A Peek into the Role of Peer Appraisals

Most appraisals consist of an annual meeting between the manager and the direct report. In recent years, organisations have attempted to enhance the performance management system by incorporating feedback from various sources. One of these is called peer appraisal. Peer appraisal is the assessment of the individual by people working in the same job function and is considered as part of the 360 degree performance appraisal. There is evidence to suggest that peer assessments are more accurate than assessments by solely the managers. How does peer appraisal helps the employee?

Let us take a peek into the role of peer appraisals and why you should consider them.

Before implementing peer appraisals, there are a number of stages involving who takes part in appraising the individual. Firstly, the manager has to determine who will be chosen to assist in the peer appraisal. Managers have to decide which co-workers interact regularly with the employee, colleagues from other departments and possibly customers. This will result in a much broader and inclusive picture of the strengths, weaknesses and the development needs of the employee to be appraised. The manager will choose 2 to 5 people they would like to get feedback from and the employee to be appraised will also suggest a few names that he or she would like to get feedback from.

There are some criteria to consider in selecting participants for the peer assessment. Some questions to ponder include:

1. How long have they known the employee to be appraised?
2. How much contact do they have with the employee to be appraised?
3. Do they understand the full nature of the job role?

It is important to select some people that the employee works well with and some they do not.

After determining the participants of the peer appraisal, the next step would be to ask them for their contributions. The manager would give them a short questionnaire and ask for comments about the employee to be evaluated. Questionnaires should be anonymous as employees may be nervous or unwilling to give comments on their fellow colleagues. Also, to ensure that questionnaires are completed and returned, it is advisable to get the participants to complete the forms in a single session.

Employees may withhold information because they think that it might damage somebody else’s career or their own. Therefore, training before the implementation can help participants see the value of peer appraisal as a learning and development tool and not as a reward or punishment system.

When done correctly, peer appraisal can help to promote recognition of work done. Feedback is not just for the purposes of performance appraisal. When employees are offered a voice to speak up, it develops a culture of communication and opportunities for collaboration. Peers may observe small but significant contributions by their fellow colleagues to daily business routines and thereby bringing about better business outcomes. Recognition drives productivity. According to research, 69 percent of employees would work harder if they felt that their efforts were appreciated.[i] The power of employee recognition should not be undermined as it will produce happier workers and an overall positive work environment.

In addition, peer assessment may help to uncover hidden talents of the individual. People who work closely on a day to day basis are more likely to observe unique skills and capabilities of their peers. For instance, who would have guessed that Freddie working in the finance department could have a talent for organising office parties and celebrations? His skills in coordinating and being detail oriented has led to his department manager volunteering him to be in charge of company events such as dinner and dance.

Furthermore, peer appraisals have the ability to improve on the accuracy of performance ratings. Managers do not always have the time to observe performance on a daily basis, hence peer appraisal helps to provide a more holistic picture of employee performance. Organisations may also use the feedback receive to improve on gaps in the manager-employee relationship. For instance, if an employee receive good ratings from his peers but bad ratings from his manager, this issue needs to be addressed before employees feel disengaged and leave the company.

Overall, peer appraisal is a good way to identify strengths and weaknesses of employees as part of continuous developmental needs in the evolving modern society. It is to be used as part of the 360 degree performance appraisal process to give managers a more balanced perspective of how their employees are faring at work.

 [i] http://blog.socialcast.com/e2sday-the-power-of-recognition-in-the-enterprise/