Fun Appraisals

The owner of the company I work for has tasked me with coming up with a way to make employee evaluations “empowering and fun”. While I understand how to use employee evaluations in an empowering way, I have absolutely no idea how to make them “fun”. Furthermore, I’m not sure making them fun should be the goal. Aren’t they supposed to be objective? And since “fun” is a subjective term, doesn’t that make it impossible to do? If there isn’t a way to make them “fun”, how do I convince my boss it can’t be done? He wants everything to be “fun” and believes in making everything a game. I don’t know how to see that not everything in business is “fun”. Sometimes things just are what they are. Can you help??

Oh for heaven's sake, a fun performance appraisal. Let's see--have managers dress up like clowns to deliver the messages? Give everyone's appraisal in a Dr. Seuss styled-rhyme? Do appraisals on the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride at Disney World (arrgh!)?

I have to say I agree with you. One person's fun clown is another person's childhood nightmare. Blech.

I recommend going back to your boss and ask him how he expects you to carry this out. He'll probably say, "that's what I pay you for!" in which case, you respond, "Performance appraisals are about work, so I think they need to be fair and objective. I think the fun should be reserved for the company picnic."

Employees will NOT respond positively to any sort of "fun" appraisal process. If it truly is fun, it will not be empowering--an empowering appraisal needs to be objective and realistic and set goals that employees can achieve.

Fun appraisals. What will they think of next?