What is Performance?
Performance is the sum of values that show how much an individual achieves the goals in accordance with the goals of the corporate structure within any company. All quantitative and qualitative actions of the employee are included in performance. Basically, performance is closely linked to the concept of “goal”. As you can see from this, performance has at least one solid criterion. You cannot talk about performance without goals.
Goals are the ruler of performance. The goals mentioned here are not only goals for the benefit of the organization. For example, contributing to the development of employees or finding a balance between social life and work life are also goals. In other words, the physical conditions, equipment, and additional opportunities that organizations offer to employees are goals as much as the potential of the employee, and their willingness to do the job.
What is Performance Evaluation?
“You cannot manage what you cannot measure, and you cannot measure what you cannot define.”
If performance is a vast forest, performance evaluation is your compass to prevent you from getting lost in that forest. In its simplest definition, performance evaluation is the measurement of employee productivity. These measurements, which are made based on various organizational criteria, provide objective data for determining the wage or promotion an employee will receive. These measurements made by HR departments are used as a reference to manage and develop employees and investigate the factors affecting employee performance.
Performance evaluation was first introduced by the US government in the 1950s as a reference in public institutions. After all, these were the years when we gradually got rid of our heated mass consciousness from fighting each other and slowly remembered that we were individuals. This model applied in public institutions started to spread to the private sector in the 1970s, especially under the leadership of the marketing sector.
How to Conduct a Performance Evaluation?
As we have gotten better at performance evaluation, our “performance in performance evaluation” has steadily increased. Nowadays, we see many evaluation methods and many different performance evaluation scales. The experiences we have gained over time have also clarified the characteristics of a good performance evaluation process.
For a quality performance evaluation process:
Be fair
A performance evaluation must be absolutely fair. An unfair system can lead employees who receive bad or subjective evaluations to feel worthless and useless. We are highly concerned that this does not happen. In this case, our aim is to maintain employee loyalty over time.
Be transparent
Without transparency, the performance evaluation process will be hindered to a great extent. We achieve its purpose by giving feedback to the employee, openly expressing constructive criticism and negative opinions, and allowing employees to see the positive and negative aspects of the process.
Maintain simplicity
Do not overwhelm employees with meaningless or difficult-to-understand criteria. Avoid surveys with vague or long questions. Do not include issues irrelevant to employees’ departments and not in their field of work in the measurement criteria.
Use more resources
Listening to the employee or their manager during performance evaluation can give us subjective results. Let’s be more specific; it can be misleading. The more sources of information we get about the employee, the more objective the data we obtain will be. Therefore, we include other employees doing the same job in the process and even the customers the employee comes into contact with, if any. However, we need to be very careful while doing this.
Utilize software
Human resources software make our job much easier in this process. Moreover, thanks to these software, we can see the development profile or negative tendencies of each employee at the same time. With a software, we can make feedback processes autonomous. Our employees also get rid of paper surveys. The software makes it easier for us to share information, eliminates human errors, and allows us to report the data without wasting time.
Incidents in Performance Evaluation
We have talked about things that sound great when implemented flawlessly, but some believe that performance evaluation is the killer of employee motivation. The situations that justify this idea always stem from the fact that the performance evaluation process is not operated correctly. Performance evaluation is a tool for the performance management process, not an end in itself. If the performance evaluation process does not lead to specific decisions, i.e., if it has no impact on performance management, it becomes increasingly meaningless and no more than a formality.
Some of the most important issues that GMKA pays attention to are as follows:
- Preventing performance evaluation from becoming a vertical process where the boss is the judge
- Avoiding discussing wages and promotions when performance evaluation is on the agenda
- Maintaining communication between performance evaluators and employees
- Ensuring that employees receive feedback on their status after the process is completed
- Not relying on unsubstantiated or vague feedback from managers
- Keeping files or periodic checklists related to employees’ work
- Focusing on employees’ behaviors and the results of these behaviors, not on their personal characteristics
- Moving the evaluation process forward without bypassing it
- Taking into account organizational or individual issues that may lead to poor performance
- Correctly planning the construction of the performance evaluation scale
- Avoiding inadequate or unnecessary scales for the performance evaluation process
Avoiding the Prejudice Trap
The more performance evaluation is free from prejudices, i.e. personal problems, the more reliable and therefore more effective the results will be. In general, the most common bias factors are:
Too much tolerance: Failing to warn employees about the time they clock in and out of work, failing to warn an employee who keeps making mistakes, etc. can have a negative impact on the performance of other employees.
