In my last Insight, I talked about some common mistakes managers/supervisors make when it comes to conducting a job performance evaluation.
If you want to conduct effective job performance evaluations for your employees, here are some recommendations you might want to use:
- Have a detailed job description for each employee—A good job description is a great reference for both the manager/supervisor and the employee in detailing the duties and responsibilities of a particular position. It is also an excellent tool for setting clear expectations and then measuring the employee’s job performance against those objective expectations.
- Keep good notes— Managers/supervisors will want to keep notes throughout the entire evaluation period and not hold it all until the job performance review at the end of the year. You might not remember everything or might tend to focus on things that happened most recently instead of focusing on the year overall. Besides that, your brain could explode from “keeping it all in your head.” Just kidding, but why put that pressure on yourself as a manager/supervisor at the end of every year for every employee? What a relief to know that you have notes to reference when preparing for the performance evaluation meeting with the employee. Besides that, the employee will be impressed that you remembered some things that perhaps he/she had even forgotten.
- Be prepared—Managers/supervisors who dread preparing for a performance evaluation are typically managers/supervisors who have not kept notes throughout the year and/or those who wait until the last minute to try to review their notes and to set future goals. You need to know and be prepared to discuss, well in advance, what your employees are doing, what they’ve accomplished, where they need to improve, etc. Otherwise, you really can’t be effective in giving a job performance evaluation, and the employee loses, too, because he/she won’t get any constructive feedback. Employees know when a manager/supervisor is “winging it” without proper preparation, and it could cost the employee’s trust and respect in the working relationship. The employee could get the idea that his/her work doesn’t matter enough for the manager/supervisor to take the time to prepare for the meeting.
- Have discussions on an ongoing basis—Managers/supervisors need to discuss with employees on an ongoing basis all areas of their performance-both positive and negative. Not taking the time to communicate with an employee and to give him/her feedback all along the way, is like putting someone in a car in New York without a map or a GPS and telling him/her to drive to California by just following the other cars. You will only let the person know when he/she gets to California how well he/she did in getting across country.
- No surprises—Managers/supervisors should avoid SURPRISES during the performance evaluation meeting by giving ongoing feedback throughout the year. If you wait until the end of the year to let your employees know how they’re doing, you’re going to catch them off-guard, which could make them defensive and unable to focus on the rest of the meeting—let alone the dread factor for the employees in next year’s performance evaluation meeting!
Employees want to know when they are doing something wrong, so they can improve and grow. And if you wait until the end of the year to tell them they’ve been doing something wrong all along, you may cost the company money and productivity. In addition, an employee is likely to ask you, “Why didn’t you tell me about this six months ago, so I could go a different direction?” Company management might also be asking that same question!
For all the reasons above, I always encourage managers/supervisors to keep the lines of communication open at all times and to be upfront with those employees who report to them. That way, you allow the employee to have the benefit of your guidance, expertise and support, which then provides each employee an even greater opportunity for success. You know what I always call that—WIN-WIN!!
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