Web-based Employee Evaluation System : A Prototype
SRI DEVI RAVANA & ONG YEAN FONG
Department of Information Science
Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology
University of Malaya
50603 Kuala Lumpur
MALAYSIA
http://www.fsktm.um.edu.my
Abstract: - Employee evaluation process has been a focus to many researchers and practitioners worldwide. In spite of this attention, the method used in conducting the employee evaluation process can contribute to the ineffectiveness of the whole evaluation process. Conventionally, the employee evaluation processes are conducted manually and it is not automated. This paper discusses the shortcomings of a manual employee evaluation system and explains how it can be improved by developing a Web-based Employee Evaluation System (WBEES). WBEES tries to facilitate and fulfill the requirements of an employee evaluation exercise in an organisation. The target users of the system are System Administrator, Manager/Head of Department and employees from different departments of an organisation. The system prototype consists of 3 modules namely Administrator module, Manager Module and Employee Module. The tools used for the development of the system are Windows 2000 Professional as the operating system, Internet Information Server 5.0 (IIS) as web server, Microsoft Internet Explorer as web browser and Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 as the database while Active Server Pages (ASP), VB Script, Java Script and HTML were used as the scripting languages. WBEES will be developed using the Waterfall Model with Prototype. By implementing WBEES it is hoped that it will reduce paper wastage, saves time, improves the report generation process, reduces manpower, and increases the efficiency of evaluation process by allowing employees to participate in the evaluation exercise from anywhere at anytime.
Key-Words: - employee evaluation, 360° feedback process , web application
1 Introduction
In today’s organisations, individuals are responsible for initiating and managing their own career plan. It is up to each individual to identify his or her own knowledge, skills, abilities, interests, values and seek out information about career options in order to set goals and develop career plans. Managers or head of departments should encourage employees to take responsibility for their own careers, offering continuous assistance in the form of feedback on individual performance and making available information about the organisation, about the job, and about the career opportunities that might be of their interest [1].
In order to offer continuous assistance in the form of feedback on individual performance, an organisation need an employee evaluation system. Developing an employee evaluation system that accurately reflects employee performance is not an easy task. Employee evaluation systems are not generic hence cannot be passed from one organisation to another. Its design and administration must be customised to match employee and organisational characteristics and qualities [2]. Conventionally, the employee evaluation exercise is conducted manually in an organisation.
This paper discusses the shortcomings of a manual employee evaluation system and explains how it can be improved by developing a Web-based Employee Evaluation System (WBEES). WBEES tries to facilitate and fulfill the requirements of an employee evaluation exercise in an organisation.
2 Stages in Manual System
The manual employee evaluation system discussed in this paper involves similar stages from the 360° feedback process but it is not a 360 degree feedback process system. There are numerous authors who propose definitions of the 360° feedback process. Yukl and Lepsinger defined it as “Feedback from multiple sources or is a performance appraisal approach that relies on the input of an employee’s superior, colleagues, subordinates, sometimes customers, suppliers and/or spouse ”[3]. Jones and Bearley refer to 360° feedback process as the practice of gathering and processing multi-rater assessments on individuals and feeding back the results to the recipients [3]. The manual system in this paper relies on the input of an employee’s superior, colleagues and subordinates only.
A typical 360° feedback system involves many stages from the very outset, where the purpose of the system is determined, to the presentation of the feedback report to the employee evaluated. The following are the stages [3][6]:
§ Determining the objective of the evaluation process
§ Identifying method to collect the data
§ Identifying the employee performance/character to be evaluated
§ Identifying the employees that will participate in the evaluation process
§ Educating employees on the evaluation process
§ Employees choose the evaluators
§ Distribution of questionnaires to employees
§ Analysing data and generating report
§ Report provided to each employee
§ Employees identify critical improvement area based on the report
§ Conduct the process again after a certain period of time
.
The following section will discuss the problems faced by an organisation implementing a manual system.
3 Shortcomings in Manual System
There are some shortcomings when implementing the manual employee evaluation system, especially if the questionnaire format is paper based or using floppy diskette. It requires a lot of effort and time to prepare, distribute and collect the questionnaire from each employee in an organisation with many department/section and a large number of employees. In some organisation, employees do not choose evaluators as what stated in the 360° feedback process, instead each employee are given an identification number and grouped according to certain criteria for example employees from the same department or employees from the same project are grouped together as they will know the employee best. It is not an easy task to determine group members as it is a dynamic process and it must always be updated. The solution will be to allow the department itself to update the groups in the system when a change occurs.
For an organisation that implements an employee evaluation system for decision making on performance and salary adjustment, a deadline to fill in the questionnaires will be set in order to process the evaluation data and generate results as soon as possible, as this results will be used to adjust the employee’s salary. In many incidents, employees might not be available to take part in the evaluation exercise, hence a web application may solve this problem by allowing access to the system from anywhere at anytime.
