How Involved Should HR Be in Employee Appraisals in Medium and Large Companies?

Dear fellow HR,

We all talk about our involvement in appraisal and monitoring personnel. What is the actual involvement of HR in employee appraisal? I know in small organizations we can know every employee, but how does it work in medium and larger organizations? What is the actual monitoring we do? Do we depend on the technical or line manager for their feedback, or do we also have our own methodology to monitor each individual?

We may miss many points when providing our appraisal if we are not fully involved in knowing the team members. Don't you think this would be unfair to the employee and could lead to discontentment?

Looking forward to your valuable feedback.

Regards,
Praveen

Hi Praveen,

It is not the HR's responsibility to do the performance appraisal of each and every employee in the organization. The line managers are responsible for their staff. You are responsible only for your staff (i.e., an HR manager does the appraisal of the HR executive or assistant). Once the appraisal reports reach you, it is your responsibility to compile and draw conclusions. Here, you have to use various methods to arrive at an unbiased conclusion. For example, you might have to make corrections because of differences in the ratings of individual raters and decide who needs to be promoted or demoted, who needs a raise, and by how much.

Hope this helps.

Sherine

Hi Praveen,
In a small organzations, HR is able to participate as moderator/silent participant in most of the appraisals to assess the spirit behind the process.
In big organizations where employees are scattered in different regions, it would be difficult for HR to be fully involved ; however their appraisals are moderated by the HODs therefore it is less likely to be biased or leading to discontentment of the employees.
Also if the employee is given the opportunity to express himself in the process in writing provides the feedback to HR.
Of course, HR needs to have a credible image and excellent networkings/relationships with the employees to know their “real” feedback.
Here what is more important is that PMS process shouldn't be reduced to just a form filling exercise and neglecting the development and analysis of the performance of appraisee.
Regards,
Rajat Joshi

It should never be the role of HR to conduct appraisals. This is why we employ managers and supervisors. Managers and supervisors are responsible for the performance of their staff and for feedback on performance. This also goes for deciding who to promote. This needs to be done by the management team. HR can advise on how to apply the company's principles, policies and procedures to particular promotion decisions, however, the management team need to take ownership of how they run the business.

In the performance management system, the role of HR is:

-creation of the performance management system with the input and final approval of the key stakeholders

-maintenance of the performance management system

-collection and storage of central performance appraisal records

-provision of training, advice and support to managers and supervisors

I'm sure there other responsibilities, but I see these as the main ones.

Vicki Heath

Human Resources Software and Resources

http://www.businessperform.com

Dear Sherine Rajat and Vicki
Thank you for your valuable inputs.
Just to ponder on what Rajat Quoted that HR should have excellent networkings/relationships with the employees to know their “real” feedback Are there any known methodologies to follow to achieve this?
Thanks Again,
Regards
Praveen

It's more about having the right attitude than a methodology. It's about taking a genuine interest in people and being able to listen attentively and empathetically. Things you could do include:
-eating in the staff canteen
-conducting regular HR information sessions for employees
-talking to people before and after information and training sessions
-gain employee trust by providing a timely HR service to employees
-having an openly stated “open door” policy
Vicki Heath
Human Resources Software and Resources
http://www.businessperform.com

Hi All,

In my view the immediate superior is the best person to evaluate the performance of his/her employees but as the evaluation report is submitted HR most definitely should analyze it and the said employee should have an opportunity to comment on it. He may or may not agree with his superior's ranking on different aspects of his/her performance in that case the HR should find out the reason why.

An HR person should have strong relationship skills not only with the top level of employees but even the very minor level of employees. Recruiting as HR person in a large organization should be done after thoroughly analyzing that person. An HR person with different motives in his/her mind may show affection to employees in a different way whereas these employees may not see it since they think the HR person is everything when it comes to their confidential aspects, this is especially true in garment organizations where the employees are mislead easily.

An HR person should treat all employees equally and confidentiality should be well maintained. The employees need to feel they are heard and also their well being taken care of.

When this sort of an HR person manages the organization the employees feel free to walk in and comment, agree and disagree on their PE. Their feedback is genuine.

I agree with Vicky. It is the immediate supervisors or managers who can judge the performance of any employee's performance.

HR's role is to handle the documentation part of it, but at the same time, HR should also ensure that no bias occurs during this procedure.

Sirisha