Chapter 5
Most Instrument (form) Problems
5.1 Doesn’t address diversity
Dr John Sullivan: All too often, the same appraisal form is applied to a large but not homogeneous group of employees (i.e. all hourly, all exempts, all managers etc.). As a result, the assessment form does not fit the job. Only management-by-objective-type approaches address individual needs.
As the organization grows, so does the number of designations and roles. Each role will need to have a clear job description and also associated competency matrix and goals. Competency matrix will be more or less same across all the individuals in the same role; but, goals can be different. It is important that HR understands the job description at each role and design a specific form for each role and NOT use a single, fit-all form.
There may be some portions which will be same. For example, you may want to measure everyone across "Corporate values". That section will be the same for everyone. But, job responsibilities, competencies required for doing a job will be different from one role to another.
At advanced level, you may also want to extend the coverage to suit to the individual needs. For example, for a production manager may have to be rated/coached on P&L responsibilities (generally available at Director or VP level).
Solution
Synergita provides the capability to define competency matrix for each role and also to an individual. An employee‘s competency matrix can be further tailored by the manager to suit the individuals‘ ambition and specific job descriptions.
HR can build a competency/Goals library at the organization level. The elements of competency library / goals library can be again split based on balanced score card, job responsibilities, levels, etc. Once the library is built, it is easy to assemble the form specific for a specific job role.
Synergita also helps in extending the form designed for a job role specific to an individual employee needs. This will empower the managers to make it more suitable for an individual employee needs.
5.2 The process does not flex with the business
Dr John Sullivan: Rarely does any portion of the appraisal process flex to address changing business objectives.
Change is the only thing which is constant in any business. People go through change, get promoted / rotated to different job profiles and have different targets to meet. It is important that the software is flexible and adopts the change easily.
Solution
Synergita is easy to use and flexible software. You can change the following easily through a HR administrator:
Imagine a situation where a project manager is promoted as an account manager and he is rated only based on the customer satisfaction and account growth. Unless the person‘s rating mechanism changes to reflect the role change, it will not be meaningful. Software has to be flexible in this case.
Similarly, imagine a situation where the organization takes over another company. It should be easy to extend the defined PMS to another business unit / group company. Synergita helps in these easily.
Or, let us assume that workflow needs to change with some of the hierarchical changes happening in the company. Let us say that you are decentralizing HR to align with various business units & pretty much each business unit has a separate HR manager. In this case, it should be possible to align the approval process with the newly created HR positions.
5.3 Inconsistent ratings on the same form
Dr John Sullivan: It is not uncommon for managers to put one level (high, average or low) of ratings in the Likert scale portion of the form, but another level of rating in the “overall assessment” box. The final narrative portion of the assessment may contain still another completely different level of assessment.
Solution
Often times, managers have difficulties in providing appropriate feedback to their team members. Generally, they want to be nice and positively inclined towards the performance (irrespective of whether it is right or wrong). Overall, HR should expect a positively skewed rating distribution of the people rated by their managers. It takes few education sessions and one or two performance cycles to get everybody to the same page as far as "appropriate rating" is concerned.
Synergita encourages managers to do the following:
Follow rating guidelines while providing rating. Managers can quickly see the rating guidelines and the method to adhere them. This will increase the consistency of same/similar rating across all managers.
Final rating is generally derived from the individual rating. Synergita has "business rules" that HR can enforce. For example, you can compute the final rating number from individual rating. And, enforce rules as follows:
Since the final rating is computed automatically from the aggregated rating value, manager cannot make mistakes / cannot choose different rating compared to what they have rated in individual parameters.
5.4 Disconnected from job descriptions
Dr John Sullivan: In many cases, the factors on the form are completely different from the factors on an employee’s job description, bonus criteria, or yearly goals. This can confuse employees and cause them to lose focus.
Solution
It is very important to start the form design (basically the set of competencies and goals) from an employee‘s job description. For example, when you look at a production manager, their typical goals would be:
These goals would be almost similar to each manager in the production department, except their quantification would be different from one another. There may be one or two additional goals specific to an individual manager (eg. Take up certification on safety policy, project management, etc.).
Synergita offers a library where HR can define the goals and competencies required to do a job at each level (manager, engineer, customer support, purchase manager, etc.).
Managers can use this library and then extend it to suit each individual (define their specific goals). This helps in accomplishing two things: