typing jobs at home

Since the last class of PA, everyone has been very busy in the preparation of projects, presentations and most importantly final. During this time, there has been hardly any significant contribution towards blog due to obvious reasons, however, Gulnaz has been able to spare her time and make a few valuable contributions. My advice for everyone would be to read the Blogs recently posted… good job Gulnaz!!!

She has rightly commented about the success or ??? of this learning journey of ours. We can’t deny the importance of Performance Appraisal in the progress and growth of any organisation and its employees. Right from the beginning we have been learning the flaws of the system in depth; thereby been put on track so that we always bear in mind the negativity of the system. While either appraising our subordinates or being appraised by our superiors, we can cater/ counter its negative effects.

Gulnaz’s recent contribution of key learning has also come up at the right time just before final exams, which might give us a queue while solving our paper.

Here are some more key learning from me about the performance appraisal:

Why Performance Appraisals Are Important?

Success of any organization depends on the performance its employees; The employees are only able to perform to the best of their abilities if they have clearly defined goals and adequate feedback system in place. Performance Appraisals are essential tools to perform these tasks and offer a formal and official way to:

• Recognize accomplishments.
• Guide employee progress.
• Improve performance.

How effective performance appraisals can be conducted?

Good managers keep following factors in mind while conducting performance appraisals of their subordinates:
• Identify developmental needs
• Provide coaching & encouragement
• Establish clear expectations
• Accurately appraise strengths and weaknesses
• Provide timely feedback
• Continually ask employees what they need in order to do their work better
• Communicate regularly about their career goals
• Give people responsibility
• Recognize achievement and make rewards count

Best of Luck

She has rightly commented about the success or ??? of this learning journey of ours. We can’t deny the importance of Performance Appraisal in the progress and growth of any organisation and its employees. Right from the beginning we have been learning the flaws of the system in depth thereby putting us on track so that we always bear in mind the negativity of the system. While either appraising our subordinates or being appraised by our superiors, we can cater/ counter its negative effects.

Gulnaz’s recent contribution of key learning has also come up at the right time just before final exams, which might give us a queue while solving our paper.

Here are some more key learning about performance appraisal:

Why Performance Appraisals Are Important?
Success of any organization depends on the performance its employees; The employees are only able to perform to the best of their abilities if they have clearly defined goals and adequate feedback system in place. Performance Appraisals are essential tools to perform these tasks and offer a formal and official way to:
• Recognize accomplishments.
• Guide employee progress.
• Improve performance.

How effective performance appraisals can be conducted?

Good managers keep following factors in mind while conducting performance appraisals of their subordinates:
• Identify developmental needs
• Provide coaching & encouragement
• Establish clear expectations
• Accurately appraise strengths and weaknesses
• Provide timely feedback
• Continually ask employees what they need in order to do their work better
• Communicate regularly about their career goals
• Give people responsibility
• Recognize achievement and make rewards count

Regards

Tabassum

I want to share some of the key learnings of Performance Appraisal (I recall now) which I will always remember 

• Giving feedback in a well-articulated manner is what makes you stand out among the rest. (My Teacher, Mr. Wali Zahid)

• Consider you are the manager having 5 employees working under you, if you don’t have 5 hours at year’s end to appraise those 5 assets then very sorry to say that YOU DON’T DESERVE THEM. (By Samia from Sidhaat Haider, HR consultancy firm)

• For many employees, an “official” appraisal interview may be the only time they get to have exclusive, uninterrupted access to their supervisor since in the rush and bustle of daily working life, it offers a rare chance for a supervisor and subordinate to have “time out” for a one-on-one discussion of important work issues.

• Human itself acts as a subject in the whole PA system so you just CAN’T take out this element of subjectivity from Performance appraisal System. So like it or not, it is going to be there  (By Samia from Sidhaat Haider, HR consultancy firm)

• Employees feel dissatisfied and miserable during Performance Appraisals because they don’t DO their Homework through out the year. They need to record their achievements and success on a daily basis so that they can prove themselves at the right time to the right person on a right platform. (By Sadia from GSK)

• It is human nature not to want to bring up our own faults; but it is also human nature to prefer to point out our own shortcomings, rather than having someone else do it. Hence Performance appraisal should be a responsibility of both the appraiser and the appraisee (Gregorio Billikopf – University of California, Cultivating Personnel Productivity)

