Role Description: A good potential appraisal system would be based on clarity of roles and functions associated with the

different roles in an organisation. This requires extensive job descriptions to be made available for each job. These job descriptions should spell out the various functions involved in performing the job.

Qualities Required: Besides job descriptions, it is necessary to have a detailed list of qualities required to perform each of these functions. These qualities may be broadly divided into four categories (1) technical knowledge and skills, (2)managerial capabilities and qualities, (3) behavioural capabilities, and (4)conceptual capabilities.

Indicators of Qualities: A good potential appraisal system besides listing down the functions and qualities would also have various mechanisms for judging these qualities in a given individual. Some of the mechanisms for judging these qualities are (a) rating by others, (b) psychological tests, (c) simulation games and exercises, (d) performance appraisal records.

Rating mechanisms: Besides listing the functions along with qualities, the potential appraisal process must provide mechanisms of judging the qualities of staffs as: 1. Rating through others: The potential of a candidate might be rated by the current employer who is acquainted with the candidate's work earlier, just his technical abilities. 2. Tests: Managerial as well as behavioral dimensions can be measured via a battery of psychological tests.

3. Games: Simulation games in addition to exercises (assessment centre, besides business games, in-basket, along with role play, etc.) could be used to display the potential of a nominated staff. 4. Records: Performance records along with ratings of a nominated staff for his earlier jobs could be examined carefully on various dimensions such as motivation, creativity, besides risk taking ability, etc., which may play a vital concern in discharging his responsibilities in a new job.

Organizing the System: Once the functions, the qualities required to perform these functions, indicators of these qualities, and mechanisms for generating these indicators are clear, the organisation is in a sound position to establish and operate the potential appraisal system. Such establishment requires clarity in organizational policies and systematization of its efforts.

Feedback: If the organisation believes in the development of human resources it should attempt to generate a climate of openness. Such a climate is required for helping the employees to understand their strengths and weaknesses and to create opportunities for development. A good potential appraisal system should provide an opportunity for every employee to know the results of assessment. He should be helped to understand the qualities actually required for performing the role for which he thinks he has the potential, the mechanisms used by the organisation to appraise his potential, and the results of such an appraisal.

A good potential appraisal system provides opportunities continuously for the employee to know his strengths and weaknesses. These are done through periodic counseling and guidance sessions by either the personnel department or the managers concerned. This should enable the employee to develop realistic self-perceptions and plan his own career and development.

My apologies for being brief. Potential Appraisal is a part of succession planning and career enrichment and seeks to identify employees with the capabilities and attitude for advancement within the organization.

A common process is for the management team to meet every three months or so to discuss and decide which employees show potential. A tool for the managers to use is a checklist with items specifying the behaviors and attributes desired in the organization.

The next stage in the process is for the identified High Pots to be approached confidentiality to determine whether they wish to be part of the High Pot development program. If so, they are entered on the program. The program is designed by the HR department with the management team and will consist of formal training programs, delegated challenging projects and tasks, membership of professional associations, individual coaching, seminars etc. Progress on the program is reviewed by the management team every three months or so. Successful program completers are offered advancements at the end of the program or some time after if such positions are available.

Potential Appraisal Career Development Analyze the relationship between them, and explain how potential appraisal help employee in career development. Summarize all the points in writing and also prepare for group discussion in the class.

The potential appraisal refers to the evaluation i.e. understanding of the hidden talents and skills of a person. The individual might or might not be aware of them. Potential appraisal is a future - oriented appraisal whose main goal is to identify and evaluate the potential of the employees to achieve higher positions and responsibilities in the organizational hierarchy. On the other words, Potential appraisal helps to determine what can happen in the future so that it can be guided and directed towards the performance of individual and organizational development and goals. Therefore, many organizations assess and manage potential appraisal as a part of the performance appraisal processes. Moreover, the role of potential appraisal is to determine the

potential of a given workers to occupy higher positions in the organizational hierarchy plus handle higher responsibilities. Potential appraisals are required to:

Inform employees about their future prospects; Help the company check out of a appropriate succession plan; Update training efforts from time to time; Advisee employees about what they must learn to develop their career prospects.

Potential appraisal can perform the following purposes:

To advise employees about their overall career development and future prospects Help the company to chalk out succession plans Motivate the employees to further enhance their skills and competencies.

