Aggarwal and Thakur 2013). Some of the listed methods are traditional however some are new, based on the nature of the work and the business the human resource department develops or adapts a framework that is best suited for the employees. Business organisations deem their employees to be one of the most important stakeholders and thus it is important to ensure that the employees are provided with what they deserve (Dusterhoff et al. 2014).
This report focuses on the performance appraisal of a financial institution or bank. A bank is an organisation that has a number of divisions in operations and hence accordingly the performance appraisal is done. It has been indicated that there is a self-assessment process where the employees get an opportunity to access one self and can rate themselves from poor to outstanding. This report will focus on two employees, the first part of the report is an analysis of their situation and the second part of the report is a reflection.
Part A: an Analysis of Lea Restrepo and Carles Nadal’s Situation
1. Explanation of their behaviour
From the case studies that has been provided regarding Lea and Charles it is clear that the two people are distinctly different from one another.
Difference in between Lea and Charles
Lea is a confident person and that has always been her positive aspect the fact that she was given the position she is in is because the confidence that she had portrayed during her interview. Her knowledge and skill requirement for the position during the time of recruitment was assessed as buildable and as a management trainee it is expected for her to do mistakes and learn from them. Under the supervision of the seniors it is expected for a management trainee to learn and grow however fro Lea things have not been as positive as anticipated. Assessing her for 18 months it has been observed that the confidence that has come across during the time of interview was rather over-confidence. This aspect of her behaviour takes away from the achievements that she has made for the past year. First of all the fact that she had confidently said that she will receive merit score in her final semester has back fired as she has scored on average grades and then there has been incidents where she has confidently done something that is wrong and the team had faced repercussion for the same. It is important to be confident but confidence should come out of certainty and not expectation (Farndale and Kelliher 2013).
Lea had also been confident about her knowledge and skills in the industry, she has mentioned her father was also in the same industry and thus it was perceived that she talent and understanding of the banking industry is her forte. This has also been proven wrong in her case, as a trainee there has been instances reported by the supervisors of Lea that she has problem in understanding and picking up things which are most straight forward and other members of her team has no issues in. As a trainee it is expected of the individual to keep an open mind in order to understand and gain knowledge specific to the company. In the process there is also a large portion of unlearning as practical is not as black and white as theory (Barnes-Farrell 2013). This aspect of her behaviour has the team lagging behind, in terms of growth as well as in terms of performance. While working as a team it is important to be on the same page. For example: if the team is given the training of a software and the time period of learning that has been set is three months, then it is expected that everyone in the team learns the basic as well as some advanced version of the software, but if a member is lagging behind then the team cannot move on to the application of the training.
Another behavioural aspect of Lea that has been observed is the fact that she is that she is also very enthusiastic. Confidence in her brings this enthusiasm as she feels that she succeeds every challenge that is put across. Enthusiasm in taking challenge is positive it showcases that she can take challenges and move on (Deepa et al. 2014). However, her vigour and enthusiasm has not proven to be positive for her colleagues. Most of the time it has been observed that a new task that she enthusiastically takes up ends up being in a mess and failing. This is a major issue for the team’s performance if a person continuously keeps on performing poorly. For example: if a new project requires to be delivered urgently and four people from the team are needed to do the task, and the client is premium. In such a case if a person like Lea out of excitement volunteer for the task and ends up doing a poor job there are chances of losing a valuable client. This way the performance of the other three people who were working together also falls.
Denial is another behavioural trait of Lea that has been identified. Over the period of her tenure as a management trainee in the company, there has hardly been any success story that she could share. Her skill development and training has also been rough as her development is not at par with others. Most of the job that she is assigned is poorly submitted or has a very average approach, on the other hand her enthusiasm and eagerness makes her a prompt volunteer every time. There are instances where are colleagues had to intervene from her taking a task. Therefore it can be said that her performance coupled with her over-confidence has developed a negative impression towards her. Her denial of understanding the situation, has also led her to believe that she is good at what she is doing however the results of her performance show otherwise. The fact that she has assessed herself as an outstanding performer will give rise to conflict situation during the time of evaluation. She will be evaluated by her manager or supervisor based on her success and the accuracy with which she has delivered her work. An issue with a person who is in denial is that they cannot be rectified easily. Lea is a person who does not think that she requires support or training which on the other hand is an issue for the team as well. This leads her to be a bad learner as well; overconfidence tends to shroud a person’s learning skills as they are of the view that they are already able.
