Appraising today’s appraisals

The annual appraisals season is all too familiar. Same or similar templates like before, timelines, calibrations, anticipation and anxiety. For HR and leadership, it’s most often a period of operational precision and flawless execution. But behind this process lies something far more delicate, a deeply personal experience for each employee.

Beyond workflows and dashboards, this moment holds quiet power. One pulse check, and we know that our people are asking way much more than just a rating or a compensation discussion.

Layer this to a hybrid, generation homogenous, anxious and AI-influenced world. Great talent is in short supply and organisations are striving very hard to retain their best lot. Questions asked, or even left unasked, most often include: Do you see me? Do I matter here? Does anyone notice when I go the extra mile? Where is this company headed, do I have a place in that future?

More often than not, we still find ourselves busy with almost a compliance-driven ritual, dragging ourselves through forms, ratings, rankings, often missing that one thing, that appraisals are not just about evaluating the past, they are about shaping the future.

No one, till date, exists who wakes up in the morning excited to fill out an appraisal form. But there are many who wake up feeling purposeful. People want to know that their work made a difference, that someone noticed their late nights, their emotional labor, their helping a struggling teammate. They want to hear that they’re not invisible. That their growth matters.

A 2022 Gallup report found that only 14% of employees strongly agreed that their performance reviews inspired them to improve. Meanwhile, Gartner research shows that a majority of CHROs believe that they are not rewarding right behaviours in employees, and only 32% of HR business partners believe that performance management delivers what employees really need to outperform.

Perhaps, it’s time to focus on a more continuous performance management mechanism. Many have spread the process over the year, including a mid-term check. True forward-thinkers however, are clubbing it with a host of other initiatives that make their foundation stronger. These include mandatory career conversations, skilling their managers as coaches, regular talent reviews, stay conversations, making 360 feedback more meaningful and use-worthy….

The manager’s role is quickly shifting from being an evaluator to an enabler. And performance appraisal itself is evolving as a conversation window that revolves around discussions like: What energizes you? What’s next for you? What’s holding you back? What support do you need to get things going for you?

Organisations getting this right are changing their questions. They’re not asking, ‘What rating should we give?’ They are asking ‘What conversation does this person need right now?’

It’s so much easier, however, to do it wrong. This leads to moments of elimination, when people feel reduced to a number, or a vague ‘meets expectations’ line that tells them absolutely nothing about who they are or what they could be.

So, what shall make a meaningful performance appraisal system? Answer: a mindset shift. It’s in recognising that feedback is not a transaction, but a relationship lived. It’s a commitment that says, ‘I know you’re navigating. I know where you’re strong. Tell me what’s stopping you, and I’ll help you go further.’ What will create a difference is the frequency, authenticity, and context of this dialogue.

While managers remain central to the feedback loop, there is growing recognition that skip-level conversations between employees and their manager’s manager play a critical role in fostering transparency and validating employee experiences. Employees who have regular interactions with skip-level leaders are far more likely to show higher engagement and greater confidence in their career trajectory. It signals employees that their voice travels upward, and that leadership is accessible beyond formal hierarchies.

For HR, expanding its role from being an evaluator, enforcer and calibrator to being an enabler and an experience designer makes things more interesting. For starters, how about a pulse survey right after appraisals this year? Perhaps, it’s also time to rethink templates and ask ourselves 5 questions:

1. Does our current appraisal system evoke conversation, or shut it down?

2. Are recency effects at a driving seat?

3. Are our managers the trained minds who know how to listen, reflect, and coach?

4. Are our senior leaders visible, curious, and connected to the voice of the floor?

5. Are we rewarding right behaviour?

When employees say, ‘I want a good appraisal,’ they rarely mean, ‘I want a high rating.’ What they’re really asking for is, ‘See me, grow me, respect me.’

The contributor is Chief talent officer, RPG Group