ASSESSMENT OF EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL PRACTICE IN AWASH BANK SHARE COMPANY

Abstract

Human resources are among the fundamental resources available to any organization. Performance appraisal is part of human resource management which a formal system of periodic review and evaluation of an individual’s (employees) job performance. Performance Appraisal (PA) helps in measuring and evaluating performance of the employees in an organization. PA serves as a multiple purpose objective. On one hand, it helps in identifying skill gaps present in the employees on the other hand; it recognizes meritorious employees on the basis of their work and helps to design an effective reward system for organizations. The research paper tries to address basic research questions, the employee performance appraisal practice in Awash Bank. More particularly, the performance appraisal practice in terms of well developed, result oriented and leading to organizational objectives components is assessed both on individuals and teams working in Awash Bank. The paper assessed prevailing performance appraisal practices in the bank implementing descriptive method of research. This helped to present the existing merits and drawbacks in performance appraisal of the Bank quantitatively, which later helped to propose recommended solutions to the problems. The target population for the study was all staffs currently working in Awash Bank. Amongst, sample of employees which include managers, officers and non-clerical staff in Awash Bank was taken based on sampling formula to determine sufficient number suits to answer the research questions. Further primary and secondary data and information is gathered through appropriate instruments including structured questionnaire. Adequate responses were collected for further analysis using tabular arrangements, statistical analysis on descriptive approach using SPSS software. The findings indicate that employees are evaluated by their immediate supervisor and next in-line supervisor, review committee and finally results are approved by senior managers. The company’s major findings are frequency and timing of evaluation, lack of knowledge about the purpose and objective of evaluation and absence of training and discussion about the evaluation method are the major problems identified. It advisable that the bank resolve the understaffed situation by lowering down some of the responsibilities held by managers or supervisors to lower level staff by delegations. In addition, the organization needs to fill the gap by giving training for those who are involved with the measurements of performance appraisal system of the company.