Impact of Performance Appraisal on Employee Engagement in the post appraisal Period

Performance appraisal (PA) is the systematic evaluation of an employee with respect to his or her performance and related behaviours on the job. The entire appraisal process is an integral part of human resource planning and management, which helps to strengthen the employee productivity towards the growth of any organization.

Though it is an important tool for effectively managing the workforce in an organization, the impact of PA can be either positive or negative. Even sometimes the objective of appraisal system is having no link to strategic or operational outcomes.Positive PA helps to motivate employees, foster to build up a good management-employee model (Pulakos, 2009), develop a psychological capital, a higher-order construct that can promote employee engagement (Sweetman&Luthans, 2010) and of course mature the insights of justice and trust with Manager during post appraisal period. The positive feedback helps to clarify expectations, issues with their managers, keep individuals value, stimulate energy and generate a strong workforce for achieving the goal. It can improve organizationaldecisions including reward allocation, promotions, layoffs and transfers. If found less ability in individual, then training will be a definite solution and can improve further. At the other end, impact of PA can be a challenge and critical aspect of organizational effectiveness during post appraisal period.It enhances the risk factors for the managers and organization. When not done well, post appraisal period creates a stressful environment for everyone involved and bias can replace organizational standards.Also, from a survey it has been suggested that performance appraisal, if effectively applied, will help to create and sustain high levels of employee engagement, which leads to higher levels of performance (Mone and London, 2010).

It can be concluded that PA could be wasting of time, if not well managed and can be well judged during post appraisal period. Hence PA should be an opportunity not only to assess employee performance but also the degree to which employee exhibit engagement behaviour in the performance of their work (e.g., persistence, initiative, role expansion, and adaptability) without impeding organization’s productivity and alignment.

References

Mone, E. M., & London, M. (2010). Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers. New York: Routledge.

Pulakos, E. D. (2009). Performance management: A new approach for driving business results. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.

Sweetman, D., &Luthans, F. (2010). The power of positive psychology: Psychological capital and work engagement. In A. B. Bakker & M. P. Leiter (Eds.), Workengagement: A handbook of essential theory and research (pp. 54−68). Hove, East Sussex: Psychology Press.