One task that time and again gets pushed to the bottom of most every manager’s To Do list is conducting employee appraisals. Of the appraisals that do take place, many fall far short of their objective which is to motivate employees.

If you or your managers are performing appraisals for the mere sake of complying with company policy, you’re not doing your employees or your business any good. If you’re failing to conduct appraisals altogether, that leaves the door wide open for problems down the road. And think about this. Not providing employees with the feedback they need and deserve may be the reason employee turnover is so high!

Maybe it’s time to sit down and rethink the reasons why an employee appraisal is such an important motivating force.

Employers don’t think like employees

From an employee’s perspective, appraisals often mean an increase in pay provided the employee is performing as or better than expected. The employee comes on board with the promise of an appraisal after 3 months, perhaps again after 6 months and then at the end of the first year. After that, appraisals typically occur once per annum.

New hires looking to impress will be absolutely gung-ho during their first few months of employment. Knowing that performance is going to be scrutinized during that time, most give 110%. They do all they can and even take on more. If an appraisal doesn’t take place at the end of that period as promised the employee can’t help but wonder why his or her efforts aren’t being noticed.

Maybe you or your manager skipped the appraisal because too many other things were going on and there wasn’t enough time. But employees don’t know that. They think management doesn’t care or that their work isn’t up to par. It’s not long before fear of dismissal starts to set in. No one knows with certainty what employees think but chances are they’re negative thoughts, not positive ones.

Employee negativity is a huge de-motivator!

One missed appraisal is bad enough but repeat this mistake at each required interval with each of your employees and it’s a recipe for disaster.

If word gets out that you’re not interested in providing employee feedback and salary increases don’t happen as promised, guess what happens? Employees won’t have reason to put in any effort, let alone any extra effort. Soon enough even your best employees will start producing substandard work. What’s worse, many will start looking for employment elsewhere.

As employees leave, you’re left to fill vacancies. Without enough employees to do the job, overall productivity suffers. Whether you fill vacancies yourself or pay recruitment fees and let someone else handle the task, it’s a hit against your organisation’s bottom line.

HR software helps accomplish this task

Your organisation can’t afford these types of consequences so why let them happen? With the right tools employee appraisals don’t have to be such a bother. HR software gives you the templates, the scheduling tools and the reminders you need to make sure every employee appraisal happens when it should.

With templates available to use as a guide you need not ever wonder whether the appraisals are accurate or fair. Using HR software to help with your appraisals ensures consistency among employees and that’s so important whether you’re making positive or negative comments about employees’ quality and quantity of work.

And best of all, once appraisals are finished and stored as part of your HR software, you’ll have the documentation needed to support all your management decisions.

HR software and you – now that’s the way to tackle employee apprais

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