Process
Potential Appraisal is the process of tracking unrevealed skills and abilities in a person which even he/she is unaware of. It is a future oriented appraisal which aims to track the potential of the employees to rise up in the organisational structure. Potential Appraisal is a potent device for employee advancement. The term is not known to many; however, managers of almost every organisation have been making potential assessments every year.

Managers use the predictors to determine whether the employee has the managerial potential to execute added responsibilities in the future. Potential Appraisal helps in the decision making of promoting candidates and making a career plan for them.

To understand it better, we can compare it with the reviewing performance. Review Performance is assessed on the basis of the targets accomplished and the skills possessed and utilized by him/her. The results act as indicators on the candidates aptitude to manage extra functions. However, this is not a foolproof way of knowing whether added responsibilities will be handled successfully in future. This makes potential appraisal important.

Potential Appraisal cannot be applied to all in the same level. For e.g. there are people in the organization who have potential but who do not perform (attitudinal problem). Some people excel in their day to day jobs but when laden with additional tasks, they fail (workhorses). If they are promoted to higher designations then it becomes a problem for the employees and the company. Then there are stars who are brilliant in their jobs and have high potential too; but since they are prized candidates, they are difficult to retain and are always on the lookout of something better and bigger.

The time for a potential appraisal is not fixed. It is under the discretion of the manager to hold the assessment activity. Unlike performance review, it does not happen at a particular period in every organization. The managers generally exercise it when an employee achieves a certain milestone, or completes a year or is planning to change jobs for whatever reasons. Usually it is recommended to take place within 6 months.

The procedure of potential appraisal should commence and end with a meeting between the two parties. In the first meeting the manager can list the abilities required to deliver additional tasks. He/she can recommend various ways to attain them in-house training programmes, external workshops, etc. The latter meeting can be a review (usually after 6 months) to test whether the skills have been rightly acquired or not. During the observation time the manager is supposed to note the various abilities adopted and used by the candidate in work and the improvement areas. The employee should be ready to defend every action with examples. They can then chalk out a plan to chase the potential and taste growth in the organization.

It should be noted that a potential appraisal does not guarantee promotion. Normally, most of the companies do it to facilitate the growth of an individual. The companies can use the results of such an assessment for

Recommending a growth plan and showing a bigger picture to the employees. Infusing enthusiasm in the employees to sharpen the abilities. Learning about the training requirements of the employees. Drawing a succession plan for future.

The process of assessing the managerial potential of employees deals with the question of whether or not they have the ability to handle positions in the future which involve considerably more responsibility than what they have right now. As long as individuals are viewed as being able to handle increased or different responsibilities, they would be considered to have potential (either latent or visible). Potential appraisal may thus be defined as a process of determining an employees strengths and weaknes ses with a view to use this as a predictor of his future performance.

This would help determine the promotabilty of an individual to a higher position and help chalk out his career plan. The fundamental difference between reviewing performance and assessing potential is in the criteria used. In reviewing performance, the criterion used is what goals the employee achieved and what skills he or she currently possesses that could be indicators of his or her ability to assume different or more advanced responsibilities. Managers cannot rely exclusively on past performance since a persons ability to adequately handle one level of responsibility does not necessarily mean that he or she can perform well in a position with a higher level or different responsibility. It is this that makes potential appraisal a very crucial & critical area. If an employee without requisite abilities is promoted to a higher position and does not perform as per expectations, then it becomes impossible to demote him. Thus, he is unable to perform at the higher level and becomes a passenger in the system.

It is rightfully assumed that every individual has potential, low or high. Many organizations have people whose potential being low; performance too is not up to the mark. Whilst the question in our minds hovers around how such people got into the system, the fact remains that they do not contribute to the organizations performance. A major problem that companies face is tackling the problem children. They can and have the ability to perform but do not perform and do not contribute to the organizations performance. This is mainly seen as an attitudinal problem. Further, these problem children bask in the glory of their potential but are unable to contribute to their own jobs. Dealing with workhorses too could be tricky. They can perform very well on routine tasks but have limited potential.

