Performance Appraisal – IntroductionA performance appraisal, employee appraisal, performance review, or (career) development discussion is a method by which the job performance of an employee is evaluated (generally in terms of quality, quantity, cost, and time) typically by the corresponding manager or supervisor. A performance appraisal is a part of guiding and managing career development. It is the process of obtaining, analyzing, and recording information about the relative worth of an employee to the organization. Performance appraisal is an analysis of an employee's recent successes and failures, personal strengths and weaknesses, and suitability for promotion or further training. It is also the judgement of an employee's performance in a job based on considerations other than productivity alone.

People differ in their abilities and their aptitudes. There is always some difference between the quality and quantity of the same work on the same job being done by two different people.Performance appraisals of Employees are necessary to understand each employee’s abilities, competencies and relative merit and worth for the organization. Performance appraisal rates the employees in terms of their performance. 

Performance appraisals are widely used in the society. The history of performance appraisal can be dated back to the 20th century and then to the second world war when the merit rating was used for the first time. An employer evaluating their employees is a very old concept. Performance appraisals are an indispensable part of performance measurement.

Performance appraisal is necessary to measure the performance of the employees and the organization to check the progress towards the desired goals and aims. 

The latest mantra being followed by organizations across the world being – "get paid according to what you contribute" – the focus of the organizations is turning to performance management and specifically to individual performance. Performance appraisal helps to rate the performance of the employees and evaluate their contribution towards the organizational goals. If the process of performance appraisals is formal and properly structured, it helps the employees to clearly understand their roles and responsibilities and give direction to the individual’s performance. It helps to align the individual performances with the organizational goals and also review their performance.

Performance appraisal takes into account the past performance of the employees and

focuses on the improvement of the future performance of the employees. Here at naukrihub, we attempt to provide an insight into the concept of performance appraisal, the methods and approaches of performance appraisal, sample performance appraisal forms and the appraisal softwares available etc. An attempt has been made to study the current global trends in performance appraisal. Performance Appraisal – A Brief Concept

Setting goals for the appraisal system Developing criteria for successful performance Creating metrics for evaluating performance Selecting reviewees and reviewers Considering the timing of feedback Organizing logistics for the report and meeting Giving candid and constructive feedback Following up to ensure that the system works

Why we need Performance Appraisal?

Performance Appraisal is an objective system to judge the ability of an individual employee to perform his tasks. A good performance appraisal system should focus on the individual and his development, besides helping him to achieve the desired performance. This means that while the results are important the organization should also examine and prepare its human capital to achieve this result. This holds true even for new inductees.

There is a strong linkage between induction, training and appraisal. In a large number of firms worldwide, a new recruit is expected to discuss his schedule of work in achieving his induction objective. This schedule of work becomes a part of his job for the next few months.

Objectives of Appraisal

Almost all organizations practice performance appraisal in one form or another to achieve certain objectives. These objectives may vary from organization to organization or even within the same organization from time to time. It has been found that there are two primary objectives behind the use of this methodology. One is to use it as an evaluation system and second, to use it as a feedback system.

The aim of the evaluation system is to identify the performance gap. This means that it helps determine the gap between the actual performance of the employee and that required or desired by the organization.

The aim of the feedback system is to inform the employee about the quality of his work or performance. This is an interactive process by which the employee can also speak about his problems to his superior.

An effective performance appraisal system should emphasis individual objectives, organizational objectives and also mutual objectives. From the viewpoint of individual objective the performance appraisal should talk about

a) What task the individual is expected to do?b) How well the individual has done the task?c) How can his performance be further improved?d) His reward for doing well.

From the organizational view point a performance appraisal should generate manpower information, improve efficiency and effectiveness serve as a mechanism of control and provide a rational compensation structure. In short the appraisal system establishes and upholds the principle of accountability in the absence of which organization failure is the only possible outcome.

Finally, talking about mutual goals, the emphasis is on growth and development, harmony, effectiveness and profitability.

