Tracking Employee Performance

During the year, track the performance of each employee. Maintain a detailed log for each worker, either on your computer or on paper. Note distinguishing incidents or projects involving that worker, whether positive or negative.

I recommend: For example, you might indicate that a worker was repeatedly late returning from his lunch breaks, saved the company a substantial amount of money by purchasing discount office supplies, or participated in an important community event on behalf of the company.

Administering the Evaluation

It is recommended to formally evaluate your employees at least once a year. To do so, evaluate each worker by writing a performance appraisal and by meeting with each individual employee. To plan for such a meeting, gather and review all of the documents and records relating to the employee's performance, productivity, and behavior. Evaluate and review your log and the employee's personnel file. You may also want to take a look at other relevant company records relating to the worker, including sales records, call reports, productivity records, time cards, or budget reports. After you have finished creating the evaluation, arrange a meeting to discuss it with your employee. Be sure to schedule plenty of time for these meetings, as it's one of the most important you'll have all year.

I recommend: Once you have made an assessment of these records and reflected upon the employee's overall performance, write the evaluation (or, if you will solicit input from other managers, ask each of them to complete an evaluation, and then compile them); your Human Resources department may also have information on file worth including.  Although an appraisal can entail many documents, paperwork and forms, their file should include:

• Each standard or goal you’ve assigned for that employee and that position
• Your conclusion as to whether the employee met the standard or goal, and
• The reasons that illustrate and support your conclusion.

Evaluation Guideline

Administering employee evaluations can be difficult and stressful at times, for both employer and employee. Some workers react to criticism defensively. Often times, no one understands what merits a "positive" evaluation. If your workers feel that you take it easy on some of them while coming down hard on others, resentment is inevitable.

I recommend: Avoid these problems by following these rules:

• Be complete. Write your evaluation so that an outsider reading it would be able to understand exactly what happened and why. Remember, that evaluation just might become evidence in a lawsuit. If it does, you will want the judge and jury to see why you rated the employee as you did.
• Be honest. If you avoid telling a worker about performance problems, the worker won't know that he or she needs to improve. Be sure to give the bad news, even if it is uncomfortable.
• Be realistic. If you set unrealistic or impossible standards and goals, everyone will be disheartened – and will have little incentive to do their best if they know they will still fall short. Don't make your standards too easy to achieve, but do take into account the realities and limitations of your workplace.
• Be specific. When you set goals and standards for your workers, spell out exactly what they will have to do in order to achieve them. For example, don't say "work harder" or "improve quality." Instead, say "increase sales by 20% over last year" or "make no more than three errors per day in data entry." Similarly, when you evaluate a worker, give specific examples of what the employee did to achieve – or fall short of – the goal.
• Evaluate performance, not personality. Focus on how well (or poorly) the worker does the job – not on the worker's personal characteristics or traits. For instance, don't say the employee is "angry and emotional." Instead, focus on the workplace conduct that is the problem – for  example, you can say the employee "has been insubordinate to the supervisor twice in the past six months. This behavior is unacceptable and must cease."
• Give deadlines. If you want to see improvement, give the worker a timeline to turn things around. If you expect something to be done by a certain date, say so.

Peer Evaluation

Given the diverse nature of teams and the increased span of control from restructuring, managers and supervisors often are not in a position to perform the traditional supervisor-employee performance appraisal. In many situations, peers may be the only ones who can provide relevant information about group outcomes.

I recommend: As typically defined, peer rating is the process of having team members rate each other on a given set of performance or personal characteristics against a set of rating scales Peer evaluations used for performance appraisal are becoming an integral part of today's team-based organizations.