Evaluating Job Performance
by Dera DeRoche-Jolet

Ed Koch, the former mayor of New York City, used to walk up to New Yorkers and ask, "How am I doing?" It’s probably a pretty safe bet that most of your employees don’t walk into the manager’s office and ask the same question.

When it comes down to it, that question is what evaluating the job performance of your employees is all about. Everybody gets evaluated in one way or another and most managers give an evaluation. However, most managers and employees dread the whole process and think it’s about as much fun as facing the chief of police after a flurry of false alarms.

Managers don’t like evaluating an employees job performance because it involves and requires some work and organizational skills. Employees don’t like it because they feel powerless in a situation that will probably have an impact on their salary, chances for promotion and/or placement in a job.

Most employees see a job evaluation as being subjective with the manager as the judge and jury. They also know it can trigger feedback - sometimes negative - which the employee doesn’t want to hear and the manager may be hesitant about giving. An evaluation can be a very uncomfortable experience for everyone involved.

Don’t think evaluations are reserved for just large companies. Smaller companies also should also evaluate employees, which may be an even more uncomfortable experience considering that there are fewer people in smaller companies who work a lot more closely together.

The fact is evaluations are an integral part of business. Companies that conduct evaluations and do it the right way do it for one simple reason: to let people know how they are doing with regard to what they are supposed to be doing.

To truly evaluate an employee you’ve got to have both sides of the equation and that’s where the real problem lies in many companies. Many managers simply don’t know what an employee is supposed to do. The only way a company can truly evaluate job performance is if there is some kind of standard that the company can compare performance against.

If you are having difficulty evaluating an employee’s job performance, you might want to take a look at their job description. A poorly written, vague or incomplete job description is part of the problem and offers no help at all.

Here’s what you can do to make evaluating an employee’s job performance a little easier for both you and your employees.

First, identify key responsibilities of the job. Look at the position, not the employee. Ask yourself, "What would any employee be required to do to be successful in this job?" For instance, what are the responsibilities of an alarm salesperson? What needs to be done to accomplish this job, and is he or she doing it? Be specific. If they are to concentrate on new accounts, don't berate them because they haven't sold an upgrade in months.

Next, take into account what annual objectives have been set for the employee. It is important that each objective is bound by some time constraint (deadline), is realistic, measurable and clearly communicated. For instance, asking your sales person to "increase sales" is certainly not measurable, clearly communicated or within a time frame. Asking them to double sales in the next two weeks is probably unrealistic.

Don’t wait till the day before to make your evaluation. During the year, make notes recording individual accomplishments and problems. This gives you specifics to discuss when you meet. Focus on results, but don’t overlook how the results were achieved. If a sales manager increases sales, but the morale in the sales department goes down, you have a problem.

Begin the meeting by stating its purpose, which is to improve performance, change behavior, and/or recognize accomplishments. Ask your employee how he or she sees themselves in regard to each of the topics. Then share your observations. Discuss specifics and be as generous with praise as you are with criticism. Acknowledge employee input, including ideas, observations and suggestions. In the end, let the employee know how you came to your conclusions.

Finally, develop an action plan to address areas that require improvement. It is very important for the employee to feel a part of this process. If an installer needs to make fewer mistakes installing systems, agree on whom they can work with and what type of training they should take.

Talk to your employees informally through the year. When you formally sit down for the annual review, it should document discussions between two people that have taken place throughout the past twelve months. By that time, there should be no surprises when you tell your employees, "how they are doing."