What is an Employee Evaluation?
An employee evaluation, also called a performance review, is a regular assessment of an employee’s work delivered by their manager. This provides an opportunity to review the employee’s progress, recognize their accomplishments, and align goals for improvement while meeting company objectives.
How Often Are Employee Evaluations Done?
Originally, employee evaluations were conducted annually. Still, recent studies have proved that such reviews bring little development to an employee’s performance, as it’s difficult to remember everything that happened in a year. Currently, more companies are providing their employees with frequent feedback, which research has shown to produce better results. These reviews could be done on a quarterly, monthly or weekly schedule, depending on organizational needs and situations.
How Are Employee Evaluations Conducted?
Traditionally, yearly employee evaluations take place through formal meetings between an individual employee and their manager in a private workplace setting. However, the process has evolved over time, with more companies shifting to frequent, less formal evaluations. This highlights progress made in recent times, rather than over a year. It also helps managers to solve small problems swiftly and recognize recent accomplishments promptly.
Before and During Employee Evaluations
To conduct an employee evaluation effectively, managers should keep regular records of each employee’s progress. This allows for a more detailed review of speciļ¬c examples of employee accomplishments, strengths, and concerns. This also facilitates implementation of metrics and performance measures, and both employees and managers agree to them beforehand. Moreover, the employee should complete a self-appraisal form before the meeting, providing a foundation for discussion and achieving consensus.
Performance Management
Performance management is a holistic process with multiple steps aimed at engaging, improving, and retaining employees. Each step is designed to be accurate, respect employee time, and produce insights and changes.
