An Office Assistant
The best performance appraisal method for an office assistant would be the trait-focused system. The trait-focused system primarily centers on characteristics such as dependability, helpfulness, and punctuality. Supervisors rate their workers based on specific attributes that the employee exhibits. The appraisal card normally contains ratings denoting excellence, satisfactory performance, or a need for improvement among others. The trait system is mainly applied to professionals that primarily deal with customer services. Berman et al. (2012) noted that the evaluations are based on the supervisor’s bias as many employees tend to end up with satisfactory scores hence limiting its accuracy and reliability. The trait-based system follows a certain fashion that would ensure a comprehensive performance appraisal of an office assistant. In guaranteeing consistency and commonality in use of language and rating, the following terms would be used to classify the employee: outstanding, exceeds expectations, meets expectations, below expectations, and lastly unsatisfactory. The highest rating is “outstanding” which means that the office assistant has a performance that is consistently superior while “unsatisfactory” means that the employee consistently shows work that is unacceptable (Landy, Zedeck, & Cleveland, 2017).
Some of the areas of evaluation in the trait system for an office worker would be on the knowledge of work, communication teamwork, administration, problem-solving, and independent action among others. The performance appraisal could also question their overall conduct, dependability, personal appearance, and punctuality. The next step would be to assess the employee strengths and possible accomplishments that they have achieved in their time with the company. The appraiser will include all relevant achievements during the evaluation process and important to note is that they should be related to the behavioral or performance aspects previously appreciated. The trait system then proceeds to performance areas that require improvement. The appraisal program will then conclude with the plan of action towards the process of improvement, and the employee can be given a chance to present their comments. Some trait system appraisals would also include a section of the job description review section which outlines that the job description has been reviewed and as such there are changes or lack of it thereof made. After the whole procedure, the office assistant would be required to append their signature to mean that they had an opportunity to discuss the review process with the supervisor.
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Nurse
Nursing is a vital healthcare professional here the individual performance of a nurse is critical to the overall success of the healthcare organization. As such, in appraising nurses, the ranking method can be a valuable technique in determining individual nurse’s ability to deliver. It would also give insights on the best and the worst nurses depending on their performance. Daoanis (2012) asserted that it employs the use of scores which are compiled to determine the nurse with the highest score who is ranked first. The scores continually regress until the nurse with the lowest score is determined. Nursing is a performance-based profession where the desirable clinical outcomes act as the result. Therefore, it would be vital to employ the ranking method that enables comparison between and among the nurses. However, critics intimate that this method would lead to unnecessary competitions in the company. In this method, all the information regarding the nurse’s performance in critical areas such as teamwork, dependability, punctuality, responsiveness, and personality traits are collected. The supervisor would then act as a rater whose role would give ratings in each category.
For instance, the supervisor will use a scale of 1-10 with 10 being excellent and 1 poor. The appraisal will then interrogate the nurses in all the set categories with marks being awarded accordingly. After the process is over, all the scores are accumulated, and nurses ranked in order of their rating. Alternatively, nurses can also be rated using the group methods where they are classified into various classes depending on the department they work in. In this case, the ranking will, therefore, be done using rankings, for instance, the surgical nurses become first, followed by pediatric nurses, and so on. Another approach that could be used in ranking employee is the paired comparison. In this scenario, the rated employees will be compared with others on the same scorecard. Therefore, this allows the supervisor to compare the performances of the nurses on a one-on-one basis. Alternatively, after each nurse's rating is determined, a graph could be used as a standard way of ranking the nurses. One side of the graph will have the category of evaluation, and the other side will have a scale of 1-10. Depending on an individual's score, a graph will be plotted which will also help in showing the employee's variation across the various attributes. A key will hence be provided to indicate the nurse under evaluation.
