Employee Evaluation Through the Peer Review Process
The peer review process can be an effective tool when properly used as a part of the employee evaluation process. Employee bonuses and pay increases are often based on employee evaluations. A common pitfall of the traditional employee evaluation process is that supervisors often see only that an employee's work has been done or not done. A supervisor's perception of who is doing what work is often different from workers' perceptions. The peer review process gives employees a voice so they have the opportunity to give management a clearer picture of how work gets done within the organization.
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History
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A form of peer review has been used by the military for decades. The peer review process was first established for business uses in the early 1980s at General Electric. The process was initially used as a grievance procedure for employees to use to take part in solving their own workplace problems. It was originally designed as a tool for avoiding union intervention. The usefulness of the peer review process as an employee evaluation tool eventually became evident as the process evolved.
Function
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The employee evaluation is used for many purposes in addition to determining pay increases and bonuses. The peer review process can be used as a part of the employee evaluation to determine current levels of work performance and to identify areas that need improvement. The evaluation serves as a benchmark against which to measure future performance. A properly executed employee evaluation should also improve communications among staff members, establishing expectations so there is no doubt as to what is expected of each employee.
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Significance
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The peer review process adds value to the employee evaluation process when evaluations are used to determine pay raises. While traditional employee review processes can easily determine very high performers versus very low performers, they are not able to differentiate between middle performers. This can lead to a perception of unfairness among employees who feel they are not adequately recognized for doing better work than other middle performers. This process also helps guard against unfair bias that may occur when an employee is evaluated by only one supervisor as opposed to a number of co-workers.
Types
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Peer review evaluations can be set up to evaluate a variety of qualities depending on a specific organization's values. For example, one organization may place a high value on personal integrity while another organization values the ability to minimize expenses. Additionally, some peer reviews require that employees review only co-workers at their same level while others implement a 360-degree review in which employees review employees at all levels. No matter what type of peer review is implemented, in most cases, reviews are submitted anonymously.
Warnings
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Employee evaluations should always be based on work performance. Employee evaluation peer reviews must be implemented in such a way as to consider the history and organizational culture of a particular organization as well as the needs of management at multiple levels. There should also be a process for employees to challenge peer review scores in cases where a specific employee is unpopular with co-workers for personal reasons. In those cases, an employee may unfairly receive a poor score based on a personality conflict rather than actual work performance.
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References
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