INTRODUCTION:
Happy Mother’s Day to all of the mom’s who are reading this. If you’re not a mom, wish your mom, or someone who has been like a mom to you, Happy Mother’s Day.
So, today’s post is the first of a multi-part series geared at conducting and participating in successful performance evaluation meetings. We’re starting with our people managers.
What employees don’t often realize is that the performance evaluation season, which is upon many of us, especially those who work in the public sector, is just as stressful for managers as it is for employees. So, that’s why we wanted to start with this 7-step guide for our people managers.
Schedule:
As soon as you know when your organization’s performance evaluation season is starting, schedule a meeting with each of your team members to discuss their performance over the past performance cycle. Then, when you send the meeting invite, make sure that you attach a copy of their job description and a copy of the same form that you will use to evaluate their performance.
Self Evaluation:
Ask each of your employees to complete a self evaluation, using the form that you provided in the invite. Ask them to bring it to your meeting and use it as a reference during your conversation. They can use it to support their self performance evaluation rating when it differs from your rating.
Job Description:
The performance evaluation meeting is also a great time to review the team member’s job description with them. If they have taken on additional duties, or they no longer perform some of their original duties, update the job description. Ask human resources to review the updated job description to determine if the position needs to be reclassified.
Folders:
Next, make sure that you create a folder for each of your employees in your email box that is dedicated to each individual. That is where you’ll, over time, pull information on incidents of note, training that they’ve completed, customer/client feedback, and other items of note related to their performance that will help you to be fully prepared to complete a thorough and fair performance evaluation. Because none of us can keep up with all of that information in our heads.
Conversation:
So, the next step to success is your conversation with your team member. Never submit a completed performance evaluation for your team member without giving them the benefit of having a conversation with you, their manager. Why? Because they may say something during your meeting that may make a difference in the way that you rate their performance. So, that brings us to our next point…different perceptions.
Different Perceptions:
Keep in mind that you and your employee are bound to have different perspectives on some aspects of their performance and how it should be rating. Make certain that you go to the meeting with each of your team members with an open mind. Also, have mindset of fairness and objectivity. Know that the employee’s input about their performance is valuable and can impact the outcome of the final performance evaluation. This doesn’t mean that you are always going to make a change. It does mean that you are going to take their comments and feedback in to consideration.
Time to Review:
Last, but definitely not least, step seven is to give your team member the opportunity to review the completed evaluation after you’ve made any changes that you agreed to during your performance evaluation meeting. Let hem know the exact amount of time that they will have to review the document. Be open to further feedback from them following their review and accept their written rebuttal, if they write one, and attach it to the final performance evaluation.
CONCLUSION:
So, there you have it-the seven steps to a successful performance evaluation meetings with your team members, if you’re a people manager. If what I’ve shared with you today is helpful, do me a favor and scroll down. Leave me a comment or ask your very own performance evaluation process question. Who knows, it might be featured in one of my future posts.
Until next time…
Success to You! Have an Awesome Day!
