PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL/COMPENSATION EMAILSSituation:
The OL organization is a medium to large-sized serviceorganization in New England. The OL organization’s performanceappraisal system, which was designed by the HR Department severalyears ago, requires that all employees be evaluated by theirsupervisor on an annual basis except for new employees, who areappraised after the first 90 days (the probationary period). Theperformance appraisal form, which is used for all employees, isshown below. Supervisors are required to complete this formcovering each of their employees at the appropriate time. Theyshould discuss the evaluation with the employee, ask each employeeto sign the form at the end of the interview, and return thecompleted form to the HR department. The organization has severaldifferent wage structures, including one for executives, one formanagers, and one for all the other workers. The job evaluation isthe point factor technique in which all jobs receive a point valuebased on an assessment of compensable factors. Jobs are thenassigned to a grade level, and each grade has an entry or minimumrate and a maximum salary payable for the jobs in that grade. Theamounts between the entry rate and maximum comprise the salaryrange for the grade. Adjustments to the ranges are madeperiodically as area market rates change. Salaries are directlyrelated to the work they do and how well they do it. The salary isbased on the point evaluation and the survey results. The companyis generally considered to be competitive when surveyed in theirmarket. Usually employees begin at the bottom of each pay grade.Employees are considered for a merit increase after six months ofservice and then they annual receive a merit increase at the end ofeach year. Cost-of-living increases are also granted periodicallyby the organization to all employees. You are Sandy, the HumanResource Manager, and have received the following memos and emailsover the last several days while you were out of the office.Please respond to each of the memos. First, you shouldreply to the memo. Then if necessary state what other actions youmight take (other than replying to the email). Finally, you shouldstate the importance of each memo as either critical, medium, or oflow importance.
Item 1 FROM: Charlie Counter, Accounting Department,[email protected] SUBJECT: 90-Day Employee Evaluation TO: HumanResource Department, [email protected]
I just received my first performance evaluation and receivedmostly “3s” or very average ratings. I asked my supervisor why Idid not receive better ratings she said that her evaluation of mewas good. She said that I was making good progress on the job. Sheadded that, if I continue to show improvement, I will receivehigher ratings in the future. When I asked her why I did notreceive better ratings, she replied that I was relativelyinexperienced compared to other employees. Why am I being evaluatedagainst older, more experienced employees? That does not seem fair.I believe that considering my limited experience I deserve higherevaluations.
Item 2 FROM: Johnathon Pine, Computer Center,[email protected] SUBJECT: Performance Evaluation TO: Human ResourceDepartment, [email protected]
I just received my evaluation and found out that I receivedmainly 4s. I have been working at the Computer Center a few yearsand I don’t seem to improve much. I asked my supervisor forfeedback so that I could improve. I wouldn’t complain but I haveasked my supervisor for feedback so that I could get a betterappraisal next time, and he had difficulty telling me how to do it.If I can’t get the proper feedback how am I expected to improve? Idon’t think this system is fair. Can somebody give me feedback?________________________________________________________________
Item 3 FROM: Bonnie Jell, [email protected] SUBJECT:Administering Employee Evaluations TO: Human Resource Department,[email protected]
I have recently received from your office a request to conductevaluations this month on my employees. As you probably know, I waspromoted to this supervisory position only one month ago fromanother company as a result of the former supervisor’s termination.I don’t feel that I can presently conduct a fair evaluation ofthese employees because I have only observed them for one month.Can I receive help since the appraisal should assess a full year’sperformance?
Item 4 FROM: Kelly Pool, Supervisor, [email protected]SUBJECT: Evaluation of Karen Kent TO: Human Resource Department,[email protected]
Yesterday afternoon I conducted an evaluation interview withKaren Kent and when I told her I gave her a “3” on “Teamwork” shegot quite upset and defensive. She said that the evaluation shouldhave been at least a “4” and possibly a “5.” I attempted to explainmy evaluation to her, but she disagreed and would not listen to me.She continued to argue with me stating that I did not reallyunderstand her teamwork skills. Karen received a “4” evaluationlast year on “Teamwork” and a 3.5 overall evaluation this year.What should I do if this happens again?
Item 5 FROM: Matt Million, Supervisor,[email protected] SUBJECT: Evaluation complaints TO: HumanResource Department, [email protected]
I have received a number of complaints from some of my employeesthat I grade too hard compared to other supervisors. Theseemployees complain that this results in very little merit pay forthem each year. They are not listening to the feedback I am givingthem since they are so concerned with some of the low ratings whichresult in lower pay increases. I don’t know what to do. Should Iignore it or should I change the way I give ratings? Pleaseadvise.
Item 6 FROM: Mary Smith, Purchasing, [email protected]SUBJECT: Improving Performance TO: Human Resource Department,[email protected]
I was wondering if you can offer me some advice or assistance. Ihave been getting good appraisals, mostly 4s. I would like toimprove and spent a lot of time working on my self- appraisal. Whenwe sat down for my evaluation, my supervisor pretty much ignoredeverything I had written. In fact, he seemed to concentrate on someof the more trivial duties. Please advise.
Item 7 FROM: Jeff Flock, Supervisor, [email protected]SUBJECT: Performance evaluation of Linda Lester TO: Human ResourceDepartment, [email protected]
I have received a number of complaints from some of myemployees. They believe that my appraisals and feedback seem to bebased only on what they do in the last several weeks. They say thattheir evaluation ratings are not fair. Please advise.
Item 8 FROM: Donna Carol, [email protected] SUBJECT: MyPerformance evaluation TO: Human Resource Department,[email protected]
In my last performance appraisal, I was rated much lower than myprevious appraisal. Before this current appraisal my supervisor,Tom Trash, asked me out on a date and I declined. I thought theissue was over because he did not react very negatively when Ideclined to date him. It seems, however, that it might have since Iam pretty sure that my performance has not changed significantlyeven though my ratings have. Furthermore, the rumor is that thewoman he is dating is receiving higher appraisals since they havebeen dating. I don’t believe this is fair, but I am not sure whatto do?
Item 9 FROM: Sam Mullen, [email protected] SUBJECT: PayTO: Human Resource Department, [email protected]
Tom Jenkins has been with the company for ten years. His presentposition is Systems Analyst 1 and is at the maximum pay level forhis grade. The Wonton Company has offered him another position,which would give him a 10% increase in salary for similar duties.Based on his financial obligations to his family, he claims he isneed of higher pay. Since he enjoys working for our company and hasbeen a tremendous asset to our company, and it would be difficultto promote him to SA II, is there any way you could match theiroffer? I know he would stay if we could offer him a significantincrease. Can we give him more than his grade allows?
Item 10 FROM: Shawn Sollen, [email protected] SUBJECT:Pay TO: Human Resource Department, [email protected]
One of my employees has been working in IT for more than 8 yearsand is making about the same salary as one of my new employees inthe same job. This is unfair since the one with seniority, Jake, islikely to find out about this sooner or later and I don’t want tolose him. This compression problem is likely to cause conflictssince the market has continued to increase entry-level IT salaries30% over the last three years. Can we increase the salaries of thehigh-performing, senior IT people? What can we do about this?
