Instead of complaining about bosses on the sly after annual performance appraisals, corporate employees can now actually rate their employers.

In many organisations, the realisation has dawned that it is not just employees who need to be evaluated but also their bosses.

Traditionally, the feedback about employees and their performance is a one-way traffic — bosses appraising subordinates. But not anymore. Several organisations have adopted and implemented a two-way system of appraisal.

This, however, is not just a method to enable employees to vent their frustrations about their immediate superiors. “It is intended to be a team building and team strengthening process,” said Robin Lloyd, vice-president, Lionbridge India, one of the largest manufacturers of credit cards in India.

The two-way appraisal method could help identify and create a new generation of leaders from existing staff, Aparna Ballakur, Adobe director for human resources (HR), pointed out.

If employees are not “empowered to appraise their superiors, the managers or bosses tend to become insensitive to the needs of the juniors and the team suffers”, said Iti Kumar, assistant vice-president for human resources, GlobalLogic’s.

In some organisations, employees are afforded varying levels of anonymity to ensure truthful feedback over their immediate superiors and prevent vendetta by the latter. Experts believe that the method goes a long way in helping the superior officer understand his or her own weaknesses at the workplace and adopt remedial measures with help from the company.

A growing number of companies are resorting to the reverse appraisal method as they are plagued by a high percentage of employee turnovers in recent times.

A survey among the employees helps find out the managerial, administrative, professional and general leadership qualities by which subordinates can assess their bosses.

Some organisations use questionnaires where employees submit their anonymous feedback on various questions within the leadership dimension of their reporting manager.

Based on the leadership feedback, the HR department prepares a scorecard, which is shared with the concerned manager, who in turn devises a concrete plan to improve his performance, as desired by his juniors.

AppLabs, a software company, follows a more open and interactive “skip method”. The employees and boss get together in a room and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of their team leader in the presence of a senior HR person. But this could have disastrous results too.

Maersk India Pvt Ltd follows an “upward feedback method”, which is de-linked from the annual appraisal process.
The purpose is not to assess but to provide valuable feedback.