Free Custom «Performance Evaluation» Essay Paper

The written essay employee assessment criterion is an important means for assessing employees’ performance. The process entails rating employees using an essay written by a special agent assigned for the task. Basis for the information written in the essay is an employee’s past performance record. It gives a worker’s strengths, weaknesses and recommendations for improvement. One of the main advantages attributable to this method is the fact that it allows an examiner to evaluate all aspects of an employee’s performance. However, the method is time consuming, difficult to administer and subjective. Chances for biased information being given are also high as the information provided is more of opinion than fact.

The graphic scale rating system is another commonly used appraisal technique. This method entails rating employees using a definite system, commonly 1-9 stars. The method is easy to use, is not time consuming and has a high rate of user tolerability. However, the method is shallow on behavioral analysis. Its accuracy is limited as comprehensive information about the workers’ performance is not usually provided. Similar to the written essay employee assessment criterion, the technique contrasts workers ‘characteristics based on their output. The critical incident appraisal focuses on the factors and duties that facilitate easy employee operation. The main focus of this technique is workers’ performance during specific incidents. The technique integrates evaluation with performance of duties. Thus, the critical incident appraisal gives a more thorough analysis as compared to the graphic scale rating system and the written essay employee assessment criterion. One main drawback of this technique is that it relies on the memory of the appraiser. This implies that if proper record keeping is not done during the incidents upon which analysis is done, the results provided are inaccurate. Similarly, the appraiser may tend to rely on recent events more than past important results.