Agile Team Appraisal Process and Performance Result Interpretation

Employee performance evaluation can be considered a tool that can measure and suggest how to improve productivity. Productivity is the efficiency of the production of goods or services expressed by some measure for any kind of evaluation, it is necessary to have a well-defined set of criteria. Evaluation scores depend upon these criteria heavily. The criteria should be agreed on by both employee and the manager.

Managers have three major responsibilities:

• To create a working environment that nurtures praise and criticism
• To find out what challenges employees so they don’t get bored or burn out
• To achieve goals collaboratively

The participation of both manager and employee is important in the appraisal process. If employees are confident in the fairness of the appraisal process, they are more likely to accept performance ratings, even adverse ones, if they perceive a fair decision-making process. Otherwise, if the employees perceive the process as unfair and not systematic and thorough, it is unlikely that they will accept the outcome of the appraisal exercise.

There should be no surprises. The management should spend half the time in the appraisal system looking back — diagnosis — and half the time looking forward — planning.

Greater employee participation generates an atmosphere of cooperation and support, which facilitates the development of a coaching or counseling relationship, thereby reducing appraisal-related tension and rater-rate conflict. Here are some benefits of a successful appraisal process according to HR experts:

• Assists in evaluating the overall performance of an employee.
• Enables employees to pinpoint strengths and spot weaknesses.
• Provides an opportunity to motivate employees and encourage superior performance.
• Determine any need for further training.
• Helps set goals for future superior performance.

Without individual performance, there is no team performance, no unit performance, and no organizational performance. The outcome of the entire performance evaluation process is to:

• Clarify job responsibilities and expectations
• Enhance individual and group productivity
• Develop capabilities through feedback
• Provide the basis for making HR decisions
• Improve team communication

Performance Result

Performance is behavior relevant to the completion of a task and to the organization’s goal.

Performance is not:

• The consequences of action: it is the action
• An evaluation of the quality of work (effectiveness)
• An assessment of output/input (productivity)

Employee performance appears differently over time. Depending on where they are on their career journey, some employees may be moving forward (stability) or upward (growth), both of which indicate progress. In order to identify those employees who are in a stability or upward phase, your company must avoid permanently labeling each employee.

To combat permanent labels, Tim Scott proposed the following scorecards to describe employee performance. These scorecards are intended to guide employees and provide them space to be in motion, rather than box them.

Exceptional Season

Growing (Superstar) and Stabilizing (Rock stars). Superstars are those employees who surpass the intended goal while the Stabilizing employees Achieve the intended goal of the company. Tim Scott proposed the following action plan to deal with this kind of employee:

• Don’t promote automatically. Make sure to honor/recognize and reward the rock stars but don’t promote them.
• Careful to change roles. Not every superstar wants to manage. Being on a rapid development trajectory is not the same as having a management interest. Although playing a management role is crucial, it’s not the only way to make a significant difference. When management is the only route to increased pay, the quality of management suffers and the lives of the people who work for these unwilling managers become miserable.
• Keep them challenged (and determine who will take their position when they depart). Avoid squashing them or blocking them.

Off Season

A possible reason why employees are Skidding (Low performance) or Declining (Poor Performance) might be:

• Wrong role, Poor fit, or New to the role
• Lack of knowledge and no clear expectation
• Personal problems, Burnout, Illness
• Work-avoidance behaviors
• Absenteeism (not attending work)
• Presenteeism (attending work while ill)

Tim Scott proposed the following action plan to deal with this kind of employee:

• Transfer / Replace / Fire. Retaining people who are doing bad work penalizes the people doing excellent work
• Assign to develop interesting projects. People who had not produced outstanding work in more than two years should be given a chance to work on a project that would highlight their skills. Encouraging these people to look for jobs elsewhere if their work remains unsatisfactory. Everybody can excel in some capacity, and it is the manager’s responsibility to guide them toward that position.

Employees change as they become more integrated within the team — the kind of relationships they have inside the team, their priorities, and their roles. Along with these changes are changes they have in their personal and family lives. The company should also look at the environment and its challenges, in which they operate, the people involved in it, and the employee’s internal struggle to do meaningful work. As much as your company values the productivity and effort of the employee, the company should also recognize that there might be periods when employees may be affected by different factors. This reflects the essence of the varying human working experience and achieving employee individual potential.