Hence, their promotabilty is difficult and this creates frustrations for the employees. If promoted, they are unable to perform higher-level jobs and this too creates problems both for the individuals and the organisation. We easily conclude that stars are ideal people to have in organisations. But retaining these stars could be difficult. They have high potential backed by high levels of performance and could be always on the lookout for greener pastures. Thus, as we see, potential appraisal is more intricate and complex vis--vis performance appraisal. Because of the nature of the potential assessment activity, its timing and frequently is left to the managers discretion. In assessing potential, managers are asked to make predictions about the future. These predictions concern many unknown factors, namely whether the individual can handle new responsibilities in a different managerial capacity, In addition, the potential assessment criteria is based mostly on an employees process skills, which may be difficult to measure in a precise way. Thus, the timing and frequency of conducting potential assessment can be quite different from the more predictable timing of a performance review. For example, the potential assessment might occur when an employee has been on the job for one year, when an employee reaches certain mile-stones (i.e. every three years), or in preparation for major organizational shifts brought about by changes in the business such as reorganizations, expansion or rationalization. It is recommended that the potential assessment process take place at least over a six- month period, with a manager-employee meeting at both the beginning and end of the process. To begin the process, the manager and employee should meet to identify the process skills and the technical and administrative skills required for the employees future responsibilities. The manager explains why these skills are necessary and explores with the employee how these skills might be learned and utilized on the current job. This includes nominating employees for some specific training programmes, both skillbased and knowledge-based. Some organisation may also organise such programmes on an in-house basis. Further on-the-job training could also be incorporated for the employees.

It is recommended that the manager observe the employee for at least three to six months to assess the extent to which the employee possesses and demonstrates the acquired skills. During the observation period, the manager should note specific behavioural examples of these skills and be prepared to discuss them with the employee at the concluding assessment meeting.

The employee should also be prepared to discuss behavioural examples that demonstrate ability and need. At the assessment meeting, the manager and employee jointly review their observations. This discussion should include the identification of the employees skill strengths and developmental needs. The manager the n provides a written assessment in the form of summary statement. Usually about one paragraph in length, the summary provides the employee with a brief, clear statement of where he or she stands regarding potential.

An important concept to be conveyed during this meeting is that, while the employee may be assessed as having potential for a higher level or different position, no promises of a particular job can be made. Before the conclusion of this meeting, the pair should formulate a development plan (i.e. decide on new development activities) that the employee can pursue in order to help realise his or her potential. Let us realise that there are no shortcuts to the successful implementation of potential appraisal.

If potential appraisal is done in a systematic way it would contribute to having well designed career plan that would indicate the preferred growth path of an individual in an organisation. For example, a post-graduate diploma or degree holder in marketing management would aspire for career avenues in market research, sales management, advertising and such. An individual specialised in HRM could aspire for avenues in manpower planning, training, welfare, industrial relations and so on.

Any professional organisation would make sincere efforts to match the individual career aspirations. This would obviously be a mutually beneficial activity for the individual and the organisation. Further, succession planning is the process where every individual

manager is expected to develop a subordinate who would take over from him over a period of time. Many managers feel insecure about this process and avoid indulging in this development activity. What they fail to realise is that, if an individual has the potential and shows good performance, there is always room at the top. Unless they themselves become unpromotable and stagnant. Succession planning too would succeed if and only if a good potential appraisal system exists and is in firm place. To conclude, if potential appraisal is not done in a planned manner, you may promote an undeserving employee. As a consequence, he does not succeed but would not accept a demotion back to his old slot. Thus, in a bid to develop a territory manager out of a super-salesman, and not doing it properly; you lose both in the process. But if implemented well, professional performance and potential appraisal could take the organisation on a fast development track and faster productivity through people.

Summary: Performance appraisals have become an increasingly important tool for organisation to manage and improve the performance of employees, to make more valid staffing decisions, and products. The design, development, and implementation of appraisal systems are not endeavors that can be effectively handled by following the latest fad or even by copying other organizations systems. Instead, a new appraisal system must be pursued in the context of improving the organizations competitive advantage. This means, like any such change effort, there will be vested interests in preserving the status quo that will be resistant to change, no matter how beneficial it may be for the organisation.

Once a well-designed system has been implemented, the work is still not done. An appraisal system has to be maintained by monitoring its operation through periodic evaluation. Only by keeping an appraisal system finely tuned will it enable managers to have a rational basis for making sound personnel decisions and for making the kinds of gain in productivity that are so critically needed in todays times.