Corporate executives want their organisations to test their mettle by giving them tough challenges to handle. They also want better opportunities at the workplace, says a Shine.com survey. Nearly 64% of employees surveyed cited this as their primary expectation.
While 21% of employees said that their key expectation from appraisals is a promotion, only 16% said it is money. “Today, organisations across sectors are getting more and more competitive and constantly evolving. In order to be successful in this scenario, employees need to routinely upgrade their skill sets and domain knowledge,” says Akangsha Mehta, a career counsellor based in Gurgaon.
“The average employee is not afraid of challenges and wants to be in a role where he/she can demonstrate ability. Therefore, any roadblocks at work – be it a technology handicap, an uncordial relationship with a colleague or an unclear work mandate – is viewed as a serious issue. Needless to say, these issues are getting pronounced during appraisals,” explains Mehta. Interestingly, a majority of employees surveyed feel that HR managers need to be a part of the employee’s performance review meeting.
Nearly 73% of the surveyed employees feel that this is necessary as only then can HR identify relevant areas for training. Around 60% of respondents also felt that appraisal forms need to incorporate a section whereby one’s colleagues can give feedback and review. “The ability for teamwork is a major imperative to professional success. Also, protocols and hierarchies are fast blurring and becoming a thing of the past. In this context it helps to know what your colleagues think about you both as a team player and a professional,” she explains. However, 40% categorically state that peer review cannot be objective,”says Mehta.
Around 46% of respondents described the appraisal session with their manager as interactive. Nearly 38% felt that the review session was largely selfled in terms of highlighting challenges, achievements and expectations. Only about 15% felt that the session was dominated by their manager. One-third of the 251 employees surveyed said that goal setting was a major outcome of the session. While nearly 30% respondents said that feedback on past/current performance was the highlight of the session, about 31% said that their review manager gave feedback in terms of their overall professional image.
On the question of relevance, nearly 95% of respondents felt that their appraisal form was structured well. Only about 4% of respondents said that their appraisal form had no relevance to their area of work. So how does the top management across organisations in India Inc view the annual appraisal cycle? The survey revealed that a sizeable majority of people in India Inc believe that the percentage of increment (for individual employees) is predetermined by the top management team on the basis of overall financial health of the organisation and has nothing to do with actual performance.
While over 40% categorically stated this, 52% of respondents said that only the star performers get their due in terms of increments. “What this means is that the management predetermines a certain percentage of pay-hike for high, average and low performers. The exceptional performers are the only ones who might merit a scale of increment that is unprecedented,” observes Mehta. Ironically, although most of the respondents felt that increments are pre-decided, nearly half of the respondents felt that a good appraisal always translates to a good pay hike.
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