Question

In a big chain of retail stores annual performance appraisal system is used as a base for determining the
employee’s annual raise. Upper management has the authority to double the increment on an exceptional
performance. One of the problems with the appraisal system is that it is more inclined towards
subjectivity. A new sales manager joined the chain in December 2019 and annual performance appraisal
of two supervisors one from grocery section and one from the toys section was due in April 2020. Due to
lockdown in March 2020 the sales of grocery section were above targets and consequently, the supervisor
from the grocery section got double increment on the recommendation of the manager.
Question: 01 Word limit 200 words
Question 1: Keeping in view, the possible raters’ error in performance appraisal, discuss the specific error
that occurred in this scenario and how it could be handled? Justify your answer with solid arguments.
Question: 02 Word limit 100 words
Question 2: Each supervisor has a team consisting of 10 to 15 sales staff. While assessing “Quality of
work” of team members, supervisors can choose one of the following categories.
 Unsatisfactory
 Marginal
 Satisfactory
 Good
 Outstanding.
Which of the appraisal tool is being used in that retail store and what is its disadvantage?

Answer 1

Answer 1- The specific error that occoured in this scenario is Recency error. It is a type of error in which the rater has too much impact based on only one incident ( either positive or negative) for the performance appraisal. The employer was impressed too much by increased grocery sales in the month of march. He should have rewarded the supervisor with salary increament on a long-term-improvement basis rather than judging him on a single month. The supervisor got advantage of increased sales due to covid-19 pandemic. Whereas, it was not the performance that improved.

Answer 2-The appraisal tool being used in the retail store is Grading method. It is a tradional performance appraisal method in which employees are titled specific categories such as outstanding, good, satisfactory etc.
One of the disadvantage of this method is the rater appraises most of the employees on the higher side of the scale. The employees are not rated precisely.