Performance appraisal helps decide who gets promoted (and who doesn’t)
by Dick GroteCategories : Performance Management, Performance Appraisal , add a comment
At lunch today I happened to talk with a young man who’s making a couple extra bucks working in a Halloween store. 18 years old, he told me that he had never worked before and had no knowledge of the business world other than reading Dilbert cartoons. Then he asked me to explain exactly what it was that I did as a management consultant.
“How many people are there who work in your Halloween store?” I asked him.
“About 11 or 12.”
“Who’s the best worker—the one who does the best job?”
“Stanley.”
“Who’s the worst—the one you’d fire first if you had to let somebody go?”
“Elaine.”
“How do you know? What criteria do you use to evaluate them? Would everybody agree that Stanley’s the best? Does he know that people think he’s the best? And does Elaine know that she’s the worst? And what should be done to either shape her up or ship her out? That’s what I do—I help companies set up systems to answer the questions that I just asked you.”
These are the questions—Who’s the best? Who’s the worst?—that a performance appraisal system can answer. Almost everyone in an organization wants to get ahead—even in a Halloween store. How should the company decide who the brass rings will be awarded to? Performance appraisal makes it easier for the organization to make good decisions about making sure that the most important positions are filled by the most capable individuals. (And it also makes clear who should be appropriately overlooked when promotion opportunities pop up.)
About the Author
Dick Grote is one of America’s most successful and best-known authors, consultants, and speakers on performance management. He is the Chairman and CEO of Grote Consulting Corporation - http://www.groteconsulting.com