The Connection between Performance Appraisals and Earning a Bonus

Seeing as I have recently (yesterday) encountered a Key Performance Area meeting with my CEO, and its fresh in my mind, I thought it would be worth discussing this most empowering engagement between employer and employee that occurs in most, if not all companies today and

The concept of a performance appraisal is in fact aimed at empowering employees and providing a guideline of what is expected of them by their employer and ways in which they can further strive for excellence and job satisfaction within their given role. In producing quantifiable or measurable deliverables within a role, employees are rewarded for going beyond the call of duty and adding value to a company over and above the general function of their role.

Firstly, I think most of us need to remember that a bonus is a bonus and is awarded over and above monthly or weekly salary payouts.

By delivering on what is our very basic or core job function, does not quantify or warrant a bonus, this is essentially why you are earning a salary.

Instead, a bonus is a reward that you have earned by applying additional value to your role and the greater good of the company. Whether is assists you directly in your role or merely streamlines a process that will increase overall productivity or company success, makes no difference. Employees should note that by brining an additional value add to the operation of the company that employs them, it is this that earns additional revenue and warrants extra employee benefits.

A performance appraisal is a one on one encounter with your immediate supervisor in which core elements to you job are discussed, detailed and documented. Based on an amicable agreement of the importance of each key task that is performed, as well as indicating other areas that may be excelled in at an agreed upon date or within a certain time period, performances will then be appraised in assessment of whether or not you are entitled to a reward for sterling efforts or not.

As discussed in a previous blog post, what you put it, is what you get out and performance appraisals and earning bonuses are the prime example of how in which effort is rewarded and the more you put in will produce what added bonus you get out.

Try not to be too intimidated by a face to face encounter with your employer when invited to attend a KPI, KPA or performance appraisal meeting. Your company will first be required to communicate their expectations upfront with you, to which you will be required to agree to or dispute. Only once each party (Employer and Employee) have agreed on a meeting ground, will your assessment begin (which will be done over a specified period), after which your performance and contributions will be evaluated and assessed in terms of whether or not you qualify for a bonus or not.

After your initial meeting with your manager and grounds for excellence have been established, employees are empowered with knowledge and awareness of what to strive towards within their given role and in essence gain greater job satisfaction, continued job stimulation and a steadfast sense of accomplishments and achievement by attaining clearly mapped out objectives.

Essentially being in possession of KPI’s and having the opportunity to participate in performance appraisals instils each employee with a set of deliverables, goals to strive for and an opportunity to prevent stagnation and lost motivation in your job.

I hope that this blog has assisted in making you feel more comfortable in setting goals with your employer and not seeing these as limitations, but rather areas of continued excellence and growth.

Have a terrific evening everyone.

Jo Blog

Joblog@jobs.co.za

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008 at 5:20 pm and is filed under Top Tips for Job Seekers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.