Employee Appraisal 2

What supervisors do instead is grumble all year long, making comments to everyone else about performance that is not up to standard, all the while the employee believes that they are doing an acceptable job. In fact, the employee might well think that they are doing a fantastic job, because the last official feedback heard from their immediate supervisor was to “keep up the good work.”

The performance evaluation is the equivalent of a report card given to students. Regardless of age, every employee wants to know what it takes to get an “A” and it is the responsibility of the supervisor to sit down and explain that.

To be sure, not every employee is interested in getting an “A” because they might be satisfied by getting a lower grade (whether or not the supervisor will settle for a lower grade is also a good reason to have a formal performance appraisal).

The employee might not be capable of earning an “A” grade, and if that is what is expected in a particular position, that is yet another reason for having a formal evaluation, because without it, the supervisor will get increasingly frustrated by the lack of performance by the employee and the employee will wonder why the supervisor is frustrated with them.

The easiest way to perform an appraisal is to take the following questions and ask the employee to be prepared to sit down for an hour in a confidential, one-on-one meeting to discuss the answers that you both have:

1. As an employee, do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. As an employee, do I have the materials and equipment that I need in order to do my work right?
3. As an employee, at this organization, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
4. In the past seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
5. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
6. Does the mission or purpose of my organization make me feel that my job is important?
7. Are my coworkers committed to doing quality work?
8. In the past six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
9. This past year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

(These questions come directly from the best selling book “First, Break All The Rules” written by Marcus Buckingham )

What both supervisor and employee will discover is not just how the employee is doing from a performance perspective, but what the communication gaps are between supervisor and employee. That is the key for improving performance with every individual.

Hiring employees is not an easy task. Too many supervisors hire individuals based on a strong resume, a solid and enjoyable in person interview, or simply because a warm body is needed to fill a vacancy.

Once the new employee is on the job, the supervisor expects the employee to not just understand the job, perform the tasks but to do them at the highest quality level without further interaction, coaching or evaluation. It is a sad commentary to make, but employees are employed for years at organizations that operate this way.

It doesn’t and shouldn’t have to happen this way. Use this article as a guideline for at least getting started with regular performance appraisals. People will first dread, and then soon, appreciate the discussion.

People always want to “know the score” when it comes to “How am I doing boss?” Tell them.