Methods of Performance Appraisal

1. The Critical Incident FileThe Critical Incident File is a performance appraisal method in which the manger writes down positive and negative performance behavior of employees during their employement period.this file is a form of documentation.

2. The Rating ScalesThe Rating Scale is a form on which the manager simply checks off the employee's level of performance. The possible eveluated areas include quantity of work, quality of work, dependability, judgment, attitude, cooperation and initiative.

3. Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS)BARS is a method combining rating and critical incidents. Is is more objective and accurate. Rather than having excellant, good, average. the form has several statements that describe the employee's performance, from which the manager selects the one that best describes the employee's performance for that task. 

4. RankingRanking method is used to evaluate employee performance from bets to worst. Under this method, the manager compare an employee to another employee, rather than comparing each one to a standard measurement. A predetermined percentage of employees are placed in performance categories for e.g excellent-5%,good-10%, average-15%.

5. Management By Objectives (MBO)MBO is a process in which managers and their employees jointly set objectives for the employee, periodically evaluate the performance, and reward according to the result

6. The Narrative MethodThis method requires the manger to write a statement about the employee's performance. Managers may be allowed to write whatever they want, or they may be required to answer   questions  about employee's performanceIn order to achieve the objectives, a variety of performance appraisal methods have been developed. The choice of method depends on organizational ethos, its objectives, size, product and technology.

Description

The most traditional method is the Confidential Report method where the supervisor makes an evaluation of his subordinate on the basis of certain characteristics like loyalty, intelligence, conduct, character etc. In some other methods like Graphic Rating scale and the Ranking Methods though the process is simple it is plagued with subjectivity. In the Critical Incidents method a balance sheet of on-job-behavior for each employee is generated which can then be used at the end of the year to see how well the employee has performed.

In 1961 Peter Drucker popularized the Management by Objectives (MbO) method. In this method the subordinate in consultation with the supervisor chalks out short term objectives followed by specific actions that he has to carry out. The goals are finally set and are action oriented. The goals set should be specific, measurable, achievable, review able and time bound and most importantly it should be aligned with the goal of the organization. At the end of a specified time period, the activities are jointly reviewed by both the subordinate and his supervisor. Depending on the performance of the subordinate, the goals are modified or redesigned for the next period of time.

The MbO is thus a performance oriented system. A well thought out MbO system provides multiple benefits. It establishes a link between the performance of the individual and the organization. It is easy to implement because those who carry out the plan also participates in setting it up. Each employee becomes aware of the task he has to perform. This leads to better utilization of capacity and talent. It promotes better communication and information sharing. It provides guidelines for self evaluation as well as evaluation by the superior against set tasks and goals. It facilitates guidance and counseling.

But most organizations engage in a retrospective performance appraisal. In this process some objectives that were agreed upon in the beginning of the year are dragged out and the appraisee and the manager discuss and debate about how well each of these objectives was achieved.

This procedure has many flaws. It does not address the basic human needs in the motivation process. Feedback should be as immediate as possible, it should focus on actual things and the individual involved should be given the opportunity to correct his behavior. But the traditional procedure is too late. It is difficult to remember events a month old let alone events that had occurred over ten months ago.

Performance Management and Performance Appraisal

Many people mistake performance appraisal for performance management. Actually, performance management is a much bigger system, and is much more valuable to managers and companies (and employees) than performance appraisal. The essential components or parts of an effective performance management system include:

Performance Planning (includes employee goal setting / objective setting) Ongoing Performance Communication

Data Gathering, Observation and Documentation Performance Appraisal Meetings Performance Diagnosis and Coaching

Performance Management is an ongoing process of measuring and adjusting performance continually focusing on behaviors throughout the year. It is a continuous process not an event. It is not the same as performance appraisal, which is an assessment of the employee’s performance by both the employee and his superior jointly, with the purpose of allocating a score that may be used for both development and salary or promotion purposes.