Gulnaz

I want to share some of the key learnings of Performance Appraisal (I recall now) which I will always remember 

o Giving feedback in a well-articulated manner is what makes you stand out among the rest. (My Teacher, Mr. Wali Zahid)

o Consider you are the manager having 5 employees working under you, if you don’t have 5 hours at year’s end to appraise those 5 assets then very sorry to say that YOU DON’T DESERVE THEM. (By Samia from Sidhaat Haider, HR consultancy firm)

o For many employees, an “official” appraisal interview may be the only time they get to have exclusive, uninterrupted access to their supervisor since in the rush and bustle of daily working life, it offers a rare chance for a supervisor and subordinate to have “time out” for a one-on-one discussion of important work issues.

o Human itself acts as a subject in the whole PA system so you just CAN’T take out this element of subjectivity from Performance appraisal System. So like it or not, it is going to be there  (By Samia from Sidhaat Haider, HR consultancy firm)

o Employees feel dissatisfied and miserable during Performance Appraisals because they don’t DO their Homework through out the year. They need to record their achievements and success on a daily basis so that they can prove themselves at the right time to the right person on a right platform. (By Sadia from GSK)

o It is human nature not to want to bring up our own faults; but it is also human nature to prefer to point out our own shortcomings, rather than having someone else do it. Hence Performance appraisal should be a responsibility of both the appraiser and the appraisee (Gregorio Billikopf – University of California, Cultivating Personnel Productivity)

Gulnaz Merchant

I think performance appraisal works best when the employees feel worthwhile and important in an organization. For this, both the managers and the employees should work together as a team but most importantly it is the Manager who can make Performance Appraisal System a success or a complete failure. I have highlighted 10 things which a manager needs to work on, in order to make PA work at its best.

1. The deepest craving of human beings is to be needed, to feel important and to be appreciated. Give it to them and they will return it to you.
2. An executive succeeds or fails not so much because of what he does, but because of what he is able to get someone else to do.
3. Criticism dispensed in small doses rather than large ones is a lot easier on a person’s ego and is far more productive.
4. Condemn action, not people.
5. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely.
6. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
7. Become genuinely interested in his employees.
8. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
9. Smile – really works wonders  (Just an FYI, it takes 72 muscles to frown and only 14 to SMILE )
10. Develop a sense of responsibility in your employees and keep them well informed.

God! Please grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.
Gulnaz Merchant

An idea that is not dangerous is not worthy of being called an idea at all.
— Oscar Wilde
Given our increased focus on PA course and our rejoicing/claim of our newly discovered uniqueness of PA course/class, we need to make sure we don’t forget this. We learnt by drilling in knowledge rather than stimulating imagination about human performance. As student I have always rebelled against rote learning whether presently during SZABIST or before in PAF/NUST, and that attitude helped make me the type of writer I am. Likewise, our success will be determined not just by how well we hold seminar or present nicely our so-called projects, write fake reports professionally and follow the deadlines set by our CR at his convenience but by how well we promote/reward imagination and creativity.
I am slow in learning how to convince the people. That combined with a cheeky rebelliousness toward authority, have always lead my teachers/instructors to grade me low or threaten me with F Grade and some amused me by declaring that I would never amount to much. These traits some time make me the patron saint of distracted person/student everywhere. Nevertheless it always helps me with my expression especially in my writing.
My cocky contempt for authority leads me to question received wisdom. And as for my poor convincing style, lead me to think and observe with wonder the everyday phenomena that others takes for granted. I always tried to explain to my course fellows that performance and appraisals thoughts produced and cherished by us in class are not unique and clearly wrong because at the end it is not an iota different from those available in books/net. I always tried to explain that human performance is full of wonders, and we should try to picture the underlying reality of human/employee performance in global culture and environment of the organization. How would such thoughts manifest in real business world? I still wonder, how to show, my business dreams and world imagination, to those, who are fully overwhelmed by West and their culture/civilization’s dazzling charm for whole of their life? A genius is one who shoots at something no one else can see, and hits it.
My impudence and lack of deference to authority so far alienated all of my teachers who claimed to unique and some how it also includes our beloved Wali Zahid. As a result, I will be the only one in his PA course who will not PASS. However I always avoid challenging the authority or norms set by teachers (and their CR) who think that their courses are typical and do not proclaim to be unique. But it was really impossible for me in PA Class since we were supposed to cherish and value the uniqueness of the course. But lest you feel sorry for me, this attitude allowed me to do thought-experiments and encouraged me to be skeptical about conventional wisdom, unlike the well-heeled acolytes in our class.
Among my thought-experiments, one of the adventures was my Project, in which I was trying to tell about human being and their performance considering organizational culture as global issue not local. It will be a simple insight to events that appears to each one of us, every day. I have rebelliousness, a willingness not to conform and I tried to discard the notions so far about performance, which had been a sacred tenet of all our discussion during our class.
“Long live impudence,” Einstein proclaimed as a young man. “It’s my guardian angel in the world.” If we’re going to succeed, we have to be careful to nurture and reward the imagination — even the impudence, violating deadline and rebelliousness against norms — that is the wellspring of any genius and his creativity.
Like my all previous teachers, Sir Wali Zahid is really uncomfortable and he feels pity about me however I know at his heart he wants to help me and my projects fellow. However he is helpless due to his grading criterion which he considers highly objective while highly subjective according to some. His ratings/labels have directed attention away from the original work and creativity toward the defense of what is meant ‘good’ or ‘great’ by Wali Zahid. His ratings are the source of negativity in class (Blog Comments) and will be host of bad memories in future also. In Olympic sports, athletic are judged by a panel of experts. It is an amazing thing that the best judges in the world all look at the same person at the same time and make different rating/grading. Therefore claim of Sir Wali Zahid about his grading criterion as absolute and objective vary, based on who is observing. Our work in class is a human phenomenon and it is not as absolute and quantitative as it may appear to Sir Wali. What is measured is not always what is rated—Many instruments designed by Sir Wali do not reflect the actual content of the efforts and quality of the individual student.