Charles he is a person as described in the case study to be one who has started young, her joined the organisation when he was just 18 years old. This indicates that he is an ambitious person who works hard. Now he is 35 years old and over the years of his serve tenure in the bank he has over and again proved himself to be a hardworking employee. He has been associated with the company for more than 17 years which indicates his loyalty and his focus develop his career. With the experience he has gathered over the time in the bank he could have easily applied for a position in another organisation, however, he has chosen to stay in the position of the supervisor for 5 years now. His consistency in the position has provided him with an advantage of building a valuable relation with his team. The relation in between the supervisor and the team members is important in order to achieve the objectives of the team. It can also be said that the supervisor of a team is partially responsible for the way the individual members of the team and is fully responsible for how the team operates as a whole (Deepa et al. 2014). The tenure that Charles has served in the company also indicates that he is a patient person who doesn’t deal with things in a rush.
He is the supervisor of the frontline customer service tellers team, there are 10 members in this team that he has been supervising for more than 5 years. This indicates that he not only can be a good supervisor but is also a good communicator. To be successful in the customer service department one has to be an efficient communicator and this skill is also required to manage a team efficiently. However, his behavioural trait is observed to be more conservative and introvert. He is not very lively person which can be a downside to his position but he is modest as well which makes him a good leader. People listen to what he has to say as he is a good listener himself. His leadership skills are evident from the performance of his team and their consistency in the performance. The duty and responsibility of the team is taxing and is also stressful in such a situation being among the top of the game indicates Charles leadership quality. He has led his team to success consecutively. This aspect indicates his dedication towards work and his tendency of hard work, as a supervisor his work is to take care of his people and his behaviour and his performance directly influences the performance of others.
Another behavioural trait that has been indicated in the case study is excellence in management, he is a person who has been with the organisation for long and has been excelling in his position. His team has been among the top performing team consecutively, this shows that he has the potential to understand people and their advantages and encourage them to work in their own forte to achieve the objectives. It has also been said that he is a modest person, and the self-evaluation of his performance appraisal from also suggests the same as he has deemed himself to be an “Average” even after his achievements and the achievements of the team in the past year. He has also not applied for a higher post while he is quite capable of the position.
It has also been observed that he is a person who needs constant appreciation of his job or else he tends to undermine himself, therefore it is important for the management to understand that he needs support and motivation to be able to apply to a higher post which he is capable of (Deci and Ryan 2014). This can be confused with lack of confidence, however, that is not the case. Charles is a modest and shy person he is ambitious but he doesn’t let his ambition overpower his sense of judgement. But this is also a negative aspect as he will not be able to move up the ladder if he doesn’t stand up for himself. His behaviour and his skills are responsible for the success of the team and he understands the same and thus maintains his clam and composed nature for the team and the achievements of the team.
Similarities in between Lea and Charles behaviour
One of the most important similarities in between the two people is that they are both hard working and share the interest of the company. Lea and Charles though are very different from one another they both are hard working and their intensions of their actions are for the betterment of the company. Hence it can be said that they both has a passion for the company and is a content employee which is an asset for the company. Their dedication for the company will help the organisation in achieving the objectives of the business. Another aspect of similarity in the behaviour of both these people are a lack of self-awareness, which is important during performance appraisal.
It can be concluded that though Lea is not directly responsible for the performance of other people but her individual performance can lead the team to have a poor overall show. On the other hand the behavioural traits of Lea suggest that her performance incompetency will impact others in the team as well. While the performance and the behavioural traits of Charles impact the performance of the team he is responsible for this difference is because of the job role that the two performs.