Generalizing recent successes or failures: It is a common mistake for managers to fixate on an employee’s recent successes or failures. If you have a periodic and well-prepared performance evaluation chart, you will not fall into this trap.
Rigidity: Being too prescriptive with employees wears them down. In the long run, they will start doing things in a way that pleases you, rather than the right way.
Halo effect: Don’t generalize one skill of an employee and assume that they can do other things. For example, just because an employee speaks very effectively in private does not mean they can give a good presentation to a large group.
Horn effect: When employees are unable to perform a given task, it is a common mistake not to assign similar tasks. You should quantify and measure this process as much as you can for employee development. Remember, employee performance can be influenced as much by a bad day out of the office as it is by internal factors.
Being influenced by position: Being influenced by the position of employees during performance appraisal can be another situation that affects objectivity in a bad way. Therefore, we need to take into account whether the people being evaluated are also affected by this situation.
Performance Evaluation is Over, What Next?
We have the results of the employee performance evaluation and it is time to contribute and guide our organization with real data. Some of the data we have will likely inform the following items and many more.
- Wage management
- Career management
- Determining the training needs of the staff
- Eliminating the factors that reduce staff motivation and taking steps to increase staff motivation
- Identifying employees to be dismissed and reviewing the criteria for candidates to be hired
GMKA PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
It is important to use performance evaluation software or to make the performance evaluation process autonomous. No matter how big an organization you are, you can control all processes related to employee performance from anywhere you want. From the lowest level to the highest level manager, 360, 270, 180 and 90 degree performance evaluations are made. We can make evaluations with ready-made performance templates or with performance evaluation templates that we have created with performance evaluation criteria specific to our company culture on the basis of GMKA family. With many features such as the possibility of rating specific to performance criteria and customizable rating types (star, scoring, rating over 100, etc.), we can quickly share the results with the relevant parties and thus take faster actions in line with our goals. Thanks to the feedback, we do not miss anything.
Recognizing that the most important element in a business is the human factor, it is undeniable that a working person brings physical, mental, and personal characteristics to their job. Within the framework of these characteristics, the person tries to fulfill the task undertaken at the maximum level. To the extent that a person performs well in their job, they advance, are promoted, and gain economic and social opportunities.
Performance is the quantitative (quantity) and qualitative (quality) expression of what an individual, a group, or an enterprise that performs a job can achieve and what it can provide in terms of the goal intended by that job. According to another definition, performance can be defined as the fulfillment of a job according to the specified conditions or the behavior of the employee.
To be able to talk about success, it is first necessary to define the job that the person will fulfill, then determine the standards required by the job, and investigate the conformity of these standards with the characteristics of the person. Only after these points are clarified, the degree of realization of the job can be determined. The person who reaches above the specified standards is considered successful, while the person who fails to reach the standards is considered unsuccessful.
The first examples of systematic and formal evaluation of employee performance in organizations can be seen in the early 1900s in public service organizations in the USA. Later, as a result of F. Taylor’s measurement of employee productivity through work measurement practices, the concept of performance evaluation began to be used scientifically in organizations. In the years following the First World War, various performance evaluation techniques based on personality traits were developed, but later, after the 1950s, techniques based on the criteria for the work or results produced by the person began to be used more widely in organizations in the USA. In Turkey, it was first started in the public sector and has a history of about 80 years.
Performance evaluation is among the most important functions of human resource management. Performance evaluation refers to studies aimed at determining the effectiveness and success level of a person at any point. Performance evaluation is the process by which a manager evaluates the performance of employees on the job by comparing and measuring against predetermined standards.
Other definitions of performance evaluation are as follows:
Performance evaluation is the measurement of the success of the employee within the limits defined within the organization. Performance evaluation is the review of the work, activities, deficiencies, competencies, excesses, and inadequacies of individuals, regardless of their position in the organization, in short, in all aspects as a whole. Through performance evaluation, it is ensured that development needs are clearly defined by planning the need for training through forecasting and by determining general content about which development activities will be carried out. As a result, the inadequacies in the personnel are revealed and it is decided which training activities should be organized to eliminate the inadequacies. Performance evaluation is also defined as a planned tool that integrates the individual’s success in his/her job, attitudes and behaviors at work, moral status, and characteristics and evaluates the employee’s contribution to the success of the organization.
