What to Acknowledge During a Performance Evaluation

An effective performance evaluation consists of a multifaceted exploration of an employee's overall job performance. To ensure that the evaluation you perform is appropriately broad, you must acknowledge an array of work-related elements. By taking all of these factors into consideration, you can increase the likelihood that your evaluation is an appropriate and fair representation of the employee's overall job performance.

Begin your evaluation by discussing the employee's job responsibilities with him. First, ask him to tell you what he sees as his responsibilities. Follow this by reading the description of his job and pointing out anything that is in the job description that he failed to mention.

Make note of how efficiently your employee completes his work by exploring his productivity level. If your employee produces something concrete in his job, you can easily measure productivity by counting the number of units he produced. If not, you may have to measure productivity by looking at the length of time it takes him to complete each assigned project. Compare this to the employee's past productivity rating as well as the productivity levels of his co-workers.

While it is good for employees to get a lot of work done during the day, most employers feel that it is also important that this work be of high quality. Discuss the quality of the employee's work in his evaluation. If you complete regular quality audits, review the figures he earned on these audits since his last evaluation. If the work your employee completes is not as easily quantifiable, gather a representative sample of his work and explain to him how you view the quality of his performance in relation to others.

An employee who is always present, and consistently arrives on time, is an asset. Review the employee's attendance record during this performance evaluation and explain to her him reliable or unreliable this record makes him seem. If the employee has experienced a spike in tardiness or absenteeism, but has a documented reason, you may want to place less emphasis on this portion of the evaluation.

Conclude the evaluation by comparing the current evaluation to ones from prior review periods. Even if the employee is not yet performing as highly as you wish, it is wise to at least acknowledge, and perhaps even praise, the fact that he has improved, and that you hope to see him advance more by the next evaluation.