2. Advice to Lea and Charles
Advice for Charles
Charles is a person who has been associated with the company for a while now; he has an idea of how the performance appraisal process of the company is conducted every year. However, the new policy that the human resource department of the company has come up with has provided people like Charles with opportunity to achieve significant career development. In order to get rated in the top 20 percent, it is advised for Charles that he documents his achievements and performance ratings of the previous years in a document. This he can use while filling the self assessment from. This will help him be more rational and assess himself effectively. He is usually a person who is modest in nature and thus has been looking through the opportunity that lie ahead, by documenting his achievements and answering the self assessment from he will be able to keep a rational understanding of what he is capable of and how his performance has helped the company to achieve the objectives.
Another advice to Charles is that he should do a self-assessment of his strengths and weaknesses and try to align them with the threats and opportunities that the he has in his career. This will also help him get an overview of his capabilities (Mone and London 2018).
He is by nature a modest person and hence he will have to understand his capabilities and put across his message to the evaluation panel professionally.
It is advised that during the evaluation meeting with the managers and others, he show these data points to ensure that the evaluation team is clear of his achievements in the past year as well as are aware of his track record (Sansó et al. 2015). This will also help in gaining the confidence of the team because they will know that he has been associated with the organisation for a long time and has improved and proven his capability. Another advice for Charles could be gathering appreciation from the people he has been working with, the managers and the supervisors and present it to the evaluation team during the process of appraisal. Charles is also advised to work upon introspection of his abilities so that he does not undermine himself. He should be able to clearly understand what he is capable of and what he is not, he should be more ambitious; in case he is going through a problem with understanding he can speak with the seniors and ask for advice. It is always good to take advice from the seniors while considering options for career.
Advice for Lea
Lea is a person who is not responsible for a team; she is just responsible for her own actions. Thus it is advised for her to look in to her progress report, which will indicate the data and information regarding her success rate in her tenure. As she is an enthusiastic person she can make room for improvement in her performance. It is also advised for her supervisors to meet her and state the data points and point out the sections that she has been lagging. Since she is in denial of her performance, she should be made aware by the seniors. This could break her confidence but as she is naturally confident she will re-gain her confidence once she delivers a successful task hence it is advised to take feedbacks seriously and listen to what the seniors or the supervisors have to say. Lea should be proactive in taking regular feedbacks from the people around in order to understand the progress. It is also advised for her to stop volunteering for work for the next three months and focus on her personal development and the work that she has been assigned by the seniors. This will help her to focus on her strengths rather than exploring a number of prospects at one time.
Lea is also advised to take some psychometric tests which will help her understand the traits that she has and will also help her in understanding her shortcomings. In such case of denial these tests may help a person in understanding their strengths and weaknesses. This will help her develop he strengths and work on her weaknesses (Sansó et al. 2015).
Motivation is needed for Lea at every step and hence she is advised to not lose hope and ensure that her work and her performance are monitored by herself. Not only that she should keep an open mind and should try to learn from the past mistakes that she has made (Ganta 2014). Her confidence is her positive aspect she is also vigorous and enthusiastic she just needs a little time to settle in and understand her shortcomings.
The human resource department can also appoint one of the senior members of the team to guide and support her. For Lea it is advised to keep an open mind while she is being critically evaluated as she will gain from being patient and understanding her performance issues. The supervisors will be able to point out the areas in which she can work upon in order to improve her performance. As a fairly new employee Lea should be provided with a chance to get feedbacks and rectify her and develop her skills. This is her first year in the organisation and she should be provided with time to learn as well as unlearn things from the past year (Mone and London 2018).
Part B: Personal reflection
In most of the situation weather it is academic or while working, performance is usually evaluated by others in order to keep the process unbiased. If the success rate of my performance does not meet my expectation there are a number of steps that I would like to take in order to match up to my expectation in the future. Performance assessment is an important part of learning and I understand that, it also helps in growing and achieving the goals that one has self for themselves.
First of all I would like to understand which the factors that have resulted in lower marks, these are the areas that I have to work upon in the future. If among these are some of the factors which I was sure I am good at, I will have to check with my supervisors where did I go wrong. One of the major advantages of academics is that I am aware of the subjects and the results would clearly define the subjects that I have to focus upon in order to improve my performance. I think it is important for a person to be able to understand their shortcomings in order to improve in the future.
