Performance Appraisal Systems

There are a number of different types of performance appraisal systems being utilized by different types of employers in the marketplace. The type of system ultimately selected by a given employer depends largely on the organizational culture and its human resource management philosophy.

The alternative types of performance appraisal systems found in the marketplace include:

• Narrative Description Review - A system which requires the development of written essays on individual employee performance regarding a number of defined functional areas.
• Critical Incidents - A system which requires written documentation of employee job performance and achievements as they occur.
• Ranking - A system which requires that the supervisor formally rank or slot employees within his/her department from the most effective job performer to the least effective one.
• Checklists - A system which requires that the supervisor evaluates the performance of each employee based on a list of normative position factors, which may or may not be tailored to the given position.
• Rating Scale - A system which requires that the supervisor evaluate each employee’s job performance based on one or more job-related factors which have numerical ratings attached to a scale of descriptive statements
• Competency-Based/Goal-Setting - A system which represents a documented articulation of predetermined competencies and goals and the degree to which the goals were attained.
• Multisource Assessment - A people-based pay system using multisource assessment from the knowledge network that surrounds each employee to include the supervisor, colleagues, direct reports, and internal/external clients.