Performance Appraisal - Human Resources Interview Questions & Answers

What are the objectives of performance appraisal system?

The main objectives of a performance appraisal system are:

i.) To increases the employee effectiveness by helping them understand their role better.

ii.) To help the employees understand their strengths and weakness in the current role.

iii.) To help the managers in identifying the training needs of their sub-ordinates.

iv.) To improve the relationship between the line manager and his team members by making them realize that they are dependent on each other for better performance.

v.) To help the line mangers and their team members in improving the communication by discussing the problem in achieving the targets and finding the potential solutions.

vi.) To provide the employee an opportunity for self evaluation and self development which are important to achieve the goals.

vii.) To prepare the employees for higher roles.

viii.) To create a positive work atmosphere.

ix.) To collect the information about each employee through personal meeting which is useful in making managerial decisions.

Why do performance appraisal systems fail?

Many a times the performance appraisal system tries to assess the personality traits of its employees through their line manager. There are two types of problems in this:

a.) The employees do not open up as they do not want any negative personality trait to be recorded in official records.
b.) The line managers are not fully trained and capable of assessing the personality traits of employees.

What are the important components of a performance appraisal system format?

The important components of a comprehensive performance appraisal system format are:

i.) Identification of KPIs and target setting – periodically through a discussion between the employee and his line manger

ii.) Identification of personal qualities required for the current and higher roles and developing them

iii.) Self appraisal – by the appraisee

iv.) Identification of factors which have helped and hindered in achieving the set goals.

v.) Discussion about the performance and counselling of the appraisee by the appraiser

vi.) Identification of training needs for current and higher role.

vii.) Setting up the goals and plan of action

viii.) Assessment by the superior – training and development needs, any rewards or punishments.

What are KPIs?

KPI – Key performance indices, as the name suggests is a list of parameters against which the performance of an employee is measured. These indices are usually quantifiable in nature.

What are major criteria to assess the performance of employees?

The major criteria to assess the performance of employees are:

i.) Job Knowledge
ii.) Planning
iii.) Ability to organise and utilize resources
iv.) Communication skills
v.) Relationship with superiors, peers, subordinates & associates
vi.) Ability to make decisions
vii.) Winning instinct – Can do attitude
viii.) Team working capabilities

How is appraisal system used as a tool to chalk out employee's career progression?

- Performance appraisal system assesses the candidate’s performance in various areas.
- It also helps in identifying the training needs of an employee
- The line manager gets an idea about the area of interest of the candidate in which he wants to grow, his ability to take more responsibilities etc.

All these put together help in chalking out the employee’s career progression in the organization.

How does appraisal help in counselling interview?

The purpose of the counselling interview conducted by the line manager is to help his subordinate in objectively analyzing his performance. The information collected through the performance appraisal form and interview helps the manager in conducting this counselling interview.

It helps the employee in:

i.) Understanding himself.
ii.) Improving his behaviour which helps his professional and interpersonal competence.
iii.) Setting future goals and formulating an action plan.
iv.) Finding out the alternatives to deal with problems.

Explain:
a.) 180 degree performance appraisal system.
b.) 360 degree performance appraisal system.

a.) 180 degree performance appraisal system.

- It is single-tier appraisal and feedback system.
- Candidate performs the self appraisal separately
- His line manager performs the appraisal separately
- They hold an appraisal meeting to discuss their reviews and agree on the ratings in various areas.
- This is followed by identifying the training and development needs and an action plan to improve the performance.

b.) 360 degree performance appraisal system.

- It is a multi-rater appraisal and feedback system.
- The individual is assessed by a number of people – superiors, subordinates, peers, customers etc.
- The assessment is performed on a specially designed questionnaire which measures behaviours critical for the performance in the role.
- The appraisal is performed anonymously by various people
- The assessments are consolidated and shared with the candidate.

What can you aim to achieve through 360 degree performance appraisal system?

We can aim to achieve the following through 360 degree performance appraisal system:

i.) Information about the strengths and weaknesses of an employee in a particular role
ii.) Identification of training and development needs to perform better in the current role and prepare for the higher role.
iii.) Collect data as an objective basis for rewards and other decisions
iv.) Basis for performance based pay or awards
v.) Aligning individual and organizational goals

What are the pre-requisites of a 360 degree appraisal system?

