Employee Appraisals: Why should businesses listen to their employees?

Updated: September 2019

The continual improvement of employees is crucial to the growing of all businesses and it is encompassed within the Competence Training and Awareness element of the ISO 9001 Quality Management System.

A key element which underpins the continual improvement of employees is robust but fair employee appraisals.

What are employee appraisals?

An employee appraisal is the analysis and evaluation of an employee’s performance in relation to the activities included within the duties and responsibilities that they hold within a business.

Taking place between an employee and senior management, it seeks to highlight the activities that have gone well or what can be improved on.

Why does it matter?

When carried out in a fair and honest manner, it can be beneficial to employers by:

• Providing an understanding of the employee’s abilities which can highlight any requirements for additional training.
• Increasing performance to potentially improve employee engagement.
• Recognising issues before they become a concern.

An employee appraisal process can also benefit the employee by:

• Allowing a platform to voice any aspects of their work life, this in turn makes them feel valued.
• Ensures that employees are aware of what is expected of them via set goals and targets.
• Provides reassurance that the employee is doing well and highlights areas for continual improvement.

How to conduct appraisals?

Many organisations carry out staff appraisals, there is almost an art to conducting them effectively.

To conduct an effective employee appraisal, the following must be considered:

1. Ensure that both the senior manager and employee have time to prepare. Equal time must be given to both parties to share thoughts and opinions.
2. Create a structure to ensure that all aspects and elements are discussed.
3. Ensure the appraisal is balanced. Senior management should take the opportunity to acknowledge the good, as well as highlighting the areas for continual improvement.
4. Feedback should not be a surprise. It is not productive to leave any issues to fester until the appraisal date; this should have been addressed prior to the meeting. An effective employee appraisal should form part of a continual process whereby projects, events and issues are analysed.
5. Listen to your employees. The process will not be effective if employees do not feel as though their opinions and thoughts are valued.

How does it relate to the ISO 9001 Quality Management System?

The ISO 9001 Quality Management System covers multiple areas of a business but one of the integral underlying purposes of it is to guarantee a consistent level of quality and satisfaction.

Conducting appraisals of all staff will enable a business to determine the level of competence of each appraise in areas which impact upon customer satisfaction.

Ultimately, people play a vital part of any business and as such a business should work with them to make sure they are able to perform to the best of their ability.

ISO 9001 certification can be achieved by any business of any size, in any given sector, which is looking to increase and enhance business productivity and performance.

For more information regarding the ISO 9001 Quality Management System and/or training, please visit the related page on our website HERE.