An Investigation into the Effectiveness of the Current Performance Appraisal System and Its Contribution to Employee Performance for National Health Laboratory Services Employees at Amajuba-Mzinyathi and Umkhanya-Zulu Business Units, Kwazulu-Natal Region

The study investigates the effectiveness of the performance appraisal (PA) system and its impact on employee performance. The objectives of the study included examining the effectiveness of the current performance appraisal system, determining whether performance appraisal has an impact on the performance of employees, investigating the benefits of performance appraisal feedback on employee performance, and providing practical recommendations to the management on how to best improve the effectiveness of the PA system in the National Health Laboratory Services (NHLS) at Umkhanya-Zulu and Amajuba-Mzinyathi Business Units, KwaZulu-Natal region. A quantitative approach was used to determine whether the current performance appraisal is effective or not. Simple random sampling was used to select the samples, and a survey questionnaire was distributed to the participants. The target population of the study consisted of 233 participants, of which 120 were the target sample size. The samples were employees who were working at the Amajuba-Mzinyathi and Umkhanya-Zulu NHLS Business Units. The list of participants was taken from the NHLS intranet, and they were given a unique number, starting from 1 to 233. The Excel spreadsheet was used to generate the random values, and after the numbers were randomised, the first 120 names were selected. The data analysis was done using the IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) tool. The results revealed that there is a significant positive outcome from the current performance appraisal used by the organisation. Performance appraisals have an impact on employee performance, and feedback is given to employees on how to improve unsatisfactory performance. The study also found that there is great value in having a performance appraisal system in the organisation, and employees do benefit from this exercise. On the other side, the study findings show a need to have regular performance appraisal exercises instead of only twice a year.