A formal assessment, typically an interview, of the performance of an employee over particular periods, is regarded as a performance appraisal.

A performance appraisal is an event that takes place mostly at the end of the year or starting of a new year to discuss the performance statistics throughout the year. It is also determined whether the employee has completed his goals (set in the previous year) as an employee of that certain organization.

Performance appraisals are based upon different processes which are performed sequentially to obtain required results.

An appraisal with odoo can be a golden opportunity for the managers to get to know the statistics of the employees that work for the company.

The managers also promote and demote their employees considering their work performance and intellectual behaviour throughout the year. But many companies don’t prefer a performance appraisal system even though it is exceedingly helpful to the organization or firm.

How Appraisal with Odoo works

In the following lines, we’ll see how appraisal works, and how Odoo supports these functionalities of the appraisal via official and unofficial Odoo modules.

i. Promotion and demotion of employees

During the process of performance appraisal, the employee’s performance throughout the year is reviewed including work history, keenness towards work, team playing capability, knowledge-seeking behaviour, and many other traits.

The employee is then promoted or demoted accordingly to his progress report. An employee may work hard but his efforts might not be prominent in sight of his superiors because he needs to mould his capabilities according to the need of the organization to get promoted.

Odoo provides a dedicated, official, off-the-shelf module named Appraisals which is designed to perform the process of performance appraisal efficiently, and effectively.

This module facilitates the managers by providing the facility of easily creating a custom appraisal format or a template that can also be further processed by Odoo automatically. This template is then also be used to generate instant results from the Odoo ERP system.

ii. Employee Feedback System

Employees always have better access to the ground realities compared to their managers. Therefore, employee feedback is necessary since it allows managers to listen to what their employees suggest from their practical, hands-on experience at the grass root level.

It is mandatory to implement a feedback system between the employees and managers to align the vision of the organization, and employees’ work directions. It is also very beneficial since it keeps toxic work culture away and gives birth to a conducive, and peaceful environment that is suitable for employees and managers.

Odoo provides feedback and a scheduled survey module which allows employees to provide feedback to the organization. The employee can also configure the feedback type such that only the employee and the HR department can see the feedback. This is essential for individual employees to protect their identity and hence produce a safe environment for the employees to speak freely.

iii. Employee’s performance stats

A systematic performance appraisal method can help the organization highlight the weak areas of an employee. With the help of this process, the managers can look through the performance of an employee and can also be used to check if the employee has either a positive attitude towards work and learning or not.

The heads of the organization can make surveys using the Appraisals module provided by Odoo which helps to create or edit existing survey templates which are then sent to the employees to gather information about their work performance. Now the data submitted through surveys is saved and can be retrieved and printed or it can also be sent to higher management directly.

iv. Evaluating performance

Evaluating performance refers to observing the performance of employees. This process of performance evaluation is very helpful as it shows us the performance and traits of the employee in graphic form often known as the Likert rating. This document is like turning all the raw data into useful, and graphical pieces of information understandable by even the less technical managers.

Odoo provides an employee statistics module that shows details, statistics, appraisals, and much more information about employees. This module provides a dashboard that shows different features in one place. You can also approve and submit employee statistics.

v. Suggesting areas for improvement

This process of performance appraisal method can help determine the weak areas of an employee and then provide the employee with the best learning opportunities that are the core responsibility of an organization.

The organization may suggest special training programs or highlight important courses that can bring competence to an employee and align employees’ skills accordingly to the organization’s long and short-term goals. The employee is then awarded a promotion and other privileges if he/she shows positive results and achieves additional course certificates and degrees.

Odoo is a highly customizable ERP. The users can configure it according to the requirements. Odoo provides a huge tree of official and unofficial modules which deal with every matter of an organization or firm’s appraisal requirements.

Tips for appraisals

• Building a positive mindset is necessary because traditionally the process of performance appraisal has been perceived as a matter of indignity and censure. Accepting what can be improved (instead of what’s wrong) and struggling for excellence is the best way to prepare the employee for promotion.
• Everyone knows how much sincerity and persistence they have towards their work. Knowing your merits and demerits is important and then working on your weak areas is even more critical.
• Appraisal makes sure that the employees are better people comparatively from last year’s appraisal to remain competitive in their job.
• From appraisal to appraisal, one must start dreaming bigger. If employees set big goals, then they would work hard, leading to better performance evaluation, and the core competencies suited for promotion.

Conclusion

Performance appraisal management has been traditionally disliked by up to half of the organization as this system had not been working as intended. Some employees blame their managers for not aligning the company goals and some managers blame the employees for not working sincerely. Many clients from organizations were reported not submitting their details for the process of appraisal management as they were afraid to counter humiliation and to face the feeling of incompetence in front of others.

Experts have been spreading awareness that if implemented properly, performance appraisal management can be a golden opportunity to help an organization excel in many ways. Odoo ERP provides a module purely designed for appraisals. This module provides the facility for different kinds of evaluations hence indirectly improving the employee and manager’s satisfaction year after year.