Performance evaluation is an effort to determine the extent to which an individual working within the framework of a specific job and job description fulfills this job and job description. This effort must be made. According to the results obtained through performance evaluation, it is determined to what extent the success expectation for the individual is realized. As a result of this information, decisions such as promotion, increasing the salary, changing the position, dismissal, enriching the job and similar decisions can be made.
The system that aims to plan, evaluate and improve the performance of employees by considering the concept of performance evaluation as a dynamic process rather than as a static evaluation activity and that approaches this issue from a broader perspective is called “Performance Evaluation System” today.
The performance evaluation process should be based on sincere and honest communication. Management should clearly communicate to employees their needs, tasks and objectives, and employees should express their own views on how best to do a job. Management should clearly communicate how work is to be done and the performance criteria so that employees can follow the set objectives. Instructions should leave the door open for employees to add elements that will improve performance in their work and remove harmful elements.
In the most general terms, performance appraisal is a system of reviewing and evaluating the work performance of an individual or a team. The most obvious purpose of this system is to systematically measure the work and abilities of the employees in a company in a certain period according to predetermined criteria in many ways and to reveal their development potential. Because; what employees do or do not do directly affects the productivity of an organization. For this reason, it is imperative to evaluate whether employees act in accordance with the roles assigned to them, their behavior, and especially their performance in their duties.
During the performance evaluation of the employees, it is aimed not only to consider the individual as a whole with all their aspects and to prepare the opportunity to overcome their deficiencies by rewarding their successes but also to embed the total quality understanding in the organization. The basic principle should not be to punish the individual based on failures but to reward the individual based on successes. In this way, through performance appraisal, employees at each level will be enabled to review themselves and contribute to the establishment of a total quality approach.
Performance evaluation, which plays a major role in productivity and thus in achieving competitive advantage, also has special importance for the employee. This is because the employee, who is accepted and placed in a job and trained for a job, will want to know how to reach the level of performance expected of them, how to improve their achievements, and what they can do for higher level jobs. This situation reveals the necessity of performance evaluation.
On the other hand, employees need to believe that they are treated objectively in matters such as promotion, remuneration, transfer, and punishment, and therefore that all employees are treated equally. In addition to this need, they also need to know what their supervisors think about them and their work. These needs and expectations can only be met by objectively evaluating the employees’ work and giving them feedback.
Bringing all these issues together emphasizes the purpose and benefits of performance evaluation; therefore, it constitutes the first and most important step in areas such as improving performance, determining training needs, career management, and implementing reward systems.
Performance evaluation is a challenging process. At the end of this process, the aim is to inform people about their own work and efforts and to encourage them to make new efforts. In order for the challenging endeavor of performance measurement to bear fruit, the results must be used in the most effective, efficient, and useful way. Otherwise, there will be a lot of useless data and unused numerical results.
Performance evaluation results can be used in career management, salary management, determination of other motivating material and social incentives, promotion, rotation, job enrichment, job expansion, dismissal, and determination of training needs.
Some areas where performance evaluation results can be used are summarized below:
Strategic Planning
In almost every business, once the overall objectives have been set by the top management through a strategic plan, the activities necessary to achieve these objectives are distributed among the functions. Each department carries out the process of determining and realizing these goals at the individual level by distributing tasks among its staff in line with its own goals and helping to implement this strategic plan. Thus, the strategic plans of the organization are transformed into individual plans and objectives, and the general objectives are tried to be realized in integrity. The performance evaluation models that each organization develops and places for itself, the application principles, questionnaires, statements, etc. within this model are all extensions of the strategies of the organization. Thus, performance evaluation practice serves as an intermediary for the organization to announce and share the points that it attaches importance in the context of its strategy with its employees.
Wage – Salary Management
Performance evaluation is of great importance for the establishment of a sound wage structure in the organization. In order for performance evaluation to motivate people, opinions suggest that there should be a close link between performance and reward systems and that the individual should be able to see this link clearly. The best way to establish this link is to use the results of an individual’s performance evaluation as data in determining monetary rewards such as wages, salaries, bonuses, commissions, etc., along with some other criteria. The primary goal should be to reward high performance and high achievement, focusing on success rather than failure. For this purpose, it is preferable that those whose performance is not at the desired level receive an average increase in salary, while those with high performance receive a higher salary.