Hospitality Attendant
The best method to appraise a hospitality attendant is by using the essay method. Through this method, both the employers and employees get an opportunity to openly and freely discuss performance because it does not have limitations on employee evaluation (Kondrasuk, 2012). It is thus vital for the evaluating hospitality attended who has an extensive job description. The wide variety of duties that the hospitality attendant can engage in include preparing and serving meals, maintaining hygiene, maintaining cooking equipment, monitoring supplies, among other responsibilities. Therefore, having a limitless evaluation process would require choosing an appraisal method that would extensively cover various aspects at a go. Thus, the essay method would not only be endless but also providing a platform for a comprehensive assessment of the worker's performance. The essay will tend to cover a host of components including knowledge and proficiency, interpersonal communication developmental activities, ethics, and philosophy among others. Because it is a thorough process, it requires time from the perspective of the manager. The process of developing the appraisal essay begins with preparation. In this step, the manager will review certain tenets of the employee including attendance records, past appraisals and evaluations, employee file materials, achievements, commendations, and disciplinary records. The manager will then embark on a process of comparing the previous records with the future ones in a bid to develop a basis for the essay.
The next step that follows is analysis where the manager devotes time to identify the changes in the performance of the employee from one period to the other. Bernardin and Wiatrowski (2013) illustrated that having taken note of the changes and the possible reasons that could have resulted in them; the supervisor has a platform for developing their essay. Important to note is the fact that the performance of the employee can change as a result of the organizational or departmental changes which are outside the control of the worker. The next step is the construction process and what one must acknowledge is that the essay usually takes time to draft. Each essay must address specific and emerging issues, and therefore the manager must remain cognizant of that. It is also vital to note that the manager has the power to write the essay as he deems fit without any restricts of format or length. In the case of a hospitality attendant, the essay can start with their general conduct, discipline, as it progresses to their performance in the various departments they cover. However, one major challenge with this method is that it requires supervisor that are experts in writing essays and most fundamentally, enjoy a good relationship with their employees.
Incentive Pay Programs V. Seniority and Merit Pay Programs
Most managers believe in the redemptive power that comes with rewards which are the principle of the incentive pay programs. Eijkenaar (2013) illustrated that most corporations in the United States employ this strategy with the intention of motivating employees by tying compensation to an index of performance. However, critics have noted that the incentive pay programs are more manipulative when compared to the seniority and merit pay programs. Seniority and merit pay programs are based on longevity and performance respectively. Therefore, one critical difference that remains apparent between these two types of payment is that whereas seniority and merit pay programs are earned through commitment and hard work, the incentive pay programs only influence the worker to fulfill the work at hand. Eijkenaar, (2013) intimated that rewards hardly create a lasting commitment; they only change what the worker can do on a short-term basis. Therefore, they are only responsible for what can be termed as temporary compliance hence putting the company in an awkward situation where merit can only be achieved when incentives are announced.
Rewards have the same effect as punishment. Both depict their similarity due to their punitive effect which causes them to be manipulative. When one fails to receive the incentive they had hoped for, the employee will feel demoralized and less likely to perform. Therefore, this means that the company’s productivity will suffer. In a broader sense, the incentive system manipulates the worker by either to work harder or not to perform to their potential depending on the availability of rewards. On the contrary, the merit or seniority pay programs do not possess a similar manipulative power because they are achieved after a long-term basis and hence cannot easily influence the day to day activities of the worker.
References
Berman, E. M., Bowman, J. S., West, J. P., & Van Wart, M. R. (2012). Human resource management in public service: Paradoxes, processes, and problems . Sage.
Bernardin, H. J., & Wiatrowski, M. (2013). Performance Appraisal. Psychology and Policing , 257 .
Daoanis, L. E. (2012). Performance Appraisal System: It’s Implication to Employee Performance. International Journal of Economics and Management Sciences , 2 (3), 55-62.
Eijkenaar, F. (2013). Key issues in the design of pay for performance programs. The European Journal of Health Economics , 14 (1), 117-131.
Kondrasuk, J. N. (2012). The ideal performance appraisal is a format, not a form. Academy of Strategic Management Journal , 11 (1), 115.
Landy, F., Zedeck, S., & Cleveland, J. (Eds.). (2017). Performance measurement and theory (Vol. 25). Taylor & Francis.
