Another year, another chance to talk to your boss about how your role should continue. Obviously, this will include a fair appraisal of your work so far, an insightful critique of both strengths and shortcomings and a mutually agreed plan for how to forge ahead to new career successes.
Or at least it should do. In reality many of us see the annual appraisal as a tedious exercise employed by middle management as a transparent sop to employee welfare. So rather than enact genuine change, the process is simply a way for employers to meet HR targets and make a claim for staff well-being.
According to recent research, not only do a third of us think that appraisals are a complete waste of time. But 44% of staff also think that our bosses evade home truths when they make our annual assessment, and 22% think the process is unfair. The research, conducted in the United Kingdom by YouGov, makes a case for employers rethinking their attitude to appraisals — although the organisation denies that ditching them altogether would be a step forward.
But for some experts, the news that the appraisal process is suspected and disliked by staff hardly counts as a revelation.
”It’s not really that surprising that so many staff find appraisals a waste of time,” says John Lees, author of How to Get a Job You Love. ”It’s a bit like being interviewed for your own job, so they make some people very nervous. And a lot of staff find them unproductive because there can be a really confused agenda. In the worst instance there can be two people in the same room with different ideas of what the process should involve.”
But there are also bigger concerns about appraisals. While small businesses are often criticised for being behind on formal appraisal processes, they are also guilty of using them as a makeshift disciplinary procedure. This can be a backdoor way to undermine employee rights.
”There is a problem with some employers using the appraisal process of part of their disciplinary procedure,” says Sarah Veale, of the TUC, the umbrella organisation of UK unions. ”So an employee thinks they’ve had an appraisal and in fact the results are going down somewhere to count as a formal warning. We really would like to see it made clear to employees when something is an actual appraisal and when it is not.”
If you suspect your employer is using the appraisal process as an unfair way to dismiss staff, Veale suggests taking along a colleague or a union rep to maximise the chances of getting an accurate record.
But it is possible to get some real beneÂÂfit from your appraisal. And, according to the experts, it’s before — not during — the appraisal that you should be aiming to do the most work.
”Make sure that both you and you manager know what to expect out of the situation and collate any information you need to put your case across,” says Lees. ”If you can’t do either of these, reschedule.” So if you’re keen to discuss a pay rise, a new role or more flexible hours, make sure your manager knows and go armed with any relevant material to support your case.
And try to make clear to your manager that you’d really prefer honesty to courtesy when it comes to your failings — at least then you can try to overcome them.
”It’s very hard to tell someone they’ve done something badly and most of us would rather duck the issue and focus on the good points,” says Simon Jones of Investors in People. But it is this very tendency that causes staff to view the appraisal with such contempt. ”To be really effective an appraisal has to address both the good and the bad and do the job thoroughly.”
The answer? Rather than using surveys with standard yes-or-no questions, which tend to annoy staff, companies should allow more open-ended answers.
Although, for busy workers, therein lies the rub. Although we may welcome an honest and insightful appraisal, how many of us genuinely want to spend more time filling out questionnaires? Considering the trend for 360-degree appraisals involves collating testimonials including everyone, from your colleagues to the office cat, perhaps the box-ticking approach is not so bad after all. — Â