Formally out of Auntie for less than three weeks, ex-BBC HR Director Lucy Adams says, ah-hum, appraisals don't work.
Speaking at a conference reported by HR Magazine, she opined "We think they are key to identifying the talent of the future and that they will improve productivity and engagement, but the reality is they do none of these things and often achieve the reverse.”
“The words ‘Can I give you some feedback’ have the same affect on the brain as someone running up behind you in a dark alley wearing a hoody,” she said. “I’ve seen journalists who have been on the frontline in Afghanistan quaking in fear at the thought of an appraisal.”
They fail, she says, because staff are terrified of them, they only happen once a year, and managers are bad at them; feedback needs to be immediate, rather than annual.
One commenter on the article offers some immediate feedback: From personal experience in four large UK organisations I agree with Lucy Adams. However, I can't fight the feeling that her conversion comes at a time when she finds herself with more opportunities to work on the conference circuit. Organisers please form an orderly queue.
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While I agree with Lucy Adams about immediate feedback, I agree even more with the "one commenter" who sees through her flim-flam.
ReplyDeleteI remember many, many years ago when annual appraisals were introduced by the company I worked for in the North Sea. My reply to the Personnel Director (they had not yet discovered HR) was, "Please take the trouble to ready my daily logbook of what is happening on the platform. All personnel under me are fully appraised in such daily reports as and when necessary. If *you* are not reading them, who else is not?"
They did not ask me again, but there again I did not last too much longer with that company.
p.s. One of the very most effective and instant appraisals I ever heard also took place on same said oil platform. A man who was trying to excuse his mistakes through all sorts of "get-out" clauses (which did not apply) was suddenly asked by the Toolpusher:
ReplyDelete"Excuse me, are your eyes brown?"
The nonplussed culprit squealed, "Huh? Whaddya mean?"
The Texan Toolpusher replied, as he raised his hand to mid-brow,
"'Cos you're full up to here with sh*t!"