Performance Management includes Performance Appraisal as one of its elements. Performance Management should became part of day to day workplace behavior. Some organizations have adopted an online Performance Management system. Going online with performance management puts ownership of the process in the hands of the individual as opposed to the traditional manager driven system. It allows direct communication between the individual and the manager via online journals at times convenient to both. It links performance with the individual’s learning and development plans and also to the organizational goals, values and competencies.

In fact performance appraisal is the least important component of a performance management system. To quote Robert Bacal ‘If all you do is appraisal -- if you don't do planning and have ongoing communication, collect data, and diagnose problems, you are wasting your time.’ In fact it's even worse than that. If all you do is performance appraisal, you will almost be guaranteed that morale will suffer, performance problems will increase, and the manager's job will become much harder.

Process

ESTABLISHING PERFORMANCE STANDARDS

The first step in the process of performance appraisal is the setting up of the standards which will be used to as the base to compare the actual performance of the employees. This step requires setting the criteria to judge the performance of the employees as successful or unsuccessful and the degrees of their contribution to the organizational goals and objectives. The standards set should be clear, easily understandable and in measurable terms. In case the performance of the employee cannot be measured, great care should be taken to describe the standards.

COMMUNICATING THE STANDARDS

Once set, it is the responsibility of the management to communicate the standards to all the employees of the organization.The employees should be informed and the standards should be clearly explained to the. This will help them to understand their roles and to know what exactly is expected from them. The standards should also be communicated to the appraisers or the evaluators and if required, the standards can also be modified at this stage itself according to the relevant feedback from the employees or the evaluators. 

MEASURING THE ACTUAL PERFORMANCE

The most difficult part of the Performance appraisal process is measuring the actual performance of the employees that is the work done by the employees during the specified period of time. It is a continuous process which involves monitoring the performance throughout the year. This stage requires the careful selection of the appropriate techniques of measurement, taking care that personal bias does not affect the outcome of the process and providing assistance rather than interfering in an employees work.

COMPARING THE ACTUAL WITH THE DESIRED PERFORMANCE

The actual performance is compared with the desired or the standard performance. The comparison tells the deviations in the performance of the employees from the standards set. The result can show the actual performance being more than the desired performance or, the actual performance being less than the desired performance depicting a negative deviation in the organizational performance. It includes recalling, evaluating and analysis of data related to the employees’ performance.

DISCUSSING RESULTS

The result of the appraisal is communicated and discussed with the employees on one-to-one basis. The focus of this discussion is on communication and listening. The results, the problems and the possible solutions are discussed with the aim of problem solving and reaching consensus. The feedback should be given with a positive attitude as this can have an effect on the employees’ future performance. The purpose of the meeting should be to solve the problems faced and motivate the employees to perform better.

DECISION MAKING

The last step of the process is to take decisions which can be taken either to improve the performance of the employees, take the required corrective actions, or the related HR decisions like rewards, promotions, demotions, transfers etc. 

Critical Criteria of Developing a PA System

In order for performance appraisal information to be useful, the PA system must be able to consistently produce reliable and valid results. Measurement items in the performance appraisal system must be designed in such a way that the results of rating are consistent regardless of the raters and the timing of the assessment.

Another critical criterion in developing a PA system is the validity of the measurements. It is important to make sure that the appraisal items are really measuring the intended performance or target behavior. If they are not, the PA system encourages the wrong kind of work behaviors and produces unintended, frequently negative, organizational outcomes. For instance, if the number of traffic violation tickets issued is an item in performance appraisal of police officers, it encourages them to sit on a corner of a street and pull over as many violators as possible during heavy traffic hours. The true purpose of a police force, which is public safety, may become secondary to issuing a large number of tickets for many officers.

What to Evaluate

The first important step in developing a PA system is to determine which aspects of performance to evaluate. The most frequently used appraisal criteria are traits, behaviors, and task outcomes.

