CASE STUDY | Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd. Performance Appraisal Issues Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd. is a medium-sized manufacturer of leather and vinyl shoes located in Wilmington, Ontario. It was started in 1973, and currently employs about 500 persons in its Wilmington plant and some 200 more in offices and ware- houses throughout Ontario. It is time for the annual performance appraisal, the "ritual" as some managers call it. They have received the appraisal forms sent by the personnel department one week prior to the dead- line. The current system was developed by John McAllister, the previous personnel manager, who recently left the company for a similar job in Toronto. McAlister believes that performance appraisal forms should be simple to understand and easy to complete, so he has made one up himself (see Table 1). Supervisors have to assess each employee by August 31. The assessment is supposed to be discussed with the employee and then returned to the personnel department for filing in the employee's personnel records. If promotions come up, the curnu- lative ratings are to be considered at that time. The ratings are also supposed to be used as a check when raises are given. Jane Reynolds, special assistant in the personnel department at Maple Leaf Shoes, looks at the pile of completed rating forms in front of her and shakes her head. She dislikes the way per- formance evaluation in this company is conducted, and would have preferred to come up with a new approach. However, Robert Clark, the company president, has so far resisted any change and she feels hesitant to tell him what she thinks of it. A month ago, Reynolds conducted an informal survey to find out how managers and employees felt about the current system. The results confirmed her hunch. Over 60 percent of the man- agers and more than 75 percent of the employees felt either indifferent or negative about the assessment systern. Close to 50 percent of the supervisors filled out the forms in three minutes or less and returned the form to personnel without discussing the results with their staff. Another 40 percent spent some time with the employees for feedback, but without much discussion. Only 10 percent tried to do an effective performance feedback job by giving each employee detailed feedback and setting new objectives. Table 1 Performance Evaluation Form of Maple Leaf Shoes Ltd. Performance Evaluation Supervisors. Please complete this form for each of your employees. Evaluate each performance aspect separately. Return this form by September 1. 5 4 3 2 1 Score Quantity of work Excellent Good Average Fair Poor Quality of work Excellent Good Average Fair Poor Dependability at work Excellent Good Average Fair Poor Initiative at work Excellent Good Average Fair Poor Cooperativeness Excellent Good Average Fair Poor Communication Excellent Good Average Fair Poox Energy and enthusiasm Excellent Good Average Fair Poor Getting along with coworkers Excellent Good Fair Poor Average Total Supervisor's signature ipkiye's name Employee number 22 PART 4 Placing, Developing and Evaluating Human Resources Reynolds knows from her experience at the company that the forms were rarely retrieved for promotion or pay-raise analyses by her previous boss, McAllister. Because of this, most super- visors may feel the evaluation program is a useless ritual. The comparty has never offered any training for its supervisors on how to conduct performance reviews. Then she thinks of Tir Lance, the consultant. Once, Clark had hired Lance to look into the present and future role of Maple Leaf Shoes personnel department and suggest appropriate action plans to improve its contribution to the organization and help the company meet its future challenges. In his final report, Lance had made a number of recommendations, but Clark had put off any change until a new personnel manager was hired. Reynolds remembers that, among other items, the consultant recommended a new approach to appraising employee per- formance. She feels that this gives her a good reason to push for a revision of the current system. Time is a big issue. She has to prepare for contract negotiations with two separate unions next month. Two more are coming up a month later. She is confident that Clark will accept her recommendation to hire Lance again to come up with a new performance appraisal system. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. You are Tim Lance. Write an assessment of Maple Leaf Shoes' performance evaluation system. 2. What changes would you recommend to the company? Why