Employee Evaluations: When To Conduct Them

Many companies will set aside specific dates at a predetermined frequency for employee evaluations, whether that frequency is monthly, quarterly or semi-annually. Although there is no inherent harm in such a system as long as the evaluations are conducted in a healthy manner (see Conducting A Fair Employee Evaluation for more details on this), I am a fan of bucking the trend entirely if possible.

Whoa… Are You Saying I Should Ignore Employee Evaluations?

No! Not at all. Employee evaluations are an absolute necessity; without them a manager would have no grasp of his team or its strengths and weaknesses. They also benefit employees, because most responsible workers thrive on feedback. They want to know how they are performing, and they want to know about any potential weaknesses that they should work on. Without this feedback, an employee would be flying blind; he wouldn't know how his promotional goals were proceeding or how secure his job was.

When I advocate bucking the employee evaluations trend, I mean evaluations should not be a structured or disciplined affair. A truly successful manager is flexible and proactive, two qualities that can easily take a backseat within a structured evaluation system.

Employee evaluations should be an almost daily affair depending on the size of your organization and how much time you can dedicate to each of your charges (if you are responsible for too many people it can become difficult to offer one-on-one time to everyone each day). The moment you observe a weakness you should tackle it head-on by pulling the employee aside and sharing both your observation and recommended solution. The same holds true for positive motivation – when you observe an employee doing a great job make sure you compliment him for it.

I tend to shun general meetings and/or employee evaluations whenever possible, because I prefer regular contact and exchanges of thoughts to rigid and predetermined sessions. When team meetings are necessary so I can exchange information relevant to the entire team I don't hesitate to call them, but I never organize meetings just to say we met as is so often done in the corporate world. I have found that daily (or frequent) one-on-one communication with team members goes a lot farther than weekly team meetings that don't contain a specific reason or purpose.

The thought of daily one-on-one meetings or employee evaluations could scare some people at first thought. After all, how the heck can you meet with so many people so often? That is exactly why the corporate world has adopted frequent team meetings and/or structured employee evaluations. But consider what a meeting truly is.

When you exchange a "good morning" with a passerby on the street, technically you had a meeting. Sure, it was a five-second one, and yes, chances are you will never meet that person again. But it was a meeting and a brief bit of communication was exchanged nevertheless.

The same holds true for your team members. A simple "hello, how is everything today?" keeps the lines of communication open and improves morale because it shows your employee that you actually care about them rather than just their workload. When you do this regularly they grow comfortable with you, and such inquiries provides a great opportunity for the employee to voice any potential concerns they might have about their job or ability to meet a specific goal. It also affords you the opportunity to amiably bring up any potential concerns you have about their work.

So try to brush the commonly accepted definition of "meeting" out of your mind: they don't have to be such boring, lengthy or extravagant affairs! Meetings and spontaneous employee evaluations can last for only a fleeting minute, but as long as they achieve the following they were successes:

  • They kept the lines of communication open.
  • They showed your employee that you are a member of the team, not a distant outsider that only pops up to "lay down the law."
  • They are generally friendly, non-combative sessions, even if you have to criticize certain areas of the employee's performance.
  • They provide an opportunity for both you and your employee to bring up any pressing issues.

Don't fall into the trap of making employee evaluations more grandeur or self-important than they should be. The best ones are those that flow naturally during day-to-day business.