Why Are Employee Evaluations So Critical?

by STANLEY JANAS, CHRP | Aug 20th, 2008 | Performance Management |

Love them or hate them, employee evaluations are the cornerstone of employee performance management.

Done well, they can lead to increased employee productivity, satisfaction and retention. Done poorly, and you’ll see a dip in morale and engagement, and perhaps a spike in attrition.

Part of the problem is we tend to “load up” too much on a single, annual meeting between a manager and employee. The only way that an employee evaluation can be truly effective and successful in guiding performance is if it’s more of an opportunity to “take stock” and review information on performance that a manager and employee have been sharing throughout the year. In a busy work environment, they can be an invaluable opportunity for a manager and employee to have a one on one conversation about all aspects of performance, including competencies, goals, development activities and career aspirations.

But only if they are a “formal” forum for the conversations and feedback that are exchanged on a daily or weekly basis.

Managers need two things to successfully conduct employee evaluations: training on how to effectively deliver coaching and feedback to their employees on an ongoing basis, and a performance management tool that helps them keep track of and synthesize performance data for an employee.

Read more detail in our reference article: Employee Evaluations: Why Are They So Critical?

Does your organization value employee reviews and give managers the tools they need to conduct them effectively?

  • http://leapcomp.com Julien Dionne

    I think that generally, employee evaluations are seen as useless and as a waste of time by the employees… probably because they are often done poorly. I agree that when done properly, they can provide a lot of insight, help out with retention, motivation and performance.

    In my experience, a common problem is when this insight is used to feed into a variable compensation program, in a non-sales context. If Bob set X easy performance goals and achieved all of them, this could translate in Bob receiving his full annual performance bonus. Alice on the other hand had a stellar performance, but knowing she was a super-achiever, her goals were also astronomical and she did not reach every single one (but she did many other things on the side). However when looking at her goals and accomplishments, her objectives were not met so she does not get the full bonus.

    So, yes performance management is critical, but it is also very important to know how to leverage this info (workforce alignment, talent management, etc). One must be very careful to integrate this insight into a pay-for-performance scheme, as this is when it could really backfire.

  • http://www.emsaccess.com Fred Corn

    I agree that employee / supervisor developed objective-based performance appaisals can be very unfair when used to evaluate performance across workers, departments, etc.

    These developed objectives, used in conjunction wtih required job functions, required skills and needed competencies can provide a great platform for improved communication, increased performance and also can be used as a basis for compensation, etc.