Conducting A Fair Employee Evaluation - Part 2

In Part One of Conducting A Fair Employee Evaluation we took a detailed look at the harmful style of evaluations that seem to run rampant throughout so many workplaces. Now it's time to look at a healthy and productive employee evaluation.

Mary's Employee Evaluation

Mary has been working for her company for almost six months, and now it's the day for the company's semi-annual evaluations. Although she is a bit unnerved about the event (who wouldn't be?), she remains fairly confident about it. After all, she's struck up a decent relationship with her manager and is fully aware of views about her work.

When her name is called, Mary enters the office and is immediately greeted in the same friendly manner as the manager has used almost daily. After a bit of small talk is exchanged, the manager slips into the purpose of the meeting: the evaluation. He explains that her proficiency with the company spreadsheets has come a long way since his last chat with her, and although she is still not quite meeting the company standards he clearly recognizes her progress.

On the other he wholeheartedly applauds her dedication to the company and her upbeat and cheerful demeanor; she's a joy to the workplace and has integrated herself well within the existing company team. He concludes the meeting by thanking her for the work she's done and encourages her to seek him out if there's any way he can help her continue working towards the minimum spreadsheet proficiency requirement. She walks out satisfied; although her work is still somewhat flawed at least she understood where he was coming from and felt that he had her best interests at heart.

How Did This Employee Evaluation Differ?

First, we can see that the manager was dedicated to providing a balanced assessment of Mary's strengths and weaknesses. It is also clearly evident that he plays an active role within the team and has already coached Mary about her weaknesses before this meeting ever took place.

Rather than feeling ambushed and pessimistic like Joe did, Mary fully understood where her manager was coming from. She was also grateful for his support and praise for her strengths. Mary left the office with her head help up high and her motivation to continue improving her spreadsheet proficiency at an all-time high. The employee evaluation was clearly a success.

What Did We Learn From These Two Cases?

  1. Do not take a stern or combative approach towards your company evaluations because an employee evaluation does not have to be an event that people dread or fear.
  2. Never reserve your criticisms of an employee's work for an official evaluation. Management is a daily job – you should express a concern about an employee's performance to him immediately so that he can attempt to remedy the problem. Do not ambush employees with unexpected complaints.
  3. Always offer a balanced employee evaluation. True evaluations look at both the good and the bad, not just at what requires fixing. If you cannot find any praise for your employee during an evaluation, perhaps he shouldn't be an employee.
  4. When an employee has made progress on his weaknesses, make sure you acknowledge it. Few things can crush morale as quickly as feeling your best efforts and/or progress is not being appreciated.
  5. Always be willing to help an employee reach their workplace goals. Contrary to the opinion of some, a manager's primary task is to promote a healthy and motivated team atmosphere. Flawed managers behave as taskmasters; superior managers serve as mentors and fellow team members.