Conducting A Fair Employee Evaluation - Part 1

Employee evaluation… two words that both human resources managers and employees alike often dread. Employees are often insecure about the process because they believe it an outlet designed for criticism (sadly, all too often it is). Meanwhile, managers often dread these evaluations because they enjoy giving criticism about as much as employees enjoy receiving it. Few of us truly want to hurt another person's feelings.

Unfortunately despite the negative perceptions that many have of employee evaluations, they are a necessary fact of life in the workplace. Managers must always evaluate the performance of those who work under them, and employees must always strive to perform up to the expectations of management.

Fear Not The Employee Evaluation

An employee evaluation need not be a thing that people within your organization fear. In fact if properly conducted, an evaluation can be a very positive event that people actually look forward to. How is that? Well, first let's look at an all too common flawed manner in which employee evaluations are handled.

Joe's Employee Evaluation

March 21 st has arrived – the scheduled date for employee evaluations in Joe's department. One by one Joe's peers are called into the manager's office, and one by one they leave his office with downcast expressions and drooped shoulders. When the manager appears in the doorway and barks out Joe's name, he draws a deep breath, braces himself and enters the office.

Once there, the manager starts listing off problem areas that he wants to see Joe improve upon. Joe isn't providing enough detail in his business documents. Joe is working at a pace below the manager's expectations. In fact, the manager just doesn't feel like Joe is a part of the team; he feels that Joe is simply there to get by with the minimum of work required to get a paycheck.

This absolutely shocks Joe because this is the first he has heard of these problems. He thought his documentation was suitable, he thought he was keeping up with his work well enough and he certainly enjoys working with the company. Where did this criticism come from? With a crashing hit to his morale, Joe agrees to try and improve and exits the office in a dejected manner. His employee evaluation was a disaster.

It Doesn't Have To Be This Way

Some very serious errors took place in the sample employee evaluation above. First, by the appearance of all those entering and leaving the office, it's clear the manager was using the evaluation as an outlet for criticisms and concerns rather than a balanced assessment of the employee's future. In most cases an employee should leave an evaluation feeling positive and upbeat, not downcast and depressed. Evaluations should contain an equal balance of criticisms and praises so that the employee feels you are judging him fairly rather than targeting only the negatives.

In addition Joe was completely caught off-guard with the manager's criticisms. As far as he was aware, he was performing just fine, so he felt ambushed by the complaints.

Now that you have seen the disastrous evaluation that is all too common in today's workplaces, continue on to Part Two of Conducting A Fair Employee Evaluation to see how a proper evaluation.