It’s mid-term appraisal time in my office and I’m pleased to say that my discussion with my boss went well.

Nowadays you get an app for almost anything so a part of me wishes that appraisals could rather be done via an app in a similar way in which runners track their running performance via Strava. 

What Strava does is take all the info recorded on my Garmin running watch and presents it in fancy graphs with an analysis of all runs, times, distances etc. You can’t fool the analysis. My Garmin knows when I have struggled up the nasty uphills. My Garmin knows when I have hit those down hills and managed to speed up. It is also able to track my distances accurately to the last meter and display it on a map.

There’s no bullshitting involved. What you see is what you get; measurable and exact.

On Strava I can’t get away with boasting inaccurate pace times or falsifying PBs (personal bests) because it’s all documented and open for all to see. It’s also a very clear indication of when I slack off and don’t run.

An app would assist my boss to track team performance every month – the highs and the lows; projects completed, times when staff members have gone the extra mile and the impact of stress in the office on attitude and morale.

By far the greatest benefit of the app would be during appraisal times when majority of staff feel that scores and ratings are largely based on people’s perceptions instead of real measurement. It would be a far more accurate and fair comparison of everyone’s performance.

It’s just a thought running through my head…