Career Management
Effective performance evaluation reveals areas of performance strengths and weaknesses and accurately measures the current state of performance. This feedback encourages employees to improve themselves and alerts the organization to the need to support employees through training and development programs. The data from performance appraisal will provide a useful starting point for making decisions about the promotion of people in the life of the organization, the necessary training for the jobs they are promoted to, and the horizontal job changes they are subjected to, by providing the necessary information to the career development system.
Identifying Training Needs
The data obtained through performance evaluation provide information about the achievements of all employees in the organization as well as the areas in which they are deficient or inadequate. These inadequate areas are also the subject of training needs. In this respect, it is important to consider the results of performance evaluation at the level of all employees to see the general deficiencies and inadequacies in the organization.
Dismissal Decision
It would not be wrong to think that performance evaluation would be a useful tool in deciding to dismiss individuals who are found to be unsuccessful in performance evaluation results if they fail and do not show any improvement despite all training and improvement efforts. However, it is not a correct practice to dismiss employees as a result of a single periodic evaluation of performance in enterprises. At this point, it is necessary to make sure that the manager has taken every remedy, that everything that has been done has been recorded in the personnel file of the employee and that the employee has been informed in advance about the conditions under which the employee will be dismissed.
Rotation, Job Expansion, Job Enrichment Applications
It is also possible to use the performance evaluation results at the individual level for the rotation of personnel who are unhappy in a certain place but are believed to be successful in another task. In the same way, the jobs of talented employees who find their jobs insufficient can be enriched or expanded, and new duties and responsibilities can be assigned. In particular, the information obtained from interviews with individuals as a result of performance evaluation can form the basis for these practices.
Other Human Resources Management Applications
If performance evaluation is multidimensional, its results will also be multi-dimensional. Especially in this process, interviews with people, reactions of people while filling in the forms, and what is spread through whispering newspapers when the results are announced is important for human resources and management. During the performance evaluation process, especially during the performance evaluation interview, information can be obtained in very important areas such as general disturbances in the organization, satisfaction rate, the structure of human relations, and whether they have goals or not.
The main purpose of performance evaluation is to evaluate human resources in order for them to be more effective, efficient, and useful, and at the same time be happy and satisfied with their jobs. With this evaluation, the work and efforts of the employee in the work environment are reviewed and his/her success is tried to be determined. Choosing the most appropriate performance evaluation methods used in this process is important in terms of the healthy results to be achieved.
Another important purpose of performance evaluation is to inform employees about their work achievements rather than the profit and loss of the business. In this way, in other words, performance appraisal results are utilized for people to renew and improve themselves by having an idea about their own work.
Regardless of its purpose, the characteristics of an effective performance appraisal are summarized below:
Validity
The validity of a performance evaluation can be measured by the degree of closeness of the information obtained as a result of the measurement to the actual value of the performance. The data obtained as a result of the evaluation method applied in accordance with the structure of the enterprise is valid to the extent that it is realistic. The results obtained through evaluation should cover individual outputs such as production quality, quantity, training expectations, time utilization, accidents, etc. Another degree of performance evaluation is the extent to which the evaluation is in line with the objectives of the organization and is understood and used by the manager. Validity is a very important feature in performance evaluation. In cases where this feature is insufficient, it will be difficult to talk about the consistency of the measurement. Those who establish and implement the evaluation system need to increase the validity area by reducing errors and minimizing evaluation problems.
Reliability
Performance evaluation should not yield arbitrary results. The limits within which the evaluation is reliable should be well understood by the evaluators. The characteristics and qualifications of the employee should change over time. Accordingly, their performance should also change. This can be considered as an indicator of the reliability of the evaluation. In short, if there is no change in the performance of the employee at different times, the results of the individual evaluation should not change.
Practicality
The third important feature of the methods to be used in performance evaluation and the results to be obtained should be practical. The measurement technique should be chosen in accordance with the business purpose and be understandable. The standards to be used in the evaluation should be simple and clear enough for managers and evaluators to easily observe and compare.
