Nicola Shaw is the HR Manager at BDO in Belfast (the fifth largest accountancy network in the world). She has agreed to write a regular HR diary column for Legal-Island’s HR email service that reflects her experiences in the job. Feel free to enter the debate and let us know your concerns, thoughts or successes in your HR role. Today’s article poses the question:

Is There Merit in Self-Appraisals?
As HR Professionals, we are all committed to the principle of an effective performance management system. This was borne out at last week’s HR Conference, when several discussions were based around this very topic. For that reason and given BDO Northern Ireland is in the middle of its end-year performance review timetable, it is a topic currently high on my radar.

My thinking for why an effective performance management system is essential is briefly as follows:

* A mechanism for providing timely and relevant feedback of performance against agreed objectives
* Agreeing performance improvement goals and associated review milestones
* Motivating employees to deliver excellent performance in line with business requirements and personal career development aspirations

Depending on your organisation, the performance review scores may also feed through to the salary review process.
Within BDO as part of our established performance management process, self appraisals are also completed by all employees. These happen at the beginning of the interim and end-year review processes and essentially lead off the process. Whilst we rolled out our new Career Development Framework in October 2009, the principle of completing self-appraisals did not change, so as part of the performance review process it isn’t new and people should be familiar with it.

I am therefore asking myself how we can improve the current engagement with, and commitment to, completing this aspect of the appraisal process, given that some people are reluctant to complete one. We are now over one week past the deadline for returns and about 25% of my colleagues have still to return their self appraisal. Some of these people have been to see me and explained about work deadlines impacting on their ability to complete it, whilst others have “ostrich” syndrome and if I don’t mention it, they definitely won’t!

Do any of you have the same issues?
Personally, I can empathise with people as I agree that the self-appraisal can be difficult to complete, as we don’t very often take time out to recognise our achievements and development areas. However, I absolutely see the value-add of self-appraisals in the performance management process:

* It helps me to recognise the contribution I have made to the Firm and to look objectively at what I would like to achieve in the upcoming period
* It provides the perfect vehicle to sell ourselves to our management team, making them aware of our value add, and potential areas where we think we can add further value
* An effective management planning tool

As a Manager, I think the self-appraisal is essential in informing me on how my team perceive they have done during the year. This enables me to prepare in advance for the performance review meeting and make sure my feedback is pitched appropriately. For example, if someone has undersold their contribution, I know the review process will be straightforward as they will be appreciating the positive feedback I provide and leave feeling motivated and committed to continuing their good performance. Similarly, when someone has oversold themselves, it provides valuable insight to me, and allows me to ensure that I plan sufficiently for the meeting, with plenty of examples to hand to support the statements I am making. It also means I can prepare for providing objective and constructive feedback with realistic development activities that will enable the individual to enhance their skills and perform more effectively in the future.

* Why therefore is it so difficult to get buy-in from everyone?
* Why are some people so bad at focusing on themselves and taking time to consider their contribution to the Firm?