PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL

Performance Appraisal Methods at National Health Service Trust



[Institution Name]

Chapter 1: Introduction

Background

Performance appraisal is one of the most important processes in human resource Management that have a great effect on both the financial and program components in the health care organisation (Cole, 2002). Carter (2008) identified different methods by which the appraisals of employees' performance. The National Health Service (NHS) is calling all managers to accept and adapt change to deliver high-quality services. In its aim to be best in the country, the County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust (CDDFT) introduced and mobilized an ambitious fundamental change agenda. Its strategic vision, "Towards 2014," focuses on these areas: quality, economy, best employer, transformation, environment, technology, and engagement. To gain competitive advantage in all these, CDDFT initiated an employee development effort with the proposition of a new performance and development appraisal system called the talent management and behaviours framework.

This research describes the current practice of performance appraisal in CDDFT, its purposes, and how it engenders organization-wide change. The Trust aims to start change from within by developing its workforce and maximizing the talents of its leaders and the general staff. Performance appraisal serves as a systematic avenue for identifying current behaviours, staff competencies, and development needs to achieve effective levels of performance.

Increasingly, the healthcare sector is concerned with improving healthcare quality and performance efficiency and effectiveness through structural reforms, financial considerations, procedural reforms, cultural change, etc.5 Longenecker and Brown suggest that to accelerate and sustain change, systematic management-development efforts must be demonstrated at the organizational level. This, however, burdens individual managers. Beda and Santos note that competence-based management is needed under these circumstances. This requires the development of human competences through efficient staff selection, performance appraisals, career management, and other motivational practices that allow the entire staff to develop and assimilate their skills, knowledge, and behaviours. This talk of management and human resource development presents the tacit admission that a primary vehicle for organizational change is the practice of performance appraisal. This is quite disquieting because performance appraisal, as evidenced by thousands of researchers, is a contentious issue, an emotionally-charged phase that most managers want to avoid10 and most employees fear.

Other scholars claimed employers are just using it to assess employee performance, while the significance of the relationship between appraiser and appraise have paid limited attention to the many constraints that can negatively affect manager influence upon result. Murphy (1995) concluded that for successful performance appraisal in the health care industries, an appropriate appraisal performance methods must consists of five basic stages. First tasks are recognized and performance principles are developed and discussed with the employee. Second a work period allows the employee time to establish given task. While the manager monitors the activities and offer assistance and feedback. Third the manager should inform the employee of future performance interview and both should be ready for it. Fourth the interview is conducted, terminating with the organization of the tasks and the standards or the next period. Fifth a review session should ...