The main pre-requisites of a 360 degree appraisal system are:

i.) Commitment from the top management to continuously develop the competencies of the employees
ii.) Proper implementation of various HR systems
iii.) Willingness of the management to let the employees learn from each other and their own mistakes.
iv.) Willingness of the management to spend time in providing feedback to their sub-ordinates
v.) Willingness of the management to accept the feedback from their sub-ordinates and peers.
vi.) Not too many status barriers and ego issues
vii.) Openness of the people to accept feedback and use it for development
viii.) Feedback is not used for political advantage
ix.) Emphasis on teamwork in the organization
x.) HR department is highly credible
xi.) High degree of process orientation in the organization
xii.) High value to the values in the organization
xiii.) Emphasis on building competencies

What are the main phases of a 360 degree appraisal system?

Following are the main phases of a 360 degree appraisal system:

i.) Orientation – Information about the importance and details of the process is passed on to the participants.
Ii.) Questionnaire distribution
iii.) Monitoring and follow up
iv.) Data feeding and report generation
v.) Conducting the workshop
vi.) Counselling of employees

What do you know about following appraisal systems?

a.) Graphic Rating Scales

- This method is also called as linear rating scales or simple rating scales method
- Judgement about the performance are recorded on a scale
- The appraisers are given the forms which carries the various criteria on which the employees are to be rated
- It is a simple and quick method, which makes it popular

b.) Ranking method

- The employees are rated from best to worst on some characteristics
- The rater chooses the best and the worst employees from a group and rates them.
-He then chooses the second best and worst set and goes on
- The reliability and validity of this method is under doubt as it may suffer from rater’s bias, fluctuating performances or varying standards.

c.) Paired comparison method

- Under this method each employee is rated against all the members in the group.
- It could be fairly applied where the number of employees are less.
- This method is time consuming.
- The performance is compared to other employees rather than specific job criteria

d.) Forced distribution method

- This method is developed to prevent the raters from rating too high or too low.
- In this method, the raters are required to spread their employee evaluations in a prescribed distribution.
- It eliminates central tendency and leniency biases.
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Training interview questions & answers for freshers & experienced candidates in HR department. Questions on making training effective, Training vs Learning vs Development, Training models, methods, CBT etc. Useful for university exams, internship, job & placement interview, PSU exams, lecturers. Question bank with sample answers & examples for positions like HR generalist, HR Manager, HR executive, HR specialists etc.
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Discussion Board
HR Performance Appraisal
1. What are the objectives of performance appraisal system?
2. Why do performance appraisal systems fail?
3.What are the important components of an performance appraisal system format?
4. What is the role of assessors in performance appraisal system?
5. What are KPIs?
6. What are major criteria to assess the performance of employees?
7. How is appraisal system used as a tool to chalk out employee's career progression?
8. How does appraisal help in conselling interview?
9. What is your experience with working of the appraisal system?
10. What are the latest employee evalution trends?
12.How you assess suitablity of the employees in their respective job roles?
13. How do relationships and management styles affect the perfomance appraisal system?
14. Explain:
a.) 180 degree peformance appraisal system.
b.) 360 degree peformance appraisal system.
15. What can you aim to achieve through 360 degree performance appraisal system?
16. What are the pre-requisites of a 360 degree appraisal system?
17. What are the main phases of a 360 degree appraisal system?

18. What do you know about following appraisal systems?
a.) Graphic Rating Scales
b.) Ranking method
c.) Paired comparison method
d.) Forced distribution method
e.) Check List methods
f.) Critical incident method
g.) Essay or Free Form Appraisal
h.) Group appraisal
i.) Confidential reports

19. Explain following methods of performance appraisal:
a.) BARS
b.) Assessment Centre
c.) Human Resource Accounting
d.) MBO
e.) Psychological Appraisal

20. What are the advantages of modern methods of appraisal over traditional methods of appraisal?
HR Performance Appraisal 02-3-2012
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plz send me the human resource management interview quetions in mba, as soon as possible
ravivarma 01-3-2012