Enhancing Performance Appraisal and Employee Retention Strategies in an IT Company

Hello All,

I work for a mid-size IT company. We do not have any policies or procedures. Although it is a limited company, it is as good as a proprietary shop. The Director doesn't want the policies to come up but wants the appraisal system in a different manner. No KRAs are set nor approved. Please help me with how to set up the appraisal system as it has been 1.5 years since the last appraisals were done. I am providing them with templates, but there is no way we can measure the software engineer's work in terms of timesheets, etc. I am fed up and feel unproductive here.

Regards,
Sherry

If you are feeling that you are not productive, it's better to search for a job elsewhere. Not all companies follow structured appraisal processes and may not provide salary hikes every year. I wonder how you plan to retain employees; you may expect a high turnover once the market improves. It's advisable to discuss with your supervisors and develop effective people strategies.

Please give me some ideas on how to convince the management that there is a lot of demoralization among the staff and we are unable to retain them.

I suggested to management that they should at least have an all-hands meeting to inform the staff that while monetary hikes may be less, providing feedback on performance will be done. This feedback can serve as an indicator for the next cycle.

Unfortunately, the management is not willing to do this.

If management is looking to improve performance and unfortunately, they are not in a position to provide an immediate raise, why not conduct a performance appraisal process and revise the compensation structure by integrating performance-based pay?

In the absence of policies, the value for money as perceived by the proprietor guides the business strategy. Some proprietors are good salesmen themselves but need good resources to perform tasks on time. Whoever does, gets paid more.

Identify the parameters based on productivity, schedule, and quality of task/deliverable, communication to management, involvement in multiple assignments, learning new technology/certifications, interaction with other team members and colleagues, availability for support on other projects (i.e. apart from the project working on), flexibility to work late hours, etc. I'm sure your management would be happy to have these parameters used to evaluate all the employees because many of them provide value for the money they spend on salaries. If any other parameters are required that are unrelated to these, then I'm afraid you are in the wrong place and should start looking for a new job immediately.

As an HR professional, you have to have a clear agenda for the appraisal activity. This list should help. I assume your template already covers many of these.

The award of increment/promotion is decided by management. So you have little control over that. Just plan and execute the appraisal activity, which makes things easier for you.

Hope this helps.

Praveen

Hi Sherry,

I agree with Praveen. You need to first lay down the groundwork details for the appraisal activities. Identify the various roles and levels, and each group can then put down their KRA. Without KRAs, how are employees sure of what is expected out of them?

You can then identify the parameters and scales for the evaluations and the type of appraisal you need to follow. In a way, you may take this as an opportunity to set policy and procedures here, and believe me, it's a ton of experience!

Regards,
Payal.

Hello Praveen and Payal,

Thank you for your suggestions. I have started working on what Praveen mentioned in sync with what I have already designed. However, my boss is not agreeing. She says we need to do things differently and is not sure of what she means. Well, I am not sure if I am being challenged for my creativity or if she doesn't have a clue of what she wants. (Sorry to mention this :()

Well, let me get back to you with an update.

Thanks once again.

Sherry

Thank you all. Specifically, I am also in more or less a situation like this. I have started to follow such activities. Hope Sherry comes out successful in convincing the management.

Thanks,
vkp