Traits. Many employees are assessed according to their traits, such as personality, aptitudes, attitudes, skills, and abilities. Traits are relatively easy to assess once a rater gets to know ratees. But traits are not always directly related to job per formance. Trait-based assessment lacks validity and thus frequently raises legal questions.

Behaviors. For many jobs, performance is so broadly defined or so conceptual in nature— such as ensuring public safety in the police de partment—that it is hard to come up with reliable performance measures. In such cases, desirable behaviors can be identified and assessed in the belief that such behaviors lead to successful performance. Such behavior-focused assessment encourages employees to adopt desirable behavioral patterns in the workplace.

Task outcomes. When information about task outcomes is readily available, it is the most appropriate factor to use in evaluating performance. When an organization has a clear and measurable goal as in the case of a sales force, this approach is recommended. However, it has its own pitfalls. There is a problem if employee behaviors are not directly related to the task out-come. Too narrow a focus on measuring out-come only sometimes results in unintended negative consequences. When sales staff narrowly focus on target sales figures to increase their performance measure, for example, they are encouraged to help a few large-volume customers and to ignore many smaller buyers. This may result in poor customer service on the floor.

Who Evaluates?

The most common raters of performance are employees' immediate supervisors, who are usually in the best position to know and observe the employees' job performance. They are also responsible for employees' work. Their evaluation is a powerful tool in motivating employees to achieve successful and timely completion of tasks. However, as a result of working together over a long time with the same employees, the immediate supervisor may build up a fixed impression about each employee and use it every time he or she has to evaluate performance.

Some companies find that subordinates are in an excellent position to observe and evaluate their managers' performance, especially when it comes to measuring effective management of their department. While there is merit in asking subordinates to evaluate how they are managed, such evaluation may turn into a popularity contest. Accurate and objective assessment may not be obtained if employees are fearful of possible retaliation from their supervisors. Anonymity of the evaluators is key to the successful use of subordinates for objective evaluation.

Other raters who are frequently used in some companies include peers, customers, and the employees themselves. Peer evaluation is particularly useful when teamwork and collegiality are important to successful task performance. Peer pressure is sometimes a powerful motivator in encouraging teamwork among members. Customer satisfaction is vital to a company's success and can be used in performance appraisal. Many companies systematically collect performance information from customers, typically through anonymous surveys and interviews. Self-assessment is also a useful means, especially when the performance appraisal is intended to identify the training and development needs of potential employees.

Each of these raters contributes to assessing certain aspects of performance. Since job performance is multidimensional in nature, it is important to use different raters or a

combination of multiple raters depending on the goal of a performance appraisal system. This multirater evaluation, or so-called 360-degree feedback system, is becoming increasingly popular among many American corporations, including General Electric, AT&T, Warner Lambert, and Mobil Oil.

Pre-requisites of Effective and Successful Performance Appraisal

The essentials of an effective performance system are as follows:

Documentation – means continuous noting and documenting the performance. It also helps the evaluators to give a proof and the basis of their ratings.

Standards / Goals – the standards set should be clear, easy to understand, achievable, motivating, time bound and measurable.

Practical and simple format - The appraisal format should be simple, clear, fair and objective. Long and complicated formats are time consuming, difficult to understand, and do not elicit much useful information

Evaluation technique – An appropriate evaluation technique should be selected; the appraisal system should be performance based and uniform. The criteria for evaluation should be based on observable and measurable characteristics of the behavior of the employee.

Communication – Communication is an indispensable part of the Performance appraisalprocess. The desired behavior or the expected results should be communicated to the employees as well as the evaluators. Communication also plays an important role in the review or feedback meeting. Open communication system motivates the employees to actively participate in the appraisal process.

Feedback – The purpose of the feedback should be developmental rather than judgmental. To maintain its utility, timely feedback should be

provided to the employees and the manner of giving feedback should be such that it should have a motivating effect on the employees’ future performance.