Feedback is an important aspect in learning process. As a student, I think I have the luxury of getting feedbacks and criticism from my teachers as well as seniors. From the assignments to the results all the feedbacks that are provided by the teachers are helpful. It provides insights of the areas that I have to work upon. I am a naturally clam person; I do not have much issues with anyone. I would not say that I am an introvert. However; I do not share much personal details with a lot of people. I did not take feedbacks seriously in the past which has led to a number of challenges in my career. Form my past experience I have learnt that it is good to take constructive feedbacks. Therefore, I will consult the people I have faith on and I know will provide me with criticism that will help me in the future. I do not take feedback or do not pay attention to any criticism from people who I do not consider important. This is a drawback in my character, but in order to compensate for the same I try to bond with people. I also do not take criticism positively all the time; it makes me de-motivated and also makes me vulnerable. However, I have been advised by my closed ones that this is an aspect of my characteristics which I should work upon in order to improve my performance. I know that feedbacks should be taken in a positive way, but it is also true that I cannot take feedback or criticisms form anyone. If the feedback that is provided is somehow I feel is derogatory then I also tend to argue and loose temper. On the other hand, I feel that the tone of discussion really matters to me as if a feel a person is advising me and wants me to improve and the feedback that is shared is more like an advice than critic I tend to respond better.
I have realised over the years that sometimes with criticism I tend to lose hope as well, I try to keep my morel up and an open mind. But it is certainly easier said than done. My expectation of myself according to me is quite rational, I know what my trends have been in the past in terms of academics and thus I expect accordingly. However, if this expectation is not fulfilled I question my decisions. All the subjects that I study are all of my own choice and therefore I have good understanding thus if the outcome is beyond expectation in a negative way I will feel de-motivated.
Keeping one self motivated to move ahead and improve in the process is important and that is something that I have learnt from the above assessment. I will make a plan for myself and will also set up milestones and will try to achieve these. I think of myself to be an organised person and I am good at following routine and thus I feel this will help me in keeping myself moving ahead. The planning will depend on the result and the aspects where I have not met my expectation. Achieving the milestones of the plan will help me to remain focused so that I am able to improve my performance. In order to remain focused and motivated I will also create a SWOT analysis of my traits. This will help me in building self-awareness and thus also will support me in the process of my assessment of the report. For example: I know that my communication and interpersonal skills are good, therefore I will make use of these strengths of mine in order to get constructive feedbacks and advice regarding the process of improvement. I am a person who is not shy in asking for help in time of need I know this can be a problem for some, but not in my case.
Also I think that I am fortunate to have teachers as well as colleagues who are genuinely willing to help. Therefore, if I am feeling de-motivated or I am facing issues in focusing on the progress, I will ask help. I think at this point where I am at a state in which I have disappointed myself, I should be working on reinforcing a positive attitude and look into matters with a broad perspective. It is better to understand the shortcomings in the university level than to be criticised in the working place in future. I think that performance assessment is like a mirror to the expectations and reality of the performance. With the assessment results it will be clear for me to keep a check on the factors that I thought I was good at but in reality I am not. I also understand that it is important to overcome any kind of negative thoughts and be motivated to improve should be from within thus I will always try to keep an open mind. One of my major drawbacks is that I have the tendency of sticking to my comfort zone, and in order to take any kind of feedbacks and criticism constructively I will have to come out of the comfort zone so that I can take the feedbacks in a positive way. I should also take steps out of my usual routine if need be to improve my performance. One of my major drawbacks is that I am not very patient, I am clam though but if I find myself failing over and over again I will become frustrated. I know that this is a major drawback and I have to work on my patience to be able to successfully implement success to my progress.
Conclusion
It can be concluded form the above discussion that the performance assessment and appraisal is not only the way to reward or penalise the employees, it is a way to understand the gap in the process and help the employee to develop their career as well. From the perspective of the employees it is a chance to get feedbacks regarding the areas which they can work upon and develop during the tenure of service.
I think that if I face a situation where I score below my expectation I will be able to overcome that phase as I have confidence and sense of organisation. I fact that I understand my drawbacks and is willing to work on them is a positive approach towards the situation. I am blessed with good friends and family as well as teachers to support and guide me whenever I am in need.
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