Nothing pains people more than having to think.
— Martin Luther King, Jr.
Many great ideas have been lost because the people who had them couldn’t handle being laughed at. I alone have dared to discard the notion of his absolute objective criterion, which had been a sacred tenet of our class. Since my efforts and creativity will not help therefore he has promised me a Grade if whole class pleads my case. With these words my case is open for comments for all those who want to help me. Sir Wali has assured that all brave souls that their grades will not affected by their bravery and courage for truth.
Don’t just do something, stand there.
— Daniel Berrigan,
Syed Fida Marvat
If I look wired and confused it’s because I think.
— Samuel Goldwyn

1. Ratings are past oriented—The goals of performance management are to maintain good performance, correct current performance, and improve future performance.

2. What is measured is not always what is rated—Many instruments are designed with seven to ten indices that do not reflect the actual content of the position or the expertise of the individual employee.

3. Describing and measuring what is “good” is often difficult to define within the constraints of an appraisal form. What is considered “good” varies greatly.

4. Supervisors do not always keep accurate records of performance, and therefore generalize good and bad performance. Most appraisals use a sample of performance, highlighting the major events and problem events, but ignoring consistent, positive performance over time.

5. Rater biases are well documented. There are almost a dozen known phenomena that prove supervisors tend to rate employees inaccurately because of subconscious tendencies.

6. Ratings are commonly based upon the supervisor’s assessment alone. Employees have information that the supervisor does not and are present one hundred percent of the time. Therefore, employees need input into the performance management process.

7. Ratings are often inflated conflict avoidance or encouragement for poor performers is among the many reasons why ratings are inflated.

8. Raters may rate some higher or lower than others for the same performance. What is “good” not only varies by who is rating the performance, but also by the employee being rated.

9. Misuse of the idea that nobody is perfect. Managers feel an obligation to rate some employees lower so that it appears that they are properly supervising by identifying areas of improvement, even when it is not warranted.

10. Not all work activities that are important are found on ratings scales.

11. Different jobs often require different rating scales.

12. Rating scales sometimes do not include behavioral factors, which are often as important as performance indices

There is one thing which I would like to share with you all that even though we didn’t come up with an alternative model of PA but it doesn’t mean that we FAILED. We learnt the flaws in the system, we learnt what causes it to fail, we learnt the mistakes on both the management and employees side and most importantly we have learnt to pursue a good alternative without choosing a few bad ones… so guys, we are almost there. There is a famous quote: “SUCCESS isn’t the opposite of failure. A runner may come in last, but if he beats his record, he succeeds.” We have definitely taken a step ahead so we are on the path of Success aren’t we ???

I wish you all the best of luck.
May Allah grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.

Gulnaz Merchant