Developing a Performance Appraisal System

Believing that the foundation of any performance enhancement program, productivity improvement effort, or career development program is a sound performance appraisal system, several years ago we formed a task force of line managers whose charge was to design an appraisal system which would be successful in Pfizer Central Research-US—an organization of approximately 1300 people most of whom are involved in basic research for the pharmaceutical, agricultural, and chemical operating divisions of Pfizer Inc. The system which resulted calls for three different 'appraisal events' during the year: a Self-Appraisal, a Performance Appraisal, and a midyear Progress Review. The task force felt that for the new system to function successfully, it was important that people regard it as important, understand what it is, and feel as comfortable as possible during the three supervisor-supervisee appraisal discussions. To help insure that these stipulations be met, the new system was announced by the President of the Division, a booklet describing it was written and distributed to all employees, and two training programs (one for supervisors and one for supervisees) were designed and conducted. The full annual cycle has been in effect for two years and the feedback we receive is positive. Now that this component is in place, we see the next logical step to be to move aggressively into designing a more specific approach to career development.