Understanding How Employee Appraisals are Scored and Rated Using SPPAS

In any organization, employee performance evaluations are an important tool for assessing employee performance and identifying areas for improvement. But how are employee evaluations scored and rated? In this post, we’ll take a closer look at the criteria used to score and rate employee appraisals, including the role of core values and key business areas.

At the end of each appraisal period, employees are rated on each performance objective as either “Improvement Required” (IR), “Met Expectation” (ME), or “Exceeded Expectation” (EE).

The specific criteria used to determine these ratings for core values are defined by HR, while assessors are responsible for defining the criteria for key business areas. In any situation where a rating other than “Met Expectation” is given, comments are required from the assessor. This helps the organization to institute appropriate reward systems for individuals who exceed expectations, as well as development plans to address areas where improvement is required.

Scoring Core Values

When it comes to scoring, all core values objectives have a priority rating of “3”. It is generally recommended to have at least five core values that are assessed during employee evaluations. At the end of the review period, SPPAS will assign an overall rating for the core values called the “Core Values Score.” The criteria for this rating are as follows:

When a review has 5 or more Core Values objectives:

Core Values Score	Criteria
Exceeded Expectation (EE)	3 or more EEs and Zero (0) IRs
Met Expectation (ME)	A combination of MEs, EE and one (1) IR
Improvement Required (IR)	2 or more RIs, and a combination of ME and EE

When a review has 4 or less Core Values objectives:

Core Values Score	Criteria
Exceeded Expectation (EE)	All ratings are EE
Met Expectation (ME)	A combination of EEs and MEs
Improvement Required (IR)	One (1) or more RIs

Overall Scoring

At the end of the review period, SPPAS will also assign an overall rating called the “Overall Score“, which takes into account all Key Business Areas and the Core Values Score. The criteria for this overall rating are as follows:

Overall Score	Criteria
Exceptional Contribution (EC)	Achieve EE ratings in all priority 3 objectives. Achieve ME ratings in all priority 1 and 2 objectives. No IRs in any performance objective area (priorities 1, 2 or 3).
Outstanding Contribution (OC)	Achieve EE ratings in 50% or more of priority 3 objectives. No RIs in priority 3 objectives. At most one (1) IR in priority 1 and or 2 objectives.
Met Expectation (ME)	Achieve a combination of EEs, MEs and IR in priorities 1, 2 and 3 objectives. At most one (1) IR in the overall performance.
Improvement Required (IR)	Achieve a combination of EEs, MEs and IRs in priorities 1, 2 and 3 objectives. Two (2) or more IRs ratings achieved in the overall performance.