Performance appraisals - who is responsible?
Performance appraisals are mostly dreaded, both by employees and line managers. As a manager or supervisor, you need to tell an employee what you think of his/her work performance. Ii is often when one is preparing for the performance discussion that you realise that the job description and what the employee is actually doing, are two different things. Or even worse, that you did not realise what effort actually goes into the job to reach the set goals. That is because we very often only review the end result, and give little or scant attention to what is required in terms of input to complete different tasks. Tasks vary in terms of importance, urgency and complexity. Therefore, make sure that you and your employee are on the same page when it comes to performance evaluation, and that you have the same broad picture in mind. If not, you will be discussing outcomes, but not inputs or processes that makes it possible (or impossible) for the employee to reach their objectives.
As an employee, you nee to be vigilant - keep your supervisor informed of what you are busy with. If necessary, copy him/her in emails when you need information from colleagues to complete a task, since that is often where your time and effort is going - following up on tasks delegated to colleagues on the same level as you are, can be time consuming and a teeth-gritting experience.