I work for a law firm and the online appraisal system that was launched last year failed miserably. Many team leaders blame this failure on the new online system however from what I can see it seems that people simply did not understand and do not have time for the actual appraisal process. We are re-launching our appraisal system for 2006 and I am currently attempting to convince my Director that we should stick with an online process which our IT will be able to re-design to make more user-friendly. I would be interested to hear about experiences from other organisations, particularly those in the legal or private sector in relation to the success of an online or paper-based appraisal.
Katie Chappell
2 Responses
evaluate why it failed
I would suggest that you do an in depth evaluation as to why the previous system failed. I have worked in organisations that have used both. I would suggest that the best compromise is a system which can be used as both paper or electronic. Working in the prosecuting authority however I have noticed that lawyers have very poor IT skills and therefore lawyer managers found it difficult to use anything electronic. However if your organisation is anything like mine and has lawyer managers you may find that the failure of the system is due to resistance from these managers to manage rather than do the legal work.
Paper-based vs online appraisal
The Scala Group is demonstrating a system at HRD 2006 that is an elearning/online appraisal system. It is extremely user friendly and convenient and current users have found it encourages better appraisals.