WORKING WOUNDED --- EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE EVALUATIONS from "More Tips for Giving Effective Employee Evaluations" Part 2 by Bob Rosner, Allan Halcrow and Alan Levins. Corner Office, ABC Working Wounded, July 11, 2003, (copyright 2002)
Get employee input. A review is an opportunity for dialogue, not a one-sided information dump. Encourage employees to rate their own performance. Most will be honest, and they may raise issues that surprise you. Always leave space on the review form for employees to respond to their review.
A good review is as much about the future as it is about the past! It should give an employee a good idea of what's next.
See the list of 12 self review questions for conversation starters below.
[1] How can he/she earn another raise?
[2] Is there training he/she needs or can opt for?
[3] Are there deficiencies that the employee must address?
[4] Are there problems that can result in discipline or termination?
[5] What opportunities exist for promotion, and how are they earned?
[6] What goals do you have for the employee in the coming year?
[7] If you don't foresee any significant changes in the employee's job, he or she deserves to know that, too!
Meet with the employee.
A review is an opportunity for discussion, so just handing an employee his review isn't enough. Sit down with the employee and talk through the year's accomplishments and the next year's goals.
These meetings work best if you: Set aside at least 30 minutes for a meeting. Make an appointment. Give the employee a copy of the review during your meeting so he can be prepared to ask questions or comment. Get a copy of the employee's comments so you can review them. Meet in private and deflect interruptions. Meet in a neutral place, such as a conference room. Spend at least as much time listening as talking.
Review the job description.
If an employee's job has changed enough that her or his job description is no longer current, now is a great time to update it and review it with her or him.
Stay out of jail --- focus on job performance! Reviews should be fair and objective, so your personal feelings about the employee are irrelevant.
Everything in the review should relate directly to job issues!
Don't comment on an employee's religion, politics, marital status or other characteristics.
Don't guess at the motivation for behavior. Stick to the facts!
Include objective data whenever possible. When the review is subjective, draw conclusions yourself and base them on specific work-related incidents or behavior!
Don't rely on hearsay or gossip.
Be honest! Tell it like it is. If the employee is excelling, say so!
But if there's a problem, be candid. Document the problem and outline the steps you expect the employee to take to improve. Don't rate an employee higher than she/he merits to simply "encourage" her or him or to reward good intentions, or to "help" her/him through a tough personal time, or because you like her or him.
Remember, a review could end up in court. It should be the truth!
Keep the review. Copies of the review should go in the employee's file. Have her/him sign the review to indicate that she/he received it and understands it. Keep it confidential. The contents of a review should be between you and the employee --- and in some cases the human resources department.
Don't share the contents of a review with anyone else --- even if the review is positive.
Avoid common mistakes! The road to a good review is studded with land mines.
To avoid them:
Measure an employee's performance against the objective work "standards" for the job, not against the "performance" of other people in the job. If no one is performing well, then everyone is falling short of expectations. Poor performance is still poor performance, not "average" or "acceptable" performance.
Don't let your review of one employee affect your review of others. For example, don't let a superstar or poor performer raise or lower your standards when reviewing the next employee.
Don't mistake kindness, favors to you or loyalty to you for performance.
Don't do reviews at 10:00 p.m. or when you are out of town. Be awake!
Don't spend less than 30 minutes on any one review. Don't do all your reviews in one sitting. Don't set a goal to do a set number of reviews at any one time. Go over and proofread your review at least one day after you write it. Don't check reviews in the same order in which you wrote them.
Real Life Examples:
Dave's review was months late, but his manager assured him that he would "get to it." Then, as the six-month mark approached, the manager gave notice that he was leaving. Still no review. Finally, on the manager's last day, he asked Dave for a ride home. As they pulled into the manager's driveway, Dave finally got his review: three lines scribbled on the back of scratch paper.
The HR department acknowledged John's five years with the company by giving him his five-year pin. But he didn't get a review. Weeks passed, then months, then his anniversary date: When he finally got his review-along with another five-year pin-it was more than a year late. No one mentioned the entire sixth year he had also worked. "Either I worked my fifth year twice," John said, "or the sixth year doesn't count."
Madeline had been with her company for more than three years, and it was time for her annual review. It was, as always, positive. Then there it was, in the last sentence on the last page: promotion to manager of her department. Surprise! No one had ever asked Madeline whether she wanted to be a manager. No one had told her that she was being considered for the job, or shared what the job entailed. No one had in any way prepared her for the responsibility she had just been handed. Her supervisor put off doing Mary's review because she wanted to identify all the work-related problems she was having with Mary and develop a performance plan to correct them.
Months went by and the problems persisted. Then Mary announced that she was pregnant. Two weeks later, she made another mistake like those that Mary's boss had to intended to discuss during the review. Feeling that the mistake was the last straw, the boss went to HR with her decision to fire Mary. But HR was surprised that the boss didn't see how her decision seemed to be based on Mary's pregnancy. After all, there was no review to suggest that Mary had performance problems --- and certainly not ongoing ones. Mary stayed.
Do At Least the Minimum:
Do reviews on time. Put your comments in writing. Be accurate and honest. Meet with employees to discuss the review.
Bob Rosner is the co-author of The Boss's Survival Guide, McGraw-Hill, 2001, along with Allan Halcrow, former editor of Workforce Magazine and Alan Levins, senior partner of San Francisco-based employer law firm Littler Mendelson. Rosner is also founder of the award-winning workingwounded.com. He can be reached via fax at (206) 780-4353, and via e-mail at: bob@workingwounded.com.
Self-Reviews --- 12 Question:
An employee's insight into her or his own performance can be invaluable. Use these questions to jump start the conversation:
1. Of all the things you've done during the past year, what's the one accomplishment you're most satisfied with? Why?
2. Of all the things you've done during the last year, what's the one accomplishment you're least satisfied with? Why?
3. Based on what you've experienced during the last year, what's a situation you'll handle differently when you encounter it again?
How is this new approach better?
4. What have you learned about your job that you didn't know 12 months ago?
5. What have you learned about yourself that you didn't know 12 months ago?
6. When it's time for your next review, what's one thing you would like to have accomplished? Why?
7. In working toward that goal, what resources do you feel are available to you? That is, what here will help you meet your goal?
8. In working toward that goal, are there any obstacles (e.g., time, money, lack of expertise) that you feel you face? If so, how can you overcome them?
9. How can I, as your manager, help you meet that goal?
10. What has been your biggest job-related frustration during the past 12 months?
11. What ideas do you have for alleviating the frustrations?
12. How are you more valuable to the organization than you were 12 months ago?
Copyright © 2002 ABC News Internet Ventures.
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