In my last Insight, I explained that employees actually do want to receive a job performance evaluation.
My initial thought was to give an example of a time when I helped a company with job performance evaluations, but as I started thinking back, I realized that this is a topic I help companies with almost every day.
One of the most common mistakes companies make is they believe that performance evaluations are a once-a-year event. Usually what happens is companies put the evaluations off until the end of the year. Then, as the end of the year approaches, employers call me in an attempt to do last minute performance evaluations for their staff without having done any of the prep work throughout the year.
For example, let’s say it’s October. A company has just come to me and said they want to conduct job performance evaluations, but in my quest for information about what they’ve already done up to this point, I realize they have, not once, even taken the time to sit down with their employees. Job descriptions are either out of date or non-existent. They haven’t explained what their expectations of employees are; haven’t agreed on any goals with their employees; and haven’t measured employees’ performance in any way.
A performance evaluation is not something that can effectively be done on a moment’s notice. Performance management is a process that starts with preparatory work, including:
- Having current and accurate job descriptions that outline the essential functions of each position
- Meeting with employees early on in the performance appraisal cycle to discuss and set employee expectations and goals
- Checking in with the employees on a regular basis (monthly, quarterly, etc.) on how they’re performing throughout the year
- Issuing employees counseling or training when/if necessary
- And even possibly allowing employees to evaluate themselves
After moving through all the steps in the performance evaluation cycle, then you should be in a position to conduct an effective performance review.
One of the most important pieces to the performance evaluation is the rating system. While a numbered rating system may, on the surface, seem objective, a numbered rating system without clear, sound definitions can create quite a bit of subjectivity and inconsistency.
An Example
I do remember a client that I worked with not too long ago who needed some help in the area of their rating scale. This was a classic case of a company who had not taken any of the necessary steps in the performance evaluation cycle prior to writing up the evaluation form. The company was one week away from sitting down with each employee to go over his/her performance review. They were just waiting for the CEO to sign-off on the reviews.
Their specific issue was, however, that their CEO didn’t like the fact that some employees were going to receive a rating of “5”which, in his mind, meant “excellent.” He required the managers go back and redo all the performance reviews and insisted that no “5s” be given out at all.
Fortunately, I was able to work with them to “define” their rating scale and help them come up with their justification for each evaluation.
Understanding what the ratings mean and how to evaluate employees is an important part of conducting a job performance evaluation.
So, when you’re thinking about introducing a performance management process into your organization, the first thing you want to do is decide when you want to have your performance evaluations completed. Once you choose what that date is, you can then work backwards to determine the performance appraisal cycle and the steps you’ll need to take, so you can have a more complete way of evaluating employees.