We’ve been getting a lot of questions lately related to performance evaluations. Specifically, these questions center on how to structure evaluation forms in a way that supports priorities of the organization and drives individual and, therefore, organizational performance.
Of course, it’s really not about the form at all. It’s about knowing what drives the performance of your organization, translating that to individual metrics, then equipping leaders with the ability to focus on constant performance feedback.
1. Make it values based. Center your evaluation form around the values of your company not individual characteristics like “dependable”, “initiative”, “communication” etc. If you don’t have company values, facilitate a workshop with your leadership team to define your values (and mission).
Values should translate into what creates your competitive advantage as a company, therefore, they are a way to communicate to employees through their performance evaluation how and if they are demonstrating the values that contribute to sustainable competitive advantage for the organization.
In fact, every talent management process or form (your selection process, onboarding, training, compensation, etc.) should link back to your organizational values.
2. Avoid overlap of dimensions. Make sure each dimension measures only one thing. Structuring your form around values instead of individual characteristics should help with this.
3. Less is better. Having said #2, in terms of dimensions and in terms of the scale, less is more. Make it as simple as possible while still ensuring you are measuring everything that could impact job performance which impacts competitive advantage.
4. Use a 3 point scale:
- Doesn’t meet expectations
- Meets expectations
- Exceeds expectations
5. Require ratings be back up with behavioral based examples. This helps to avoid subjectivity. Every rating should be supported with at least one behavior based example. Consider training raters on how to write good behavioral based examples and then get your team together to calibrate each other on what constitutes which rating on the scale. In other words, make sure that if manager A sees employee A behave in one way, and manager B sees employee B behave that same way, employee A and employee B both are rated the same.
6. Make it clear what a score results in. For example, if a person exceeds expectations overall it leads to x% of a raise, or x amount of dollars in the form of a bonus. In reality, you need to think through this recommendation and be prepared to back it up from a budgetary standpoint before even implementing the other recommendations.
Plain and simple! Having large scales leaves room for different raters to interpret things differently and brings more subjectivity into the process.
How well are your performance evaluations working?
