Absolute Evaluation and Relative Evaluation

There are two methods of personnel evaluation: absolute evaluation and relative evaluation. This is the topic for today.
Before that, I will clarify the difference between the terms 'personnel evaluation' (jinji hyoka) and 'personnel assessment' (jinji koka).

Although these two involve the same activities, their purposes differ.

Personnel assessment is mainly used as a basis for decisions regarding salary, bonuses, and pay raisesOn the other hand,
personnel evaluation is broader and is also used for human resource development and understanding individual capabilitiesas well.

Returning to the theme of this time, absolute evaluation and relative evaluation,absolute evaluation assesses an individual based on their degree of achievement against predetermined standardsfor that person.

In contrast,relative evaluation assesses an individual based on comparisons with other members within the group they belong to, in other words, by ranking.

For example, in absolute evaluation, if one achieves 100% of the goals or standards, the rating is A; if 90%, the rating is B. If the goals or standards are low and many people achieve a high degree of success, the costs in terms of personnel assessment will be high.

In relative evaluation, it is decided that the top 5 achievers get an A rating, and the next 10% get a B rating. Since the number of people receiving an A rating is fixed, it is easy to budget, but if one's ranking does not improve, some people may remain perpetually low-rated, leading to a decline in motivation.

Absolute evaluation assesses individual effort and growth, so it is easily accepted by everyone, but it is difficult to determine the goals and standards, and the evaluation is easily influenced by subjectivity.

Relative evaluation is the opposite; individual effort is harder to evaluate, and since the level of the group itself is not questioned, there are cases where doubts arise about whether it is appropriate.

I have also written about the basics in a previous article, 'The Store Manager's Job: Evaluating,' so please take a look if you like.

I will look back at the content I wrote at that time and compare it with the content of this time.

1. First, establish evaluation criteria.

2. Both the store manager and the individual perform an evaluation corresponding to those criteria.

3. The store manager reviews the self-evaluation submitted by the individual, and they hold an interview to correct any discrepancies in perception.

4. Following that, the supervisor conducts a secondary evaluation including performance and capability assessments, leading to a final evaluation approved by the president, which determines salary and other factors.

5. Then, by feeding back the results to the individual, the goal is to confirm future direction and encourage further development by prompting effort.

In other words, the personnel evaluation I am thinking of is absolute evaluation.

If the number of people being evaluated increases and the burden becomes too great, it would be better to use absolute evaluation for the primary evaluation and relative evaluation for the secondary evaluation.

Things like difficulty in evaluating or difficulty in planning a budget are matters of company convenience. I believe that evaluation should strictly be about how the individual is performing. To maintain motivation, shouldn't we try as much as possible not to deviate from that?

This content can be considered a supplement to my previous article.
Thank you for reading this time as well. If you liked it, please give it a like and follow me.
I will continue to strive to write good articles, so thank you for your support.