In the manual system, it might take a longer time for the employee to receive the feedback because the process involved is time consuming. The questionnaires must be collected from the employees who had completed the evaluation and later process it manually to generate the results. These results will be printed and distributed to each employee. This process can be improved by using a web application that can calculate, display and generate the report as soon as all the members in a group had submitted the questionnaire.
The shortcomings mentioned above could be improved by developing a Web-based Employee Evaluation System (WBEES), which is a web application. Currently, there are computer software programs that may be used to facilitate the performance appraisal process. These management software are generic, standalone and enable managers to produce performance appraisals documents that are complete, professional in appearance and easy to use in the performance appraisal process [4]. There are also many web-based feedback software solution available in the market. WBEES is not generic and its purpose is to automate chosen tasks in the manual employee evaluation system and increase its efficiency.
4 Modules in WBEES
WBEES is divided into three main modules : Administrator module, Manager module and Employee module (see Fig.1 in Appendix A). Each of these modules is further divided into sub-modules.
Administrator module consists of nine sub-modules (see Fig.2 in Appendix A). This module allows the System Administrator to change password, manage the mailing list to automatically email employees to participate in the evaluation, edit, delete or create employee and system administrator information, generate and display reports of employee evaluation, monitor employee participation in the evaluation exercise and group maintenance.
Manager module consists of five sub-modules (see Fig.3 in Appendix A). The function of this module is to allow manager or head of department to change password, edit, delete or create employee information and view and generate report for the whole department.
Employee module consists of five sub-modules (see Fig.4 in Appendix A). This module is designed to allow employee to change password, participate in the employee evaluation exercise and view their individual results. Each employee will be assigned a questionnaire with a list of other employee’s names. The employees need to evaluate themselves and also the other employees in the list before submitting it online.
5 Development of WBEES
WBEES was developed modularly using the top-down approach that involves building the high level software modules that were refined into functions and procedures. Software tools used for the development are Microsoft Visual Interdev, Active Server Pages 3.0, Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Adobe Photoshop 6.0 and Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev 4. The technique and strategy applied during the development consists of four aspects: application and web page development, database design, prototyping and debugging.
The output of the development phase is the workable modules. This section will illustrate some of the sub-modules of the system. Fig.1 and Fig.2 in Appendix B shows the interfaces in the Administrator module. Fig.3 in Appendix B illustrates the Department’s Report Page in the Manager module. Manager/Head of Department will be able to view all the employee’s reports in their department. These reports are very useful if the Manager or Head of Department intend to conduct a follow-through with the employee concern. Fig.4 illustrates the employee evaluation form used by the employees to evaluate their colleagues.
6 Discussion
Using information technology results in having advantages in competition, decreasing costs, gaining time, and getting and sharing information [5]. The proposed WBEES may help Human Resources Department (HRD) in an organisation to conduct the employee evaluation exercise efficiently. HRD will be able to reduce time and energy in preparing, distributing and collecting the documentation manually especially the questionnaires. The system will be able to calculate the results automatically and generate report. The copy of the results need not be physically delivered to the recipients or employee. It can be viewed directly from the system at anytime and anywhere. WBEES also reduces human carelessness in handling the evaluation exercise by making sure no data are lost, as all the information are stored digitally.
WBEES allows manager or head of department in an organisation to update the members in a group. At this security level, they can only view the results of each employee under their department but they cannot edit or delete it. Employees can do their evaluation at anytime from anywhere, as long as it is within the time period set by the System Administrator. This solves the problem of unavailability of the employee to attend the evaluation exercise. The system has security features and only allows the users who are given the necessary access authority to login into the system.
However, WBEES has its limitation and weaknesses. The main limitation is it depends on the availability of Internet services. Besides that, a new employee cannot register to the system on their own and they have to obtain their userID and password from the System Administrator. The weakness of WBEES is the password is not encrypted and there is no search engine to aid the user in finding information. This system is not generic and has specific functions that might be suitable only to certain organisations.
7 Conclusion
As a conclusion, it is hoped that WBEES would be able to increase the efficiency of the employee evaluation exercise that is conducted manually. WBEES could be enhanced further to include more functionality and improve the weaknesses identified as it is still at the prototype stage. With further development, the proposed system will be able to be widely applied to an organisation.
References:
[1]Bohlander et. al., Managing Human Resources. South-Western College Publishing, 2001
[2]Boice, D. F. & Kleiner, B. H., Designing effective performance appraisal systems. Journal of Work Study. Vol.46, No.6, 1997, pp. 197-201.
[3]McCarthy, A. M. & Garavan, T. N., 360° feedback process: performance, improvement and employee career development. Journal of European Industrial Training. Vol.25, No.1, 2001, pp. 5-32.
[4]Spinks, N., Wells, B. & Meche, M., Appraising the appraisals: computerized performance appraisal systems. Journal of Career Development International. Vol.4, No.2, 1999, pp. 94-100.
[5]http://www.cumscore.com
[6]http://www.360-degreefeedback.com
APPENDIX A