1. Mutual Trust: The existence of an atmosphere of confidence and trust so that both supervisor and employee may discuss matters frankly and offer suggestions which may be beneficial for the organisation and for an improvement of the employee. An atmosphere of mutual trust and confidence should be created in the organisation before introducing the appraisal system.
2. Clear Objectives: The objectives and uses of performance appraisal should be made clear and specific. The objectives should be relevant, timely and open.
3. Standardisation: Well-defined performance factors and criteria should be developed. These factors as well as appraisal form, procedures and techniques should be standardised. It will help to ensure uniformity and comparison of ratings.
4. Training : Evaluators should be given training in philosophy and techniques of appraisal. They should be provided with knowledge and skills in documenting appraisals, conducting post appraisal interviews, rating errors, etc.
5. Job Relatedness: The evaluators should focus attention on job-related behaviour and performance of employees. The results of performance rather than personality traits should be given due weight.
6. Strength and Weaknesses: The raters should be required to justify their ratings. The supervisor should try to analyse the strength and weaknesses of an employee and advise him on correcting die weakness.
7. Individual Differences: While designing the appraisal system, individual differences in organisations should be recognised. Organisations differ in terms of size, nature, needs and environment. Therefore, the appraisal system should be tailor-made for the particular organisation.
8. Feedback and Participation : Arrangements should be made to communicate the ratings to both the employees and the raters. The employees should actively participate in managing performance and in the ongoing process of evaluation. The superior should play the role of coach and counseller.
9. Post Appraisal Interview: A post-appraisal interview should be arranged so that employees may be supplied with feedback and the organisation may know the difficulties under which employees work, so that their training needs may be discovered.
10. Review and Appeal : A mechanism for review of ratings should be provided. Which particular technique is to be adopted for appraisal should be governed by such factors as the size, financial resources, philosophy‘and objectives of an organisation.
The Commerce Lecturer 