What Are Employee Evaluations?

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Employee evaluations are formal reviews done by a manager on an employee’s performance. In most cases, they’re done on a yearly basis; however, some organizations do them more frequently. There should be a form to fill out when you do a review that allows the employee to see how well they’re meeting expectations, where they need to improve, and where they excel.

Key Takeaways:

An employee evaluation is done after a period of time to assess how well an employee is performing at their job. It’s an official meeting that covers what they did well and where they need improvement.
A properly done employee evaluation should be a conversation. Both the employees and the manager should be able to discuss where the employee needs improvement and how to bring out their strengths.
Evaluations work better when they’re encouraging and set achievable goals. That motivates the employee to keep improving.

What Is an Employee Evaluation?

Often called a performance evaluation or performance review, an employee evaluation is a planned review of a worker’s performance over a period of time – usually a year.

Reviews of this type look at how successful the employee was at their assigned tasks, as well as their soft skills. Skills like communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and taking the initiative are also considered.

As employee evaluations are typically done annually, they’re often tied to employees’ yearly raises. The better the performance review, the higher the pay bump is likely to be.

How to Conduct an Employee Evaluation

There are several different methods that organizations use when evaluating employees. That being said, the majority of them follow the same basic standards. When conducting an employee review, remember to:

Prepare. Any time you go into any kind of meeting, you should do prep work. This is doubly so if you have a large team and don’t know the individual people and their job descriptions as well. As a way to prep, you should:
- Keep track of their achievements as the year progresses. A performance review doesn’t start the minute the employee walks in your door. It’s something that’s ongoing. Be aware of their strengths and weaknesses and what needs to be focused on.
- Review the job description. Make sure you’re aware of what the employee is supposed to be doing. This isn’t just a matter of making sure they’re fulfilling their duties – which they should be – but if they’re doing more than they’re supposed to.
  
  Sometimes circumstances shift, which causes them to be doing less of their assigned duties and more a different type of job. That isn’t inherently bad, though it may mean that you want to change their job title and discretion to meet the job that they’re actually doing.
- Pick where they excelled. It’s important to have positive feedback as well. People respond better to positive reinforcement than being chastised.
- Pick where they need improvement. It’s important to try to improve the employee’s performance over the course of their career. That means that you need to select areas where they need to work on or where you think they should focus.
Be clear. During the evaluation, it’s important to be clear in your wording and expectations. In order for employees to understand their evaluation and improve, they need to know what they did right and what they did wrong.
Make it a conversation. It can be easy to monopolize the conversation. Some employees will be unwilling to speak up, especially if the review is more on the negative side. Make sure you encourage them to speak, ask questions and have input on how you decide to move forward.
Set achievable goals. Even if the performance review is excellent, it’s still good to encourage continued improvement. That means that it’s a good idea to set goals for the next year. The goals should be attainable and measurable so that you’ll be able to gauge if they met them.
Give the employee a copy of the review form. Not everything is likely to be covered in the evaluation itself. That’s why it’s important that the employee get a written record of it as well. Even more importantly, it prevents the possibility of confusion or miscommunication.

It can be very problematic if an employee walks out of an evaluation thinking that they performed better than they did – or worse than they did. Either way, there isn’t accurate communication, and the employee will have the wrong idea of how to proceed.
Stay open for follow-up questions. Different people process things differently. That means that it’s possible an employee will come back later to ask questions about what’s on the form or follow up on the part of the conversation that they were confused by or disagreed with.

This isn’t a bad thing unless they’re being aggressive or argumentative. It means that they’re taking their career seriously and want to be sure they understand the evaluation. It’s also possible they’ll disagree with some of your assessments, which means that you’ll have to try to work that out.

Tips for a Successful Employee Evaluation

As with everything, there are more effective and less effective ways to go about evaluating employees. As a rule, there are some things that you very much want to avoid doing and other things that are beneficial.

Do:

Highlight positive aspects. People respond better to encouragement than criticism, which means that highlighting what they do well will inspire them to work harder. It can also be a way to talk about their career aspirations – they can specialize in what they’re best at.
Reward good work. This can range from a raise to a gift card to simple praise. But whatever you do, make sure you acknowledge that they’re doing good work and that they want them to continue it. Most employees get satisfaction out of a job well done, but it can begin to feel pointless if no one else ever seems to notice.
Make it clear how they can improve. Improvements don’t need to be confined just to parts of the job they struggle with. You can also make suggestions for how they can play to their strengths. But whichever you do, you should make clear suggestions and set milestones.
Compare their work against their assigned duties. When doing an evaluation, you should look at their job description. If they aren’t doing what their assigned work is, then you need to make changes. This can either be by pushing them back towards their duties or altering their job description, spending on the circumstances.
Invite them into the conversation. An evaluation isn’t a circumstance where you should be the only one speaking. They no doubt have ideas for their own advancement and improvement, as well as ways to be more effective at their work. They may even have some suggestions of things that you can do to help them be more effective.

Don’t:

Focus entirely on the negative. While it seems like it should encourage improvement, focusing only on what they did wrong will have the opposite effect. Employees that come out of an evaluation that only had criticism will feel demoralized and unvalued. This will lead to lower satisfaction and less productivity.
Be ruled by your biases. Everyone has biases, no matter how hard we try to be impartial. This can range from race to gender to just not liking the person in question. It’s important to take a step back and think, “Would I say this if this person were someone else?” while in the preparatory stages.
Surprise them with the meeting. No employee likes being pulled into the office for a surprise evaluation. They should know approximately when the meeting is – if not exactly – so that they have time to prepare as well.

Not only is springing a meeting on an employee potentially problematic in terms of their job — what if they’re in the middle of a project? – it also puts them at a serious disadvantage.

An evaluation is supposed to be a conversation and a way for the manager and employee to work out how to improve their performance. If they’re utterly unprepared, they’re not going to have anything to offer.
Compare them directly to other employees. It’s not a competition. Bringing up other employees as a foil – whether positive or negative – is a bad idea. It’s unlikely to encourage teamwork, as they won’t have a positive reaction to being blatantly compared.
Be too vague. The point of an evaluation is to be able to note strengths and weaknesses and how to improve strengths and offset weaknesses. If you don’t give them anything concrete, or worse, give them conflicting information, the employee’s going to have no idea how to proceed.

Employee Evaluation FAQ

Are there legal ramifications for employee evaluations?

The main potential legal problem is related to nondiscrimination laws. That’s why it’s important to make sure that your employees are all treated fairly in their evaluations. Avoid any language that can be seen as discriminatory or exclusionary.
Why are employee evaluations important?

Employee evaluations are important as they open a dialogue and encourage feedback. They allow both parties to highlight potential issues and places for improvement, as well as celebrate strengths. It’s also a way for employers to determine how well different employees are performing and if they need to intervene.
How often should employee evaluations be done?

The majority of employee evaluations are done yearly. However, there isn’t a cut-and-dried rule for this. Some businesses will hold them annually or even quarterly. In the case of a new hire, there may be a review at the three or six-month mark or when their probationary period is over.

References

MasterClass – Employee Evaluation Tips: How to Conduct Performance Reviews

Performance Review

Author

Di Doherty

Di has been a writer for more than half her life. Most of her writing so far has been fiction, and she’s gotten short stories published in online magazines Kzine and Silver Blade, as well as a flash fiction piece in the Bookends review. Di graduated from Mary Baldwin College (now University) with a degree in Psychology and Sociology.