How Can Employees Cope with a 17-Month Wait for Their First Performance Appraisal?

Appraisal Period and Eligibility

I work in an organization where the appraisal period is during the cycle of (June - May). An employee is eligible for the appraisal only if he/she works for 30 days in the preceding calendar year. Employees joining in (January or February) of the current calendar year will not be eligible for the appraisal for the same year. This means the employee has to wait for 17 months for the next appraisal.

Suggestions for Employees Waiting Over 12 Months for Appraisal

1. What would be your suggestion for employees who have to wait for more than 12 months for an appraisal?

Appraisal Pattern Solutions

2. What kind of appraisal pattern can be implemented to solve this problem?

Dear Youvaneshwaran, when you say "appraisal," it appears that you mean to say "salary increase." In fact, making an employee wait for 17 months for a salary increase is outrageous. To avoid such a long delay, you may consider the following options:

a) If the employee completes more than 9 months but less than 12 months as of June 1st of the year, conduct the performance appraisal but give him/her three-quarters of the salary increment.

b) If the employee completes more than six months but less than 9 months as of June 1st of the year, conduct the performance appraisal but give him/her half of the salary increment.

c) If the employee completes more than three months but less than six months as of June 1st of the year, conduct the performance appraisal but give him/her a quarter of the salary increment.

d) If the employee completes less than 3 months as of June 1st of the year, then he/she is eligible for the appraisal only and not the salary increase. After completing a year, a performance appraisal will be conducted again, and the average of the two appraisals will be considered for the salary increase.

In India, remuneration is a major motivating factor. Therefore, depriving employees of this facility may save a few thousand Rupees for the company, but it could come at the cost of employee motivation. Despite the need for employment, employees may not openly express their discontent, but there will likely be underlying dissatisfaction. This discontent could lead to employees not going the extra mile, which employers generally expect them to do.

Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar

I would like to suggest that for employees who complete less than 3 months in the company, no appraisal needs to be done, as they are obviously in the probation period. Only a probationary evaluation should be done for the purpose of service confirmation. Some companies have a probation period of 6 months or 3 months.

Performance Appraisal Policy

A real performance appraisal policy states that a performance appraisal and review should be conducted from the date of service confirmation, not from the date of joining.