15 Common Appraisal Mistakes That Managers Make

Completing a performance appraisal is one of the most difficult tasks assigned to managers. The following points summarize a few of the common errors made by managers as they conduct evaluations.

1. The Halo Effect. Allowing one highly favorable (or unfavorable) employee behavior or characteristic to affect judgment about the entire appraisal ignores other employee strengths and weaknesses, creating a "halo."
2. Bias Or Prejudice. We all have our biases. However, allowing personal biases or prejudices to influence the appraisal process can make evaluations unfair and inconsistent. Know your biases.
3. Not Knowing Employees. Unfortunately, many supervisors don't really know their employees or the quality of their work. Such evaluations aren't credible.
4. Overemphasis On Isolated Events. A particularly recent or significant event may skew overall judgment of an employee. Take informal notes about employees (both good and bad things) throughout the year to ensure your evaluation is based on the entire appraisal period - not just what happened last week.
5. Lenient Or Inflated Appraisals. It's difficult for most managers to give employees poor ratings. However, not doing it simply avoids the problem and doesn't give the employee the opportunity to correct it. It's also awfully difficult to later discipline or terminate an employee whose appraisals have always been good. It opens up risks of discrimination charges.
6. Appraisal Of Potential Worth. When managing a new or inexperienced employee make sure you rate him on actual job performance, not on what he might become. Evaluate the employee based on current results and action. You can use comments to address his potential.
7. Postponing Or Skipping The Appraisal. Delays create the wrong impression. Employees begin to perceive that neither they nor the appraisals are important.
8. Poor Preparation. "Seat of the pants" meetings rarely produce effective results. It quickly becomes apparent that the appraiser is not well prepared. The employee may assume the manager does not know what is going on or that she simply doesn't care enough to prepare.
9. Using The Evaluation As Corrective Action. The appraisal meeting should not be a disciplinary session. Inappropriate behavior must be dealt with when first observed. Discipline and discussion of performance/goals don't work well together. Corrective action should have been addressed earlier. The evaluation is a time to discuss strengths and weaknesses, perhaps assessing how an employee has done in correcting past behavior. However, it isn't the place to raise new disciplinary actions.
10. Overemphasizing Good Performance. Praise and positive reinforcement are terrific. However, compliments quickly become meaningless if they aren't specific and substantive. They can also give an employee the false impression that you are completely pleased with everything he does. Be honest and direct.
11. Not Following Through. Most of the time and effort spent in planning for and conducting an effective interview is lost if you don't follow through with the actions/plans discussed in the evaluation. Performance management should be a daily (not annual) activity.
12. Avoiding The Tough Issues. Employee problems rarely correct themselves. Nearly everyone is uncomfortable raising sensitive issues or criticizing others. However, unless the tough issues are addressed they inevitably get worse, the manager loses credibility, and the employee may not ever know there is a problem.
13. Evaluating Attitude. While we all are forced to deal with employees' attitudes (positive and negative) attitudes are basically impossible to evaluate and even harder to change. Focus on results and objective, observable actions. They're easier to complete and much more readily justified.
14. Accepting Excuses. There may be legitimate reasons why an employee has been unable to complete assigned goals. However, don't immediately accept excuses for poor performance. Often they're simply not valid. If they are appropriate then a solution and action plan should be developed to avoid such problems in the future.
15. Ignoring Employee Feedback. Asking employees for input only to ignore their comments can be very damaging. It makes evaluation meetings much less effective, and communicates to employees that while their ideas may be asked for they're not listened to or acted upon.