How to Conduct an Employee Performance Evaluation
Employees are an organization's most important resource. Managers owe it to themselves, their employer and the customers to ensure that employees are properly doing the work they are paid to perform. One key way to do this is through regular employee performance evaluations. Effective appraisal of employee performance helps identify strengths and weaknesses and set goals with the aim of improving individual performance. The performance evaluation should be a collaboration between the supervisor and the employee.
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Things You'll Need
- Evaluation forms
- Employee job description
- Notes from observations over the past year
Instructions
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Review company policy on evaluations. Obtain any forms you need from your supervisor or from the human resources department.
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Notify employees about 30 days in advance that you will conduct evaluations in the coming month. Circulate the evaluation form so employees know exactly what the review will be based on. If your company requires employees to fill out self-assessment forms, distribute them and set a deadline for when your employees must return them to you.
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Use each employee's written job description to determine what skills and attributes you will base your appraisal on. Try to connect your evaluation process to the core values of your organization.
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Take some quality time to complete the evaluation form for each employee. Look over your notes from the previous year, and review your calendar to jog your memory about projects your team worked on.
Rate each employee as honestly and as objectively as you can. If the evaluation form has a ranking system, choose the middle score to indicate when an employee has done his job adequately. Save the lowest or highest values for truly poor or truly outstanding performance. Use the comments section of the evaluation form for examples that illustrate your reason for selecting the score you chose.
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Avoid over-leniency and over-strictness. Praise whenever possible. When you must indicate that improvement is needed, emphasize this as a way for the employee to experience future professional development and personal growth.
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Schedule a private meeting with each employee to share your evaluation. Plan for uninterrupted time without distractions. Go through each point of the evaluation as thoroughly as you can.
Try to be as calm and dispassionate as possible, especially if you have to explain that the employee needs to improve in certain areas. Remember that many employees take this process very personally and may view any suggestions that they need to improve as being harsh, overly critical or unfair.
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Sign the form in her presence, and have the employee also sign it as an indication that she understands and accepts the contents of the evaluation. Make a copy for the employee and one for her permanent personnel file.
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Tips & Warnings
The evaluation must emphasize performance, not personality, and behavior, not attitude.
If you're preparing to do your first employee performance evaluation, seek advice from your own supervisor or another manager you respect.
Employee performance evaluations become part of an employee's personnel file. Be sure your evaluation is neat, clear and concise.
Be able to back up anything you note in the evaluation with specific examples.
References
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