Human resources professionals, managers and department heads have a plethora of options when selecting performance evaluations and development strategies and tools. Employee evaluations are an important part of a company’s quality assurance. Many companies formally evaluate an employee’s performance and progress after an initial trial period and then again on an annual or semi-annual basis. Although performance evaluations can improve productivity and employee morale, many employers do not make them a high priority because they are time-consuming and are sometimes viewed by managers as having little practical value.
There are many reasons why employers should make them a high priority. Here are a just few:
- To promote growth and competence and to increase employee productivity
- To facilitate employer-employee communication and develop relationships
- To hold all employees to the same standard of performance and identify high and low performers
- To let employees know how they are doing
- To document incidents of poor performance for future reference
- To establish valid defenses for employment litigation and legitimate reasons for termination
- To determine the level of salary increases
In addition, the increasing number of discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuits illustrate the importance of performance documentation as a means of justifying the legitimate business reasons underlying an employer’s personnel decisions. A series of well-documented evaluations that clearly describe an employee’s poor performance provides the employer with objective evidence of legitimate and nondiscriminatory reasons to support a job transfer, demotion, layoff or termination. Failure to conduct formal evaluations may leave an employer vulnerable in a discrimination of wrongful discharge lawsuit.
There are a few best practices when implementing performance evaluations. Here are a few to remember:
- Perform formal evaluations at the same time for everyone each year. While this increases the workload of managers and supervisors during review time, it forces direct comparisons of employees and establishes a non-biased system.
- Clearly communicate to employees what their duties are and what is satisfactory performance. Accomplish this through periodic reviews of job descriptions, training, and both formal and informal appraisal.
- Tell employees the criteria upon which their performance will be reviewed. Develop standards and establish reasonable goals for employees. Make sure that employees understand the consequences of their failure to improve.
- Don’t wait until the annual evaluation to provide feedback; offer it throughout the year. Give both positive and negative feedback.
- Document poor performance in writing. This can be done in the form of coaching, training, discipline or assessment.
- Meet with employees to discuss all evaluations and expectations. Keep a record of the meeting. Have employees sign the evaluation. While the employee may not agree with it, it provides evidence that the employee has seen it and has been given a copy. If the employee refuses to sign, the individual giving the evaluation should sign it along with a witness noting that the employee was given a copy.
- Always be sure to follow established procedures strictly. Apply all procedures and standards equally to all employees.
- Make sure employees understand the consequences for failure to perform at an acceptable level. There should be no surprises in employee supervision and evaluation.
- Managers should be held responsible for helping subordinates develop and improve.
If your organization is already implementing an annual performance review, stick with it and make sure all managers complete it timely. If your organization does not currently have a performance review in place, it may be in your best interest to research some of the options out there. From a productivity perspective, regular performance reviews can help ensure that employees are meeting performance expectations. They can also help evaluate individuals, teams and managers and find under-performers that need to be addressed. All of this, and more, can help your company succeed as well as attract and retain valuable employees.
This is not intended to be personal or legal advice. Information provided by Barrow Group, LLC.