HR Mavericks

Eddy’s HR Mavericks Encyclopedia

Employee Evaluation
Anyone who has ever worked in a company knows that employee evaluations are a fact of life. It's important to have some form of system in place to track employee progress and make sure they are meeting the standards of the company. But do employees really understand what their evaluation is all about? And more importantly, how can they use it to improve their work performance? In this article, we'll take a closer look at employee evaluations and what you need to know to make the most of them.

What Is an Employee Evaluation?

Employee evaluations are a necessary aspect of any business as they can help employees develop their skills and highlight how they contribute to the company's success. Evaluations should be done often enough that HR has a clear idea of employees’ strengths and where improvements need to be made. This article will discuss best practices for evaluations for both HR and managers.

Why Are Employee Evaluations Important?

Employee evaluations are important because they provide a snapshot of how well an employee is performing and identify areas that need improvement. They also help managers and employees develop goals for the future, which can lead to increased productivity and satisfaction at work. Finally, evaluations can be used to justify promotions or salary increases.
  • Employee snapshot. Employee snapshots are important because they provide an overview of your staff. It helps you gain insight into their strengths, weaknesses, and how they can improve the company's performance. An employee evaluation may, for example, show whether your workers have a strong understanding of computer software applications for finances. It's critical to evaluate employees' abilities in workplace planning processes, as these are most likely to go unnoticed, leading to costly errors with severe business consequences.
  • Performance standards. Performance standards are a type of baseline for evaluating employees. Performance standards are a benchmark against which performance is measured. For example, delivering quarterly reports to the executive leadership team might be a performance standard you set for your company. An employee who fails to provide executives with timely financial reports four times each year falls below the employer's expectations. The importance of this therefore must be communicated to the employee properly, because if there is no method to communicate performance criteria, the employer is neglecting to provide employees with the resources they need to do their tasks well.
  • Company Efficacy. The evaluation process is a way for managers to recognize employees who put in long hours and hard work. Feedback from evaluations allows employees to know how much they are appreciated, which goes hand-in-hand with fostering company teamwork. It also provides valuable insight into areas certain workers shine and others struggle to ensure everyone is maximizing his or her potential!

How Often Should Employee Evaluations Be Conducted?

The frequency of employee evaluations should be determined by the organization. Some organizations conduct them more than once a year, while others may only do one or two in an employee's lifetime. The frequency of the evaluation is usually determined by the individual company policies and culture. Employees should be evaluated more often when they are new to a company or if the job requires it. One of the most common ways employers evaluate their employees is through regular performance reviews or 360-degree reviews. These take place periodically throughout the year, usually quarterly or semiannually depending on each company's needs and policies.

How to Conduct an Employee Evaluation

The process of an employee evaluation can vary from company to company, but generally, it will resemble something like this:

Step 1: Start with a Year to Year Review

The employee and manager sit down together to discuss the employee's goals for the next review period, followed by a review of the progress made towards the goals set during the last review. An accurate comparison is very important in order to identify areas of strength and potential growth for the employee.

Step 2: Examine Successful Creativity and Problem Solving

Another area often left underutilized is examining and affirming an employee’s ability to creatively be themselves. The best employees are those who think outside the box. When considering an employee's creativity level (besides whether or not they were successful), observe how much input they had in challenging fundamental theories for a given problem. Did they take risks without hesitation because the work benefited from such courage even though the failure was possible? Future company leaders can be identified early with this criteria in place.

Step 3: Create Mutually Exclusive Goals and a Plan of Action

As the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink. You must not only assist your employee in finding his or her path to success, but you must also ensure it points in the direction they want to go. Sometimes this means taking a step back and allowing them to find their own way. Other times it might mean lending an ear or sharing words of wisdom. Once a mutual agreement is reached, a clear direction can be established by creating achievable steps leading toward the mutual goal.

Step 4: End the Evaluation With Recognition

Many employers use employee appraisals to assess performance. Employee evaluations that are based on supervisors' observations and judgments of workers' performance can have a significant influence on an employee's salary or wage raises. Supervisor and management evaluations give managers a chance to praise employees for their hard effort, dedication, and dedication. Ending the evaluation on a good note is a sure-fire way to help the employee resonate positively with future evaluations.
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Steven Farber

Steven Farber

I spent much of my working life in a whirlwind of uncertainty wondering when I would find a career that would make me happy. After spending 23 years trying to find that 'dream career' I came to a sobering conclusion. I realized that I wasn't looking for a career, but for a purpose and that I would never be happy until I figured out what that purpose was. After a long hard road of trial and error, I concluded that my purpose, the very activity that brought me happiness was when I could bring that happiness to others first. Removing the vast amounts of uncertainty this life can bring for others and replacing it with true peace of mind, gave me my much sought-after peace of mind.
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Frequently asked questions
Other Related Terms
360 Review
9 Box Talent Review
Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scale (BARS)
Demotion
Employee Disengagement
Employee Engagement
Employee Monitoring
Employee Morale
Employee Productivity
Extrinsic Motivation
Graphic Rating Scale
Intrinsic Motivation
Motivational Interviewing in the Workplace
Multi-Rater Feedback
OKRs
Organizational Development (OD)
Performance Improvement Plans
Performance Management
Performance Review
Promotions
Quiet Firing
Quiet Quitting
SBI Feedback
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