Performing Appraisals

Performance Management offers a tool that enables you to pass corporate goals and strategies down to the employee level by helping you to establish detailed objectives and initiatives, hold performance feedback reviews (appraisals), and, if required, make compensation adjustments.

Normally, objective setting takes place once a year, or for other time periods, when a manager meets with each employee, and they agree on concrete goals and the results the employee should achieve by a specific date. The objectives can be quantitative (measurable) or qualitative.

The following table describes the most important steps in a performance management cycle:

The appraisal process is between the manager and the employee, when objectives are agreed upon, achievement of objectives is reviewed, and the performance appraisal is closed. Different appraisal templates are available in the appraisal catalog, which support different appraisal types, for example, sub appraisals or 360° feedback appraisals.

Customers must configure their own company specific templates to support their own appraisal processes.

The employee’s performance is measured according to the agreed objectives and can be used as a basis for determining the amount of salary elements, for example, a bonus. This is a way of clearly indicating what is expected. Objectives remain at the forefront, and reviews are carried out during the year to ensure that the objectives are still relevant and verify the progress of the employee.

At the end of the cycle, the objectives are evaluated, and corresponding bonus payments or salary adjustments are made. At the same time, objectives are defined for the next period. The circle closes.

Example integration points for appraisals are as follows:

• Organizational Management

  Integration with Organizational Management enables using requirements for the jobs and positions.

• Personnel Development

  Integration with Personnel Development enables requirements profiles to be taken from positions or qualifications from the qualification catalog directly in the employee’s individual objective setting. The qualification profiles of the employees who have been through the appraisal can be updated after the appraisal processes have been completed.

• Enterprise Learning Solution

  Integration with Enterprise Learning Solution proposes courses from the template to appear as mandatory courses in the Learning Portal.

An appraisal process is represented in the appraisal catalog, based on an appraisal category and an appraisal template created for this category. The appraisal template is used for creating appraisal documents. The appraisal templates must be configured in Customizing.

Terminology

An appraisal template has a hierarchical structure. Category Group, Category, Template, Criteria Group, and Criteria represent the hierarchy of templates.

You can display the appraisals in which a person has been involved, either in the role of appraiser or appraisee, from that person's profile. There are three subprofiles for appraisals:

• Open – not finished
• Received – person appraised
• Created – person (usually the Manager) who completed the appraisal

You can also use these subprofiles to create and edit appraisals.