correction question 13: When developing a PMS, managers need to choose.......

The 4 various options or features of design available when developing a Performance Management System are:

Management by Objective – It is an option of design where objectives as from corporate level cascaded down to each division and then to departments and finally to employees. It seeks to judge the performance of employees based on their success in achieving the objectives they have established through consultation with their superiors. Performance Improvement under MBO focus on the goals to be achieved by employees rather than the activities they perform or the traits they exhibit in connection with their assigned duties.

Rating Scales – here each trait of characteristic to be rated is represented by a scale on which a rater indicates the degree to which an employee possesses that trait or characteristic.
Global Rating – While a rating scale with several relevant dimensions is preferable, many organisations simply use a single rating of overall job performance, for example, appraising and employee’s total performance as ‘average’. Such a rating commonly referred to as global rating, is useful for making some HRM decisions, such as those concerning salary increases or promotions.

Behaviourably Anchored Rating Schale (BARS) is a feature of developing PMS by placing descriptions of behaviour along a scale. These descriptions permit the rater to identify the point where a particular employee should be rated on the scale. The BARS consist of 5 to 10 vertical scales, one for each important dimensions of job performance anchored by the incidents judged to be critical. A critical incident occurs when employee behaviour results in unusual success or unusual failure in some part of the job.

correction question 9: how can performance management system be improved?

Performance Management System is one that is normally designed to strengthen good relationship between supervisors and employees in order to attain the organisation goals and objectives. However, the road to success is not always smooth and easy; improvements should be regularly reviewed so as to achieve to an effective performance management system. When this happens there is a need to have a look at the system and set up some guidelines that may help the organisation in improving the system. Several guidelines that follow should help to develop an improved performance management system:

The appraisal system is recommended to be a continual ongoing evaluation process to achieve organisational success. By brainstorming or making audits staff and supervisors can developed their concerns and problems that exist within the performance management system and find effective solutions to these problems. Hence, with feedback from different perspectives, they will re-evaluate performance scopes and find effective solutions that can be implemented.
By implementing a thorough Performance Management System review process this will help in establishing and maintaining a successful performance-based culture in the organisation. One of the duties of HR practitioners and managers should be to make the process of performance review effective and efficient. However, this can be true only if proven best practices are established and implemented within the organisation.

Another crucial option in improving performance management system is by atomizing it. Organisations should opt for a more technology based Performance Management System rather than a paper base one as it is often difficult to maintain, and records can be unavailable after a period of time. By upgrading the system to a technology base one it will prioritise appraisals and monitoring of same will be done continually. It will be cheaper, faster and effective as all evaluations, analysis and feedback will be given rapidly. Hence, all manual work will be reduced as well as staff resources and the organisation will be able to provide a structured and effective planning and monitoring process.

It is clear that with the On-line Performance Management System, collection and performance data process will definitely be more reliable and managers can have access to any information anytime. They will have the opportunity to use, analyse all data productively by identifying if there is any competency or skill gap within the organisation, by tracking the impact of employee training and development or performance strategies and last but not least by assessing employee rating distributions within the company so that fair objective rewards practices are followed. Also on-line Performance Management can provide a good anonymous feedback initiative where positive and negative feedback can be collected without any fear of reprisal.

Finally, to meet best practices in Performance Management System, organizations need to continually develop opportunities to make plans for improvement.

Correction: question 2

The performance indicators and the position descriptors should be up to date for the performance appraisal to be effective because this will have an impact on the company and on the employees. Up to date and accurate performance appraisals should be available because an employee’ performance and positive feedback will depend mostly on the performance appraisal. If ever the employee’s performance has not been good enough during the year, then training may be provided to the employee so that he can give his best at work and show his potentials. It is therefore very important to have up to date information on the employee’s performance in order for the company to know what measures should be taken while evaluating the employee’s performance that is whether to give the employee promotion prospects because of good performance at work and hard work or whether to give training and coaching to the employee to improve his performance at work and to make the employee become multi skilled in the job process.

Moreover it will help companies to keep record about their employees’ performances and if in case grievances arise at work because of an employee, it will be easier to take immediate actions referring to his performance appraisals.Furthermore, the up to date information will help the company to decide about how much salary should be given to employees depending on their performances at work, whether to increase their salary by looking at their performance appraisal or whether to make the employee do more training in order to meet up the company’s goals and expectations in order to increase the company’s efficiency and at the same time to make the employee become more professional at work. Otherwise grievances may crop up if position descriptions and performance indicators are not up to date, this may therefore have an adverse effect on the company’s efficiency and lead to poor performance at work. There may be unfair discrimination as well because employees who merit being promoted will not be promoted if their performance appraisals have not been up to date and employees who have recently been irresponsible at work may get promotion prospects based on their previous performances, this will therefore prove to be very crucial for the future prospects of the company and may lead to grievances and great confusion in the company.

correction for question 4: why is accurate and complete doc.........

The performance appraisal documentation should be accurate and complete in order to avoid rating errors because this can have an impact on the job holder and the company may also lose the right person for the job if documentation is not accurate and complete. Moreover documentation is necessary when decisions concerning discipline or dismiss might need to be taken; therefore there should be evidence behind the action taken. Therefore the documentation will act as a proof and it will be easier to demonstrate that every decision taken is being done fairly, thus it is necessary to have it complete and accurate.

The performance appraisal documentation helps to reduce the possibility of many rating errors. Good documentation is important in justifying evaluations and resultant administrative decisions. Effective documentation should therefore be accurate, specific, consistent, and factual. It should be in a written form and be provided to employees. Hence Documentation should be updated regularly, focus on evidence and adjusted as needed throughout an employee's career because it helps in giving effective, ongoing feedback, and is essential for conducting annual performance reviews