Employee evaluations are a necessary task that every company should use to improve their human resource and should be used to pick the prospect with the most potential to advance and acquire more responsibilities. Some time, the only way to know the history of a person is through their evaluation as the supervisor may have retired, been promoted or left the company.

I have seen both spectrum of employee evaluation. I have been in an organization where the evaluation was convoluted and very complicated to complete. On the flip side, I was involved with another company where I received an evaluation once in the five years that I was there. Both situations were frustrating. On the former, the organization was very bureaucratic and it seemed that the evaluation process was used as a punishment tool. It was very negative and only dealt with mistakes that occurred during the year. Concerning the latter system, I continue by normal standard of working not knowing if I was doing things correctly or if my supervisor was satisfied with my productivity. I would be criticized out of the blue for the work that I had been doing for years the same way. It would get very frustrating and my motivation would always go down when this happens.

A good evaluation process should be simple to complete and straight forward. It should emphasize the qualities that the company wants to see and will help accomplish the company's mission statement. In my opinion, it should not contain criteria like dress and deportment as this is just common sense. People should know how to behave on their own. In my readings, the best system that I have found was put forward by Jack Welch from GE. His system is simple, straight forward and emphasizes a group of qualities that every employee should try to master. The system is based on 4 E's: Energy, Energize, Edge and Execute.

Energy

This quality is the enthusiasm that the employee brings when he comes to work. This will also cover absenteeism and discipline on completing their tasks. A person should be in good spirits to be able to serve the customers in a friendly manner and work well with their co-workers. A good attitude will always be better than somebody that has a lot of experience. The procedures can be learned but to teach enthusiasm and a heartfelt need to do a good job is almost impossible to accomplish.

Energize

A company should try to get their employees to help each other when somebody is having a problem. This should be done diplomatically. Also, the employee should be able to bring people spirits up and try to be beacon of consistency during the good and bad times. A leader that shows confidence especially in the face of adversity is extremely important. It is easy to lead and motivate people when things are going great. The real test is where there is a crisis and your team are worried and stressed out. The leader should be able to point his team in the correct direction by being able to provide a sensible plan and being flexible. All employees can show this fortitude in front of problems. If more people have this quality, problems will be dealt quickly and people can concentrate on more productive challenges in the company.

Edge

Everybody in a company should have the power and be able to make decisions. This quality is based on employees taking the risk of making decision. The decision should be sound and based on experience. There is no problem if the person seeks advice but should not take forever. They should not be paralyzed to make the decision and have enough confidence to take the plunge. Company should provide some training and supervise at the beginning to make sure that the decisions that an employee makes are correct and not place the company in awkward positions.

Execute

When the person makes the decision, they must be champion of their choice and make sure that the results intended are achieved. They must gather all the necessary resources if needed and make all parties follow the plan if there is one. The employee must also supervise to make sure that things do not get side tracked. Once the final results have been accomplished, they must review the process to see if things were done correctly or could have been improved. They will have to verify to see if the results were acceptable or exceed their expectations. Of course, common sense will have to prevail. A person will definitely not spend a great a deal of time on trivial things but still make sure that things are done correctly so that a trivial task does not turn into a major problem.

Scheduling Evaluations

Evaluations should not be delegated to the HR department. The best system would be one where peers and the supervisor are involved to get several views and well rounded picture of the employee's performance. Evaluations should at least be performed once a year. Twice a year would even be better. They should emphasize the good behavior and show where the person can improve. This would also be a good time to set goals for the employee to strive for. A twist that could be used is that the first evaluation could be between the employee and immediate supervisor. The second one could be performed by the employee. They would fill out the form and present it in front of some peers and supervisors. The committee would then provide comments on the employee's self evaluation. They could point out where the employee has graded himself too low or too high by providing examples of the behavior in question. This will get people involved and will help the employee improve his confidence when dealing with people and presenting their arguments. To look at an example of an evaluation form, you can find one here.

Some people think that employee evaluations are a necessary evil. I think that they are an excellent opportunity to improve employees by showing them what they are good at and providing a path so that they can improve to greater success. The process should not be a stressful situation. It should be a situation where the supervisor and employee can work together to improve the workplace to achieve the individual and company goals.

Copyright 2006 Greg Doucet. All rights reserved.

Any suggestions or comments, please write to Greg Doucet at greg.doucet@caromat.ca or visit us at www.caromat.ca.