Performance evaluation is a process that evaluates and measures the individual achievements and behaviors of employees over a period of time. Job evaluation, on the other hand, is the process of systematically determining the relative value of jobs within an organization by comparing them with each other in order to determine wages.
In this context, while job evaluation is done to support wage determination studies, performance evaluation is done to help determine motivation and labor policies.
One of the most important features that distinguish performance evaluation studies from job evaluations is that performance evaluation studies must be carried out periodically. In job evaluation, studies are carried out at long intervals only in case of the emergence of a specific business area or as a result of macro changes. Performance evaluation studies, on the other hand, are conducted more frequently. The foreseen frequency is stated as once or twice a year.
Performance evaluation studies are sometimes inadequate or the desired results cannot be obtained due to the way of application, the method chosen or the business, or the company climate. Businesses that start performance evaluation by knowing the problems and deficiencies that have emerged so far will be cautious against these problems. Since the departments that usually prepare performance appraisal studies are human resources or personnel departments, they should know and work on such problems.
One of the problems encountered in performance evaluation is that success standards are not determined separately and correctly for each job description. While setting standards is a very demanding stage, how to measure them is a separate problem in appraisal. Although it may seem easy to prepare a scale for the job, in reality, it is a difficult task and a difficult stage. The measurement power of the prepared scale, whether it reflects the required characteristics, and the accuracy of the results to be obtained from the scale are important points.
It is possible to categorize the problems encountered in performance evaluation studies into 3 groups: job-related, evaluator-related, and evaluation-related.
Job-Related Errors: First of all, it is necessary to determine what results are expected from the job, its quantity, quality, and data level. Otherwise, the first problem to be encountered is the criteria according to which the performance of the person will be evaluated. In addition, it is very difficult to evaluate unplanned jobs that do not have organizing information in the form of working procedures or work instructions.
Problems Arising from the Persons Conducting the Evaluation: It is very difficult to keep the subjective judgments of the manager or the evaluator away from the evaluation. While applying this method, evaluators should, first of all, get rid of their personal opinions and prejudices. Another mistake of evaluators is that they make evaluations by taking into account the age, gender, and title of the employees. Another problem that evaluators can create is that they do not understand the job and make wrong observations in order to evaluate the person. The evaluator may make an evaluation without collecting enough clear and precise information about the person to make a decision about him/her. In this case, the wrong action is taken against the person being evaluated. In addition, another mistake that may be made by the evaluators is the incorrect filling of the evaluation forms. What needs to be done here is to enlighten the evaluators on this issue so that they can fill in the forms carefully and correctly, and if necessary, they should receive training on this issue. One of the evaluator errors is the inclusion of individual tendencies in the results. The evaluator may be influenced by other people and may produce inaccurate, exaggerated, or understated results.
Problems Arising from the Evaluation System: Problems arising from the structure of the evaluation system can be grouped under 3 headings.
The system does not fit the purpose of the organization, and does not change according to the jobA system that does not fit the business structure and dimensions
Results are not being accepted by other managers.
Failure to choose the methods that will best realize the objectives of the business will lead to failure or problems with performance evaluation. Another important point here is the need for businesses to strictly separate the evaluation studies to be carried out for wage-salary purposes from other purposes. If a person with a high score in the evaluation receives a low raise due to the current financial situation of the enterprise and the evaluation results and the wage change are the same or close to the same time, the use of the evaluation for another purpose (for example, determining the need for training) will not be of much interest to this person and the trust of the employee in the system will be shaken as a result of the relationship between the evaluation results and the raise. In addition, the fact that the chosen method is not liked or accepted by the evaluators is a sign that the system has already failed from the beginning. Another problem is that the information and decisions obtained as a result of the evaluation are not accepted by the managers. The evaluation system is partly responsible for this. If the system is not accepted or is not suitable for the organization, then indirectly the results and decisions obtained from this system are also not accepted.
The performance evaluation system is based on the evaluation of the data related to the performance of the employees during their work. The evaluation to be made has both an aspect related to the decisions to be taken by the manager and a close relationship with the improvement of performance. Behind all these considerations are the value of an employee, his/her contributions, abilities, and some judgments. As is known, all interpersonal evaluations are open to some subjectivity. In other words, the evaluation can be affected by the errors and biases of the evaluator, and therefore various problems can be encountered in the evaluation process.