Personal Bias – Interpersonal relationships can influence the evaluation and the decisions in the performance appraisal process. Therefore, the evaluators should be trained to carry out the processes of appraisals without personal bias and effectively

Are Performance Appraisal Beneficial and Appropriate ?It is sometimes fashionable in the 'modern age' to dismiss traditional processes such as performance appraisals as being irrelevant or unhelpful. Be very wary however if considering removing appraisals from your own organisational practices. It is likely that the critics of the appraisal process are the people who can't conduct them very well. It's a common human response to want to jettison something that one finds difficult. Appraisals - in whatever form, and there are various - have been a mainstay of management for decades, for good reasons.

Think about everything that performance appraisals can achieve and contribute to when they are properly managed, for example:

performance measurement - transparent, short, medium and long term clarifying, defining, redefining priorities and objectives motivation through agreeing helpful aims and targets motivation through achievement and feedback training needs and learning desires - assessment and agreement identification of personal strengths and direction - including unused hidden

strengths

career and succession planning - personal and organisational team roles clarification and team building organisational training needs assessment and analysis appraisee and manager mutual awareness, understanding and relationship resolving confusions and misunderstandings reinforcing and cascading organisational philosophies, values, aims,

strategies, priorities, etc

delegation, additional responsibilities, employee growth and development

counselling and feedback manager development - all good managers should be able to conduct

appraisals well - it's a fundamental process

the list goes on..

People have less and less face-to-face time together these days. Performance appraisals offer a way to protect and manage these valuable face-to-face opportunities. My advice is to hold on to and nurture these situations, and if you are under pressure to replace performance appraisals with some sort of (apparently) more efficient and cost effective methods, be very sure that you can safely cover all the aspects of performance and attitudinal development that a well-run performance appraisals system is naturally designed to achieve.

There are various ways of conducting performance appraisals, and ideas change over time as to what are the most effective appraisals methods and systems. Some people advocate traditional appraisals and forms; others prefer 360-degree-type appraisals; others suggest using little more than a blank sheet of paper.

In fact performance appraisals of all types are effective if they are conducted properly, and better still if the appraisal process is clearly explained to, agreed by, the people involved.

Managers need guidance, training and encouragement in how to conduct appraisals properly. Especially the detractors and the critics. Help anxious managers (and directors) develop and adapt appraisals methods that work for them. Be flexible. There are lots of ways to conduct appraisals, and particularly lots of ways to diffuse apprehension and fear - for managers and appraisees alike. Particularly - encourage people to sit down together and review informally and often - this removes much of the pressure for managers and appraisees at formal appraisals times. Leaving everything to a single make-or-break discussion once a year is asking for trouble and trepidation.

Look out especially for the warning signs of 'negative cascaded attitudes' towards appraisals. This is most often found where a senior manager or director hates conducting appraisals, usually because they are uncomfortable and inexperienced in conducting them. The senior manager/director typically will be heard to say that appraisals don't work and are a waste of time, which for them becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. This attitude and behaviour then cascades down to their appraisees (all the people in their team) who then not surprisingly also apply the same 'no good - not doing it' negative attitude to their own appraisals

responsibilities (teams). And so it goes. A 'no good - not doing it' attitude in the middle ranks is almost invariably traceable back to a senior manager or director who holds the same view. As with anything, where people need help doing the right thing, help them.

All that said, performance appraisals that are administered without training (for those who need it), without explanation or consultation, and conducted poorly will be counter-productive and are a waste of everyone's time.

Well-prepared and well-conducted performance appraisals provide unique opportunities to help appraisees and managers improve and develop, and thereby also the organisations for whom they work.

Just like any other process, if performance appraisals aren't working, don't blame the process, ask yourself whether it is being properly trained, explained, agreed and conducted.

