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Linking appraisals to reward

Sunny

Hi all, curious for your thoughts pls. Joined an org and they'd like to restart their dormant appraisal system. Personally, I feel you should be appraised informally throughout the year. If you have a formal appraisal system it should be tied to a reward. They are keen to have an appraisal system that doesn't tie to bonus/ raise. Thoughts? And thank you, as always.

  • Not if every one else is offering the same.
  • HI Sunny
    I have worked in quite a few organisations and none of the appraisals have been linked to bonus or pay rise. All have focused on development of the employee and looked to see if they were lacking in a skillset and how to correct that.
  • In my last organisation I developed a new appraisal/PM system that allowed variability depending on where someone was at in their career. We identified four stages an employee might be at:
    1. Newly appointed/inexperienced - structured support needed
    2. A year or so's experience, or new to the organisation but not to the role/work, or taken on a new role or responsibility - structured but light touch support
    3. Performing - experienced, knows what they are doing - light touch support
    4. Progressing - ready for promotion or planning retirement

    The idea being that the appraisal format would be guided by the needs of the individual rather than a tick box exercise - and so someone in the first couple of stages might need quarterly meetings and interventions, by the time you got to 'performing' you could have an appraisal timeline that was agreed with the manager and employee of up to 3 years between formal reviews. Similarly when in category 4, they may need more (promotion) or less (retirement) support, but without making an assumption - it would be agreed.

    For all of this, my presumption has been away from appraisal leading to reward - because in my organisation (a school) it's almost impossible to assess outputs fairly - and if you're measuring inputs, then that's really doing the job, for which you're employed. The structure we came up with only works if you decide that appraisal isn't about judging people - it's about supporting and developing them.
  • I think it's disingenuous to say appraisals link to reward as there are so many other factors that determine reward too. Perhaps a spot bonus to reward clear criteria could work although it sets off a whole other convo about unintended consequences.

    On-going feedback and convos about development, adjusting work and careers are more the culture of the day. There's a good CIPD report on good practice on performance that's worth a read.