Performance Appraisal

After employee selection, performance appraisal is arguably the most important management tool a farm employer has at her disposal. The performance appraisal, when properly carried out, can help to fine tune and reward the performance of present employees. In this chapter we (1) discuss the purpose for the performance appraisal, (2) introduce the negotiated performance appraisal approach, and (3) talk about the steps to achieving a worthwhile traditional performance appraisal.

Strengths of the negotiated performance appraisal are its ability to promote candid two-way communication between the supervisor and the person being appraised and to help the latter take more responsibility for improving performance. In contrast, in the traditional performance appraisal, the supervisor acts more as a judge of employee performance than as a coach. By so doing, unfortunately, the focus is on blame rather than on helping the employee assume responsibility for improvement.

Does that mean that the traditional performance appraisal approach should be discarded? Not at all. Experts in the field have often suggested that the performance appraisal should not be tied to decisions about pay raises. When appraisals are tied to pay raises, they argue, employees are more defensive and less open to change. So how should pay raise decisions be made, then, if not through the performance appraisal? I would suggest that the traditional performance appraisal can still play a critical role in management and is ideal for making pay raise decisions.