How to Perform a Job Performance Evaluation?

98% of business believe performance management is important, but only 64% say they have an effective approach to it

With the cut-throat competition in the market, it has become quite important to stand out from the crowd. That is why most organizations perform job performance evaluations of the employees, at least once a year. This practice helps to keep a track of the work duties and responsibilities of the employees. Read on to know more about performance evaluation.

What is Performance Evaluation?

Performance evaluation refers to the formal procedure to evaluate an employee’s work based on his job responsibilities. It is used to determine the amount of value-added to the company by the employee in terms of increased business revenue. Normally, all the managers conduct full performance evaluations annually, with regular check-ins, based on which the employees are either promoted or given appraisals. Performance evaluation also helps in providing transparent feedback to the employees so that they can improve wherever required.

What is the Purpose of Performance Evaluation?

Periodic performance evaluation acts as a report card of the employee that determines what work has been done by him and what is the scope of improvement.
Since the employer provides consistent feedback to the employees, the employees get to understand their strengths and weakness, and hence improve upon their weaknesses.
Performance evaluation acts as an integrated platform for both the employees and the employers to discuss what can be done to provide quality performance. Thus, it helps to improve communication between the employee and the employer., which further leads to better performance results.
The main purpose of performance evaluation is to improve the way a team functions, in order to achieve a better customer experience.
An employer should evaluate the performance of his employees regularly, instead of just once a year. This way, the team can avoid unexpected problems and work in a better way in order to improve competence and efficiency.
Frequent employee training and skill development sessions based on the evaluation can be organized in order to improve the productivity of the employees.
Performance evaluation helps in understanding the growth of an employee and the level of motivation for which he contributes towards the success of an organization. It also helps the employees understand where do they stand in comparison to others in the organization.

How to Perform Performance Evaluation?

There are some steps that need to be followed in order to perform performance evaluation:

Set Performance Standards

Setting transparent performance standards is important to understand what an employee is expected to achieve. Similar standards should be set for every employee in the same position. Make sure the performance standards are realistic and achievable. Also, they should relate to the job description of the person.

Set Specific Goals

Unlike performance standards, you also need to set some goals that are specific to each employee. Goals should be set based on the strength and weaknesses of every employee. This practice can help to improve the skills of the employees. Remember that the goals should be relevant to the position of the employee.

Keep Making Notes Throughout the Year

It is important to track the performance of the employees throughout the year. For this, you can maintain a separate file for each employee. Whether positive or negative, maintain records of noteworthy incidents or accomplishments. You should give immediate feedback to the employees whenever something is appreciable. Don’t wait till the year-end review process for praising or providing constructive criticism.

Be Prepared

Before giving an employee evaluation, it is important to be prepared for the meeting beforehand. Review the records of the employee before the meeting and make notes whatever you want to discuss with the employees. The performance review should consist of mainly positive points about the employee and some points that require improvement.

Honest Criticism is important

When you are required to provide criticism in any evaluation, you should try to give honest feedback. You should provide clear examples and provide specific advice on how can the employee improve upon his weaknesses.

Avoid Comparison

Instead of comparing employees with each other, you should check if the employee is improving upon his own performance or not. Individual growth is quite important in an organization. Comparing the performance of the employees can lead to unhealthy competition which can affect the overall work environment of the organization.

Focus on the Performance and Not on the Personality

Some employers evaluate their employees based on their personality instead of their performance, this is a wrong practice that should be avoided. Passing judgements about the personality can make the employee feel awkward, which can further hamper his performance. So, instead of passing judgements related to the personality, you should focus on reviewing the job performance of the employees.

Conversation is Important

Having a one-way conversation during employee evaluation is not a good practice. Make sure a two-way conversation takes place between you and the employee. You should listen to your employee’s concerns and provide suggestions accordingly. You can even ask the employee to provide a self-evaluation of their own performance. The employee should be given the opportunity to review the workplace and his employers so that transparency can be maintained.

Ask Some Questions

In order to enhance conversations with the employees, you can ask some specific questions to them. Here is a list of questions that you can ask the employees:

What are your goals to achieve within this year?
What resources do you require from the department in order to achieve your goals?
What challenges will you face to achieve your goals?
How often you would want to get feedback from the employers?
What are the tasks that you love doing the most?
Mention some leadership qualities that you have.
What have you done to improve the overall performance of the organization?
Do you communicate with your manager often?
What skills are you planning to learn this year?

Give Feedback

Performance evaluation is an ongoing process throughout the year, and not just once a year. That is why you should provide feedback regularly to your employees. This can help to boost the morale of the employees. Also, they will be able to work on their improvement areas.

Benefits of Performance Evaluation

Enhanced Communication

During the performance evaluation processes, employers provide give feedback to the employees. This feedback can be used for improvement and bridging any gap areas that have been identified by their employers. This helps in enhancing open and honest communication between the employers and the employees.

Build a Career Path

During the performance evaluation process, employers help the employees understand their future goals and suggest how they can achieve them. This practice helps in creating small and realistic goals, creating deadlines, and working towards completion. It also helps the employees understand where they stand in the hierarchy and where they will be in the future.

Get Feedback for Yourself

A performance evaluation process is not only about the feedback of the employer but also about the feedback of the employee about the company, team members, and his manager. This will help to understand the loopholes and what can be done to improve the overall performance of the organization.

Resources Planning

Appraisals help in evaluating how an employee is performing and what his future goals can be. This is a good practice for effective goals management along with resource planning. This way you can effectively reallocate your resources, and if required hire new members for your team.

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Key Takeaways

Performance evaluation refers to the formal procedure to evaluate an employee’s work based on his job responsibilities
Performance evaluation helps to keep a track of the performance of the employees, hence acts as a report card
It helps to improve communication between the employees and the employers
Performance evaluation helps to achieve better customer satisfaction
It helps in building the career path of the employees
Performance evaluation helps in resource planning
There are many steps that can be followed to perform a job performance evaluation
Firstly, you need to set similar performance standards for the employees
You also need to set specific goals that are different for each employee. These goals should be based on the performance of the employees
It is important to track the performance of the employees throughout the year
Before giving an employee evaluation, it is important to be prepared for the meeting beforehand. Review the records of the employee before the meeting and make notes prior to the meeting
Try to provide honest criticism during the performance evaluation process
Instead of comparing employees with each other, you should check if the employee is improving upon his own performance or not
Some employers evaluate their employees based on their personality instead of their performance, this is a wrong practice that should be avoided
Make sure two-way communication takes place between the employers and the employees instead of one-way communication
There are some specific questions that can be asked during the job performance evaluation
You should provide regular feedback to the employees