Appraisals,social responsibility and whole person developmentThere is increasingly a need for performance appraisals of staff and especially managers, directors and CEO's, to include accountabilities relating to corporate responsibility, represented by various converging corporate responsibility concepts including: the 'Triple Bottom Line' ('profit people planet'); corporate social responsibility (CSR); Sustainability; corporate integrity and ethics; Fair Trade, etc. The organisation must decide the extent to which these accountabilities are reflected in job responsibilities, which would then naturally feature accordingly in performance appraisals. More about this aspect of responsibility is in the directors job descriptions section.

Significantly also, while this appraisal outline is necessarily a formal structure this does not mean that the development discussed with the appraisee must be formal and constrained. In fact the opposite applies. Appraisals must address 'whole person' development- not just job skills or the skills required for the next promotion.

Appraisals must not discriminate against anyone on the grounds of age, gender, sexual orientation, race, religion, disability, etc.

The UK Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, (consistent with Europe), effective from 1st October 2006, make it particularly important to avoid any comments, judgements, suggestions, questions or decisions which might be perceived by the appraisee to be based on age. This means people who are young

as well as old. Age, along with other characteristics stated above, is not a lawful basis for assessing and managing people, unless proper 'objective justification' can be proven. See the Age Diversity information.

When designing or planning and conducting appraisals, seek to help the 'whole-person' to grow in whatever direction they want, not just to identify obviously relevant work skills training. Increasingly, the best employers recognise that growing the 'whole person' promotes positive attitudes, advancement, motivation, and also develops lots of new skills that can be surprisingly relevant to working productively and effectively in any sort of organisation.

Developing the whole-person is also an important aspect of modern corporate responsibility, and separately (if you needed a purely business-driven incentive for adopting these principles), whole-person development is a crucial advantage in the employment market, in which all employers compete to attract the best recruits, and to retain the best staff.

Therefore in appraisals, be creative and imaginative in discussing, discovering and agreeing 'whole-person' development that people will respond to, beyond the usual job skill-set, and incorporate this sort of development into the appraisal process. Abraham Maslow recognised this over fifty years ago.

If you are an employee and your employer has yet to embrace or even acknowledge these concepts, do them a favour at your own appraisal and suggest they look at these ideas, or maybe mention it at your exit interview prior to joining a better employer who cares about the people, not just the work.

Incidentally the Multiple Intelligences test and VAK Learning Styles test are extremely useful tools for appraisals, before or after, to help people understand their natural potential and strengths and to help managers understand this about their people too. There are a lot of people out there who are in jobs which don't allow them to use and develop their greatest strengths; so the more we can help folk understand their own special potential, and find roles that really fit well, the happier we shall all be.

Case Study

A Sweet Employee Performance Appraisal System for Jelly Belly

Customer Profile

Candy making is a fun business, and so it's no surprise that it's fun to work at the Jelly Belly Candy Company of Fairfield, California. But at this family-owned company, there's no fooling around when it comes to promoting employee performance and job satisfaction. So when Jelly Belly decided to overhaul and automate its antiquated employee performance and talent management process, it was looking for a serious solution to help give its employees across the United States fair, accurate performance appraisals.

The Jelly Belly Candy Company makes Jelly Belly brand jelly beans in over 50 flavors, as well as candy corn and other treats. Introduced in 1976 and named by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan as his favorite candy, the company's jelly beans are exported worldwide. Herman Goelitz Candy was founded in 1869 by Albert and Gustav Goelitz, whose great-grandsons own and run Jelly Belly today.

Like almost every smart company, Jelly Belly recognizes that employees are more likely to stay with their employer when they feel connected and recognized for their efforts. Evaluation and performance managementprograms are critical to aligning corporate and employee values and priorities.

Challenge

Jelly Belly's search for a new employee performance and talent management system began several years ago, when two branches of the family business were reunited into a single company. One branch was using an outdated EPM software program. The other was doing its employee performance appraisals manually, using paper forms.

