Question

A large organization (over 1,000 employees) has problems with rating inflation. Performance appraisal ratings are skewed to the high side instead of representing a normal bell curve of distribution. Narratives on performance appraisals frequently do not align with the ratings. As HR Manager for this firm, how can I address this problem to restore a normal distribution of ratings and appropriate narrative to support those ratings? What would the training look like and how can I make employees see it as fair?

Answer 1

Companies also have problems with inflated performance ratings because of the evaluations are seen as time consuming, excessively subjective, a cause of stress, demotivating and, it’s been argued, detrimental to mental health. We have also seen that managers sometimes have problems with the performance rating and thus provide rating inflation which means the rating are tend to show higher statistics as compared to the real life scenario or picture depicted by the employees. It is a major issue as the figure is wrong and narrative on performance appraisal frequently do not align with the ratings. Ratings are given higher as compared to the subjective narrative analysis. Thus, A HR has to solve this issue in a manner where the employee understand the situation and see it as fair. To restore the normal distribution , I would take such actions as follows:

1. Being a HR manager, I would establish an equal performance pay for all the employees where the pay would be effectively decided on the basis of the performance. For that, I would recommend a employee database management system to be installed in the system for all the employees that would keep an effective record for every employees' data. The database would proactively collect the actual hours worked, standard allocated and thus would determine the ratings and appraisal by itself without any biased base. The system would also show the no. of hours the employee worked, the rate of hours he worked, and thus any extra bonus allowances or other are allowed for him or not for his effective learning and earning.

2. This human resource management system is an actively used system which would engaged anyone and thus would remove all the problems of rating inflation and deflation where the narrative analysis don't match the ratings.

3. This system would be considered fair by employees and employees and would also make the organisation more effective and efficient in work. Seeing a systematic analysis for the work being recorded, controlling and directing could also be ensured for the same.