How Do You Design an Appraisal System When Senior Staff Resist Change? Seeking Advice from Industry Peers

I am in the process of designing an appraisal system for one of our group companies. Being a non-finance person, it will take some time for me to understand the company's profile and industry. Also, one of the factors is that some staff members think they are too happy (especially a few senior individuals) with the current system, and thus, the need for a new and improved system does not seem necessary to them. However, the management and the parent company hold a different perspective. I find myself at times unsure of how to clarify their queries. The company in question is an NBFC that deals with forex, derivatives, and interest rates.

Seeking Insights from Industry Colleagues

Colleagues from a similar industry are welcome to share their insights on how to handle the resistance, as the information available to me is incomplete, thereby causing delays in my process.

Advice, inputs, and suggestions are much appreciated.

Congratulations on the initiative. Since you already have support from management, launching the new system should be easy. Here are some suggestions for the process:

1. Plan for a simple appraisal process.
2. Aim for a goal-oriented organization where all employees set goals on a half-yearly/annual basis.
3. Align key competencies with roles and incorporate them into the appraisal process.
4. Gather training needs and feedback on career development as part of the appraisal.
5. Introduce a recommendation channel where the appraiser proposes promotions/increments/bonuses/re-designations, and recommendations go through a reviewer before reaching HR and the board for final approval.
6. Assign weightage to goals and competencies for specific roles in the organization.
7. Determine the final performance rating and communicate it to employees.
8. Provide comprehensive training on the new process to stakeholders and employees before the launch.

Wishing you all the best.

Congrats on the Initiative

Since you already have support from management, it should be easy to launch the new system.

• Plan for a simple appraisal process.
• Aim to target a goal-oriented organization where all employees set goals on a half-yearly/annual basis.
• Align key competencies with roles and make them part of the appraisal process.
• Collect training needs and feedback on career development as part of the appraisal.
• Introduce a recommendation channel - where the appraiser proposes promotion/increment/bonus/re-designation, etc., and through the reviewer, recommendations reach HR and the board for final approval.
• Introduce weightage for goals and competencies for specific roles in the organization.
• Determine the final performance rating and publish it to employees.
• Provide comprehensive training on the new process to stakeholders as well as employees before the launch.

Wishing you the very best...

Thanks for your valuable input. If you can also suggest some inputs on how to manage resistance, it would be helpful. My bottleneck here is the lack of complete information that will form the base of my system. The seniors are not providing the download of my discussion with them, and I have a group of invariably disinterested and uninformed staff. I end up starting from scratch, wasting a lot of time. The staff feels disconnected. I have shared my presentation, but what if they have not seen it?

Basically, I need to captivate their attention and ensure complete information is shared with me.

Regards

Handling Resistance to Appraisal Systems

Resistance could be usual. Instead of launching the appraisal alone, maybe you could first create an ambiance of performance, performance-based benefits, transparency, etc.

1. Maximum care shall be given not to spread the message, "Appraisal is going to increase the workload, to punish the underperformed." An ideal message could be something like, "A tool for management to gauge company/group/team/individual performance and help individuals to give outstanding performance and add value to themselves as well as the organization."

2. You may introduce appraisal through your in-house HRMS because the automated process can motivate employees to try this and also help to create more confidence in the process.

3. If there is no in-house HRMS, evaluate a couple of off-the-shelf tools and launch them.

4. Ensure training to Business Heads, Appraisers, and Employees on the appraisal process well in advance.