Blog Post: Effective Staff Evaluations

Staff evaluation time is coming up again soon.  There is probably no task except filing taxes that generates more excuses and procrastination than this one.  But rather than being a time that everyone dreads, staff evaluations can be a time to motivate and coach employees to achieve their best.  Here are a few tips.

1). Disconnect staff evaluations from the raise/no raise process.  Basing a raise on the staff evaluation simply creates dishonesty and knotted stomachs.  A good manager should be able to determine who has done a great job and who has not without going through the staff evaluation.  Make raises based on the year’s performance, not the evaluation.

2).  Many managers and staff members have a hard time remembering what the employee did right in the previous year.  This means that most evaluations are concentrated on very short periods of time immediately preceding the evaluation, wherein the employee may have been performing above or below his or her normal level.  This leads to the perception that evaluations are about “kissing butt” rather than an objective evaluation of what has been done right.  This argues for much more frequent evaluations as well as a system of tracking successes.  Make it a habit to send an “attaboy/attagirl” email to each employee who does something very right throughout the year.  Then you simply have to search on the employee’s email address in your “sent” file to remember what was done right, and your employee simply has to search in his or her saved in-box.  This makes evaluations much more objective.

3).  Many managers feel that they have to criticize the employee or find something wrong with the employee’s work in the evaluation process.  Rather than waiting until the evaluation, make it ia habit to do any correcting or reprimanding at the time the problem occurs, and focus the evaluation on what was done right the previous year and what the employee wants to accomplish in the coming year.

4).  Goal setting in many companies is simply an exercise in writing a science fiction document.  Many companies have the absurd policy of setting goals which require superhuman efforts to meet.  Reasonable companies set goals with the cooperation of the employee which require a bit of a stretch, but are attainable.  If the employee exceeds those goals, they can always be re-negotiated with the employee’s input (and commensurate rewards).  But companies that make everyone a loser except a few superstars are simply bad employers.  Every single employee should, reasonably, be able to win, with most actually meeting or slightly exceeding goals.  This greatly boosts morale and production.  A culture of fear and pressure leads to increased churn (employee turnover), increased absenteeism and poor morale in the company.  If your company has such a culture, change it or get out!

5).  As a manager you should concentrate on praising the employee for what he or she has done right, rather than rehashing old failures.  Warmly praise and thank the employee for his or her hard work in the previous year.  Especially concentrate on areas where the employee has worked to improve him or herself from the previous evaluation.  This engenders great loyalty from your staff, and retains the younger generation staff members who do not respond well to criticism, but thrive on praise and affirmation.

6).  After praising the employee, move to areas that you both know need improvement.  Again, don’t rehash old bad behavior.  Rather, look at patterns that need improvement.  Ask the employee how he or she feels about these areas in a non-threatening and friendly manner.  It is likely that the employee feels worse about them than you do.  Reassure the employee that you are willing to work with him or her to see success in these areas.

7). Set out a plan to capitalize on strengths and work on weaknesses.  Move quickly from the areas of improvement to a success plan for the coming year.  Use this time to coach the employee on specific techniques for success, find out about his or her personal goals for the position in the coming year, and align, so far as possible, the company’s goals with that of the employee.  If the employee feels he or she has “ownership” of the plan, it is much more likely to be carried out.  Try to never impose goals or plans on employees.  Even with performance improvement plans, include the employee’s input in the process.

8).  Set goals for continued job training and education for the coming year.  Make sure that the employee understands any training and educational opportunities that your company offers, such as tuition reimbursement or training dollars.  Ask if the employee has any specific desires regarding training, such as an job or executive coach, college plans, seminars, etc.

9).  Ask the employee what he or she would like from you in terms of assistance in the coming year.  Honestly let him or her know what you are able to do and not able to do.  If you make a promise, keep it.  If you don’t model integrity (and not keeping promises is modeling not acting in integrity) how can you expect integrity from your staff?  In companies that get in trouble with the law, I almost always see a pattern of management/executive dishonesty with staff and customers long before they wind up in legal problems.

10).  Set up the next time to talk formally and review goals.  This should be no more than a couple of months away.  Again, if you set an appointment with an employee, treat it with the same degree of commitment as you would an appointment with your best client, and don’t cancel the appointment!  All too often I see poor managers put their employees last on the list of who gets their time.  This goes beyond foolish to absolute stupidity, since these are the people who are responsible for the manager’s success.  Manage them with skill and integrity and your evaluation will be a good one.

11).  Finally, don’t play “head games” with your employees.  Be as honest as possible, punctual, and courteous.  If you like the power of being a manager because you can make others do what you want them to, please do us all in the business world a favor and stop managing people now.  Find a job training gerbils or something useful.  If you are an employer who has managers who enjoy lording their power over employees, please fire them at once before you get a lawsuit or your company is ruined.  These people have no business managing anyone.

Employee evaluations can be turned from a dreaded time into a time to motivate and coach employees.  They can wind up as your most productive management time of the year.  Put some new evaluation policies into place now so that when the time for evals comes in December or January you are ready and prepared for positive and useful evaluations.

John Heckers, MA, CPC, BCPC, is an executive coach and transition coach in Cherry Creek, Colorado .  He welcomes your calls at 720.581.4301, or your emails at jheckers@heckersdevgroup.com.  Please read his other blogs at http://ceoskillscorner.blogspot.com and http://executiveexpert.blogspot.com.