It is the time of the year again when I had to undergo the appraisal for my KPI objective for last year.
I just completed mine recently and it was a fairly straightforward process. No politics, no suggestion and no comments. Sign-off and get done with.
The yearly appraisal is not a stranger to most working employees out there. Every year at around the same time, every employees are required to undergo this routine session where the manager has a one to one chat with us regarding our performance that determine our bonus.
I previously blogged about the importance of having a curvebell system in the workplace which you can view here (link here). I believe this applies to every companies operating on a strained budget given the competitive environment we have out there. My company was no different. Most people will get a successful performance score in the middle of the bellcurve which makes up the majority. Then there will be fewer people which falls under better or worse, depending on how strict they did the bellcurve.
I have not been a fan of the appraisal system. I feel like they are important yet somehow feels like they are a waste of time, especially for appraising support staff like HR or Finance. I feel like the right way for appraising a support staff should be based on the overall company performance since there are literally no individual objective to aim for. Unlike an employee who is working for sales for example, a finance staff does not has the incentive to do anything more than what they are supposed to do. If it is a tax season, he or she will do whatever they had to do and comply. If it is during a financial year closing period, they will do the same as timely and accurately as possible. That is it. If I am a little free on that day, I will just keep quiet and do my own stuff. I finish what I was tasked to do and I go home and did my part as a father and husband.
This may sound like a roundabout way by avoiding doing things that I don't like but I guess that is how most corporation would operate. Since both the employee and employer accept that such particular instances might occur, it's just labor work in return of a salary. After all, that is precisely what the bellcurve is all about. If everyone is performing above expectation which does not translate into increasing the bottomline, it's pretty much useless to begin with. This is just cycle of a corporate life.
What about you? Are you a fan of the appraisal or bell-curve system?
