Each year, thousands of HR practitioners and managers are faced with the task of conducting annual employee evaluations. This is a task most often used to measure each employee’s effectiveness on the job, a factor that increases productivity and company revenues. But the biggest complaint about employee evaluations is that they don’t have any real meaning for employees … other than to stress them out.
How can the company conduct employee evaluations in such a way as to increase the meaning behind them so that employees can experience the positive results of their efforts and focus on real goals for the coming year? Here are some tips from Advance Staffing Solutions that may help.
Establish the “what’s in it for me?” factor for employees.
When employees understand – without a shadow of a doubt – that their efforts will produce positive outcomes for their work status, salary, and future, this makes the job of conducting evals much more meaningful. Use a system for connecting pay for performance, recognition for achieving more, and rewards for top-performing employees.
Make the evaluation fair and simple to administer.
An employee evaluation system does not have to be complex. In fact, it’s better to maintain a simple rating system of one to five for rating employees on their performance. Give the employees a chance to self-evaluate before having a meeting to go over things, then adjust ratings accordingly. This puts performance into greater perspective for employees.
Set reasonable, but challenging goals for the year.
Allow employees to set goals for improving their work performance, which will make the evaluation process go smoother. Let employees know you are there to support their goals, and they can choose whatever direction they want to go in their careers. Make goals attainable, in a certain time frame, and challenging enough so they won’t lose motivation.
Design employee development programs around skill growth.
The very purpose of employee evaluations is to identify gaps in the skills of employees and then take steps to fill those gaps with development and learning programs on the job. Make sure your company is prepared to address these gaps with a combination of onsite training programs and offsite learning opportunities.
We hope that the above tips will help make your employee evaluations smoother and more positive for your organization.