System Errors
How performance evaluation systems are planned and which criteria are used are of great importance. If the system in question is poorly planned, the results of the efforts will be inadequate and useless. The same argument can be made in terms of criteria. For example, placing emphasis only on actions and less on results, or emphasizing personal characteristics and ignoring performance, may prevent the evaluation from being accurate. Some systems require so much bureaucratic work and time that managers may feel that they are unnecessarily burdened. This problem may arise either because the system is not designed in accordance with the organizational structure and needs or because it is overestimated by managers or experts during implementation.
Process Errors
In practice, the effectiveness of systems can be significantly undermined by various errors caused by evaluators. The majority of these errors arise from not knowing the system well and not being sufficiently informed about its features. Training is of undeniable importance in eliminating such errors arising from inadequate information provided to introduce the system or negligence of individuals in this regard. However, the types of errors that need to be emphasized are the evaluation errors that are mostly made unknowingly by the person. Such errors can sometimes be caused by the person’s memory not being very strong, and sometimes by the psycho-social processes, they are going through.
Evaluation Standards Issues
These problems arise from the fact that different managers interpret some evaluation standards differently. During the evaluation of an employee, classifications such as “good – adequate – satisfactory – excellent” may mean different things to different managers. Therefore, if only one evaluator evaluates performances, misleading results may occur. To avoid this, it is imperative that evaluation categories are well defined and that evaluators are well trained.
Not Being Completely Objective
A potential weakness of traditional evaluation methods is their lack of objectivity. It is very difficult to objectively and accurately measure commonly used factors such as attitude, commitment, and personality, which in many cases are not even related to job performance.
Tolerance – Rigidity
Tolerance is when a manager overestimates the performance of a subordinate. In this type of error, the manager tends to show the subordinate at a higher level of achievement than they actually are. Such a tendency is unfavorable for both the employee and the manager. Because if the deficiencies and faults of the employees are ignored, their development will be prevented. However, the main purpose of performance evaluation is to improve the performance of the employees. In this case, feedback, which is necessary for improvement, will be eliminated, or even if feedback is given, the individual will see themself as superior and will not feel the need for improvement due to the exaggerated evaluation made of them. On the other hand, rigidity also presents an important drawback. When employees are evaluated as if they are at a lower performance level than their performance level, it reveals the error of rigidity. Such a tendency reduces the motivation and enthusiasm of employees for improvement.
Unidirectional Measurement Error
Job descriptions may specify more than one standard of achievement. Undoubtedly, these standards are the basic criteria for evaluating the performance of the employee. If the evaluator makes an evaluation according to only one of the success standards, an erroneous evaluation result will be reached. This is because in order for a job to be performed successfully, each task, which is an element of the job, must be fulfilled. Nevertheless, if the evaluating manager considers a single task and its related standard, rather than all the tasks performed by the employee, a false judgment will arise that this task is the only important part of the employee’s work.
Average Tendency Error
The average tendency is one of the common errors in performance evaluation. This type of error occurs if the evaluator is not confident in their ability to evaluate, or if they avoid giving high or low evaluations due to fear of repercussions. In this type of error, the majority of employees are evaluated close to the middle values in performance evaluation. This tendency eliminates the possibility of feedback to the employees being evaluated; therefore, the employee loses the chance to see their shortcomings. In addition, such mid-range evaluations are not useful and make decision-making very difficult.
Personal Prejudices
Some evaluators reflect their personal biases in their evaluations. Especially the nature of the relationship between the evaluator and the employee, personal attitudes such as age, gender, race, language, and religion lead to bias in the evaluation. Some evaluators continue to be influenced by their first impressions of the employee at later stages. Others unknowingly evaluate employees who are similar or dissimilar to themselves according to these characteristics. Another mistake in performance evaluation in this direction is to be biased toward a unit of the organization or a group of employees. In such cases, the evaluation results will be higher or lower than necessary. However, effective evaluation requires the process to be free from biases. Therefore, such mistakes should be avoided by emphasizing the individual performance of employees.
Contrast Errors
If the evaluators are evaluating a large number of employees in a short period of time, they tend to leave objective standards aside and evaluate employees by comparing them with each other. In this case, each subordinate will be affected by the score of the employee evaluated before them. In order to avoid contrast errors, it is recommended that employees should be evaluated in a mixed order without grouping them as successful and unsuccessful.
