Can you apply the same value to your appraisal process as Timpsons the Cobblers?

Your appraisal process needs to work for your business, therefore it must suit the culture of your business.

Done right the process can be a success for both the smallest businesses and multinational corporations. Timpsons the cobblers story is proof that appraisals can work for a business employing mostly manual labourers.

Timpsons, the cobblers, heel bar and repairs retailer is a very successful business with hundreds of outlets all over the country. John Timpson has heralded an ‘upside down management approach’, embedded within this approach are the same key elements of an effective appraisal system that grows people in order to grow its business.

Every team in every store is free to run their own branch in the way they feel best, with their sales target being their one and only goal.

This means that the goal is simple, the goal helps grow the business and the goal provides a framework of transparency and accountability which means that the team are empowered. The team in turn want to work towards growing themselves and the business.

There is real value in their appraisal process.

Given that Timpsons employees are mainly rehabilitated criminals this is a testament to the simplicity of the well managed performance review process. ​