What Can I do to be a Better Evaluator?

The single most important ingredient is the setting of objectives or standards that reflect aspects of an employee’s job that contribute most to the overall success of the job and that offer the greatest benefits to the organization. Once you have these in writing, and you and your employee have agreed to them as the basis for measurement over the next twelve months or whatever assessment time period, you need to maintain records based on your observation of the employee’s job performance. Your appraisals must be regularly communicated to the employee, the frequency determined by the corporate appraisal system.

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If you want to become a better evaluator, here are some steps you should follow:

  1. Ensure that the employee has accepted the standards or objectives by which he or she will be measured by involving the individual in the creation of these criteria.
  2. Maintain records on employee performance, identifying both positive and negative examples of the employee’s behavior.
  3. Before making an assessment—either the final, end-of-year assessment or mid-year evaluations—review the written documentation. Highlight situations related to the objectives that you believe are important to an assessment of the employee’s performance.
  4. Don’t discuss generalities. Refer to these specific situations to demonstrate key points you wish to make. Give the employee the opportunity to speak on each issue.
  5. If the employee doesn’t see the seriousness of his or her behavior, point out the implications to the unit’s performance or broader corporate mission.
  6. Don’t avoid an issue because you believe it will raise unpleasantness between you and your employee. Remember that the point of the evaluation is to help the employee do a better job.