Performance appraisal of the team is an
integral part of Management. Moral and Expectation of your team depends on the
feedback provided by you and how effectively you conveyed it. Some Managers do
Performance appraisal just at the end of the year as a part of the
organisational process. However, Performance appraisal is an ongoing process
and it should be organised throughout the year. At the end of Performance
appraisal, Managers provide Rating, Band, and Grade based on the performance of
reviewee. It also impacts the salary of the reviewee. Sometimes reviewee
provides false information and data to gain undue advantages in Performance
appraisal, in such scenario Managers need to take utmost care during evaluation
and decision making.
Some of the parameters of giving
constructive feedback
Be Useful – Your feedback should be related
to the work area of the reviewee. Reviewee can connect it to the day to day
activities and take advantage of your feedback. Your feedback can also be
useful for a future scenario.
Be Constructive – The ultimate aim of
appraisal is the improvement of individuals. While providing feedback, limit
yourself to work and work related areas. For example, good communication skill
is also essential for software developer apart from his/her good coding skills.
So you should provide feedback on Coding skills as well as communication
skills. Try to provide feedback in a
face to face discussion but if this is not possible then convey it through telephonic
conversation.
Be Specific – Always provide your feedback
Exact, Precise, Detailed, Definite and Unambiguous. For example, if you are
giving feedback to Solution Architect, this should be relevant to his work.
Feedback to the Test engineer should be different from the feedback given to
the Software developer. Try to provide examples from real-life work scenarios
in your feedback.
Be Polite – You can first ask reviewee to
do his/her self-assessment. You should convey your reviewee that these
feedbacks are for his/her benefit in the long run. We keep changing Projects
and Organisations, but the improvement after the feedbacks are permanent and
useful for the reviewee throughout his/her life. Be fair and honest, but also
humble at the same time.
Be Efficient – Include all the aspects of performance
in your feedback. Some of these aspects from the Software industry for example
are: Timeliness, Quality of work, Productivity, New Ideas and Value, Designing
and Programming, Communication, Information Security, Technology Management,
Technical Documentation, Quality Process Management, Industry/Vertical
Expertise, Trouble Shooting and Debugging, Software Requirement Management and
Expertise Acquisition.
Few Points for Consideration
·
Always keep a record of all the
communication with reviewee w.r.t Performance appraisal
·
Always provide Rating and Grade
based on the supporting data and don't take any decision upon emotion and
judgement. In the case of escalation, this will help you
·
Always associate examples from
the real scenario in your feedback
·
If adequate data is not
available to support your decisions, then you can first ask reviewee to do the
self-assessment and gain supporting data from him/her. You can take decisions
according to this supporting data
·
Always follow organisational
guidelines while providing Rating and Grade
·
Keep yourself away with all the
discrimination while providing Rating and Grade like Age, Gender, Religion and
Political orientation. Be fair and honest
·
Respect organisational timeline
for the closure of Performance appraisal
·
It's advisable to communicate
with your seniors and keep him/her in the loop while taking decisions on Rating
and Grade
Below are some examples of providing
constructive feedback to the team members segregated in Strengths and Areas of Improvement.
These examples are taken from any Software Development Team.
Strengths
·
You are always ready to provide
your active support to the team
·
You have demonstrated full
control of functional and testing aspects of the application
·
You have built a good rapport
with the customer and the team; they look up to you for any solution
·
You actively participate and
contribute to meetings and improvement discussions w.r.t. team and project
·
You have demonstrated an
ability to lead and motivate the team
·
You are hardworking and help
the team to take them out of the problematic situation
·
You provide an active
contribution to the timely delivery of projects
·
You have Good communication
skills
·
You are always Energetic and
Charged
·
You are adaptable and a quick
learner. Sitecore was new for you, but after the assignment of tasks you have
quickly learnt it and implemented it in the project scenario
Areas of Improvement
·
As a senior member of the team,
your experience can help us improve in many other aspects of the project and
not just the work assigned to you. Practising "Self Initiatives" can
help you to grow.
·
You should be more prompt in
taking up new challenges by being more enthusiastic towards work
·
We work in a fast-paced,
high-pressure environment hence you should improve your pressure handling
skills for better performance
·
You can improve your work
handling capability by an effective delegation of your work
·
As an efficient team lead you
can organise sessions on QA best practices and test automation to empower your
team members
·
As a very senior member of the
team, everybody looks up to you. You can be an inspiration to the team by
demonstrating discipline and professionalism and set a positive example for the
team.
·
As an efficient Solution
Architect, you can organise sessions on Sitecore best practices and share the
latest enhancements in IT to empower your team members
·
You should do technical
analysis of the Incidents, RCA, identify the problem areas and provide
permanent solutions to it
·
Acquire more depth knowledge of
Sitecore and latest technology trend in the industry so your dependency on
senior team member will reduce
·
You can Improve your
Documentation skills and contribute to the development of Knowledge bank
·
You can work on improving your
communication skills
No performance appraisal is complete
without agreed actions for next year or cycle. Always provide clear and concise
actions for next year. Here are a few examples from any Software development
team
Agreed actions for next year
·
Improvement in Oral and Writing
Communication Skills
·
Improvement in Sitecore and
latest technology trends
·
Acquire functional knowledge of
Applications
·
Deliver knowledge sharing
session on Technical and Functional topics and latest trends in the industry
·
Regular documentation of your
work and contribute to the development of Knowledge bank
·
Implementation of Test
Automation and other latest technology trends
·
Improve work handling
capability by the delegation of work
·
Analysis of Incident data with
technical aspects
·
Suggest architectural
improvements in the application
Thus, to improve the performance and
efficiency of your team, Managers must be able to analyse and pen down the
functional areas and appreciative areas of each team member. Providing
appropriate and valid feedback is not only beneficial for managers but also
helps the reviewees to improve themselves and enhance their overall
performance.
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