Being Affected by Events in the Recent Past
This type of error occurs when only the last working performance of the employee is taken into account in the performance evaluation. The evaluator usually considers the performance of the evaluated employee in the last few months or weeks and makes the evaluation accordingly. However, the evaluation should be carried out by considering past performance and recent performance together.
Influenced by Position
Some evaluators, influenced by the positions of the employees, evaluate employees in jobs and positions that are considered important in the organization at a high level of performance and those that are considered unimportant at a low level of performance. Especially the ranking method is highly susceptible to this error. In order to prevent this, detailed job descriptions should be utilized and each employee should be evaluated within the framework of their duties and responsibilities.
Various approaches and methods have been developed for the purposes of the performance evaluation system. Some of these methods are considered to be among the first examples of performance evaluation methods and are now considered to be classical. Other approaches are modern approaches developed to solve problems encountered in practice or to make more objective evaluations. Organizations carry out performance evaluation by choosing among all these methods according to their structure, the qualifications of their employees, their goals and the degree of priority they give to the subject, and sometimes by using several methods together.
- Performance Evaluation Methods
- Pairwise Comparison and Ranking Method
- Standard Grading Scale Method
- Behavior-Based Rating Scale Method
- Graphic Evaluation Technique
- Mandatory Selection Method
- Mandatory Distribution Method
- Rating and Grading Method
- Work Dimension Scale
- Critical Incident Method
- Checklists Method
- Evaluation Method According to Objectives
- Business Standards Technique
- Free Expression Method
- Evaluation Center Method
- Self-Evaluation Method
- Team-Based Performance Evaluation Method
- 360 Degree Evaluation Method
Employees generally want to know whether they are doing their jobs well. Managers must provide this information to employees through evaluation. The process of evaluating employees’ performance should take place regularly, without interruption, and involve both formal and informal channels of communication.
The culmination of the manager’s effort to plan and carry out the performance evaluation is the interview with the employees. This usually takes the form of a performance evaluation interview. Evaluations will be more objective if the organization clearly sets out the job, duties and responsibilities, and performance standards. In a performance evaluation interview, the most useful feedback to employees is feedback based on a comparison of actual performance with the established job standards.
In a well-organized performance evaluation, interviews are conducted according to a pre-prepared information sheet. This information sheet should be such that it allows a free flow of information between the manager and the employees.
New economic developments in the world, rapid development in information and communication technology, and social and political changes have affected both individuals and organizations. As regional and global information and communication have increased, the demands and expectations of individuals and organizations have also increased. Organizations that meet or are willing to meet these expectations and demands have increased the quality of the products and services they offer, and have had to create changes in some areas, from their management styles to their approach to people.
In order to cope with all these changes, organizations have given increasing importance to human resources management in their working life, and have treated people not as someone who is paid for their work, but as someone who can be authorized, shaped, and motivated as a business partner. It is understood that management will benefit more from human resources in proportion to the importance it attaches to human resources.
Placing the right person in the right job at the right time is very important for the employee to achieve the expected results of that job. In a dynamic environment, there is a need for a planned and systematic performance evaluation in order to create people who will run to the right targets at the right time without losing motivation.
Performance evaluation has led to the need for career management. The need to meet the training and development needs of people in a planned and systematic manner in order to keep up with the changing world has formed the basis of the human resources management system.
The most important tendency of an individual for career development is good job performance. In other words, someone who wants to achieve career advancement has to show good job performance. If the performance is substandard, all kinds of attempts and efforts for career development will result in the individual not reaching their career goals. Individual career development is largely based on performance.
Organizations use performance appraisal and career management to retain valuable employees and to ensure that they are placed in the most appropriate positions. Appraisal serves different individual and organizational needs. In this way, organizations can benefit more from the talents of their employees, minimize turnover, and thus improve the performance of both individuals and the organization.
Performance evaluation identifies an individual’s strengths and weaknesses. This identification is the beginning of a career plan. Career development and performance enhancement plan, prepared in cooperation with employees and managers, is essential for employees to pursue their professional goals and feel emotionally satisfied. The inclusion of training tools (books, seminars, courses, conferences, etc.) that are required by current performance and activities that will help career development will make a great contribution to the individual.