HR Concepts for the day : What is Essay Appraisal?

Essay Appraisal is an approach in which the appraiser is asked to present a written statement that describes the subordinate in detail. This could include describing strengths and weaknesses of the employee with supporting anecdotal evidence. The appraisal could further provide the employee with feedback to help him/her improve their performance in the future and also guide them to take the right course of action with respect to their career.

The essay appraisal can be written by the appraiser alone or sometimes in collaboration with the subordinate. Many times essay appraisals are used to complement other objective appraisals. Furthermore in contrast to the name, an essay appraisal does not need to be long, it can be written in a few lines. An example would be a school report card that had marks/grades and also a few comments from teachers.

An advantage of this method is that it is not as restricting as other objective methods and hence has the scope to provide personalized constructive feedback. In addition this process is more flexible hence allowing the manager to focus on whatever he/she believes truly reflects the performance of the employee.

However, essay appraisal is a time consuming process especially if the manager has a large span of control. Furthermore it is very difficult to compare employees and to provide justification for promotion decisions. Essay appraisals are also more demanding of the appraisers especially if they are not comfortable with writing.

Have a great HR day :)

Shared by - Maneesh MS, +Maneesh Muralidharanpillai  Sr. Executive HR, Appollo Tyres Limited.

HR Concept for the Day - Organizational Socialization

Organizational socialization often called employee onboarding is defined as a learning and adjustment process that enables an individual to assume an organizational role that fits both organizational and individual needs. It is a dynamic process that occurs when an individual assumes a new or changing role within an organization.

This socialization happens in three stages

a. Pre-arrival Stage - this stage happen during the time of  selection process. The candidate comes to know about organization as a whole and the set of organizational values, attitudes, and expectations of organization as communicated by person in charge of selection.  This help candidate to anticipate about the organization.

b. Encounter Stage is the part of the stages of socialization where a person joins or enters an organization. Individuals discover how well their expectations match realities within the organization. This occurs after the pre-arrival stage and before the metamorphosis stage. Because of encounter stage, and how well a new employee adjusts, it determines the productivity, commitment and turnover of an employee.

Socialization is a process of adaptation that takes place when an individuals or a person tries or attempts to learn the value and norms of work roles, and bonding with colleagues and managers. if expectations and anticipations at pre-arrival stage was more or less accurate with reality, socialization becomes easy. Else moved on to the third stage

c. Metamorphosis Stage: Finally stage where new member must workout any problems discovered during the encounter stage. Here change happens. The new employee internalizes the norms and culture of company. Metamorphosis stage is complete only when he feels comfortable with work environment, work teams and managers.successful metamorphosis have positive effect on a new employees productivity and the employee’s commitment to the organization

Have a great HR day. 

Shared by - Maneesh MS, Sr. Executive HR, Appollo Tyres Ltd.