Having a variety of jelly bean flavors is great - a variety of employee appraisal processes in a single company is not. The task of updating and consolidating the performance management process fell to Margie Poulos, HR Manager of Jelly Belly's Midwest operations. She and a small team of Jelly Belly HR staff were charged with finding a single automated system that could be used for all of Jelly Belly's 600 employees in three locations.

The driving factor behind Jelly Belly's performance management automation was the belief that thorough, accurate reviews help employees to better understand what's expected of them, so that they can set clear, measurable objectives. That translates

into higher employee satisfaction, said Jeff Brown, Jelly Belly's Director of Human Resources. "When employees feel they have gotten a thorough and accurate review, it boosts their morale," Brown said. It also leads to improved talent management and employee retention, which management experts know is a key factor in corporate growth and market leadership.

Solution

To meet their strategic goals, Poulos and her team drew up a list of the criteria that a new system had to meet. Top on the list was ease of use. "We didn't want to end up with a system that is so complicated that the managers wouldn't use it," Poulos said. A new system also had to save time. Because employees were in multiple locations, it needed to be web-based for accessibility. And it had to be flexible, easily incorporating core competencies into different forms.

Jelly Belly's selection committee looked at products from different software vendors. "We eliminated right away those that were geared to very large companies and those that were not web-based," Poulos said. "We also eliminated those that offered too many options for customization. It's one thing to offer options, but another thing when the product requires so much customization that it becomes overwhelming."

The committee selected Halogen eAppraisal™, a web-based employee performance and talent management application from Halogen Software. "We liked the way it looked, and we really liked the user-friendliness of it. It's easy for the managers to use and it's customizable without overwhelming them," Poulos said. After two days of training by Halogen staff, four members of Jelly Belly's HR team set out to train the company's supervisors on the new system. About 50 managers received a crash course in using Halogen eAppraisal, and then used it to complete annual employee evaluations in May. Jelly Belly's HR team is now customizing the software to include more relevant competencies and to respond to comments from managers and staff on the new system.

"The feedback has been really positive, from both managers and employees as well. Some staff said this was the best appraisal they've had," Poulos said, "They felt the evaluations were fair and realistic, and supervisors had the scope to provide more relevant and legitimate comments than they could before. Rather than just clicking on a bunch of canned comments, they were accurately reviewing the employee."

Results

The new automated employee performance appraisal system has completely formalized and organized Jelly Belly's employee evaluation process. "It allows us to standardize competencies across job classifications, add signature and comment sections to make our process more interactive, and increase accessibility for remote managers," Brown said.

Under Jelly Belly's old system, employees conducting reviews started from scratch once a year with new performance journals. Halogen eAppraisal will let them log notes throughout the year and regularly update their on-line appraisals. Employees use one consistent employee evaluation form to add comments and to sign their appraisals.

The web-based product helps remote and traveling managers maintain access to the forms and the data they need to evaluate their staff. "In our old system, a few folks in Chicago would have access to the system. But we have managers in California with Chicago subordinates. It's important that they can share the same forms across the board. And we have folks who are on the road a lot or are working out of home offices, so having them be able to access this is a huge point for us," Brown explained.

Organizing and automating the appraisal process results in performance appraisals that are more accurate and fair, Brown noted. "This is important because, after all, an employee appraisal is a legal document," he said.

The new system is also helping Jelly Belly track training requirements and development in its staff, Poulos added. "We've always had a separate training manual. Now we can go in to the evaluations and more easily monitor employees' skills development, see what training is needed by individuals and check the due dates for training and renewal. That makes it much easier for us to keep track," Poulos noted.

The new employee performance and talent management system has proven to be a big time-saver for Jelly Belly's HR team. "Since this year was the first time using the new system, it took us a little longer than it will next year. But the process was a whole lot faster," Poulos said. "It has already saved us a lot of time, and we got everybody's appraisals done in one shot." The new system is also helping Jelly Belly to better align employee goals with the company's business objectives. And for one of America's best-known candy companies, it doesn't get any sweeter than that.

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