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Keith Hood wondered: <<What are your thoughts about the frequency and
uses of employee performance evaluations? At my current job I have to
endure this every year, and I was wondering how common such
evaluations are.>>
I'm a huge fan of evaluations, both informal and formal, but possibly
because I don't understand the process. My somewhat heretical take on
this:
Informal evaluations (aka. feedback) should be ongoing, at intervals
determined by necessity: at the end of a task, for example, or as
soon as a problem arises. The goal is this somewhat <g> important
thing known as "communication": managers and the people they manage
must remain sufficiently in contact that the employee understands
what is expected of them and the manager has a chance to point out
(or hear about) and correct problems before they grow serious enough
to require drastic intervention. On the flip side, this feedback must
also provide an opportunity for appropriate compliments and
encouragement. Praise must never be pro forma or false: if it's not
real, the employee loses all respect for the employee. At a minimum,
it should be "no problems... keep on doing exactly what you've been
doing".
Note that this is very distinct from micromanaging, which can
seriously screw up the employer-employee relationship. Informal
feedback is designed to ensure that there's no ambiguity, and that
everyone understands the same thing and problems can be solved before
they become critical. Micromanaging is a symptom of ineffective
management and insecurity, not to say "control freakdom". <g>
Formal evaluations typically occur at least annually, but sometimes
more often: for example, before an unexpected promotion opportunity,
for new employees who have a short "test" or "probation" period
during which they're still proving their worthiness to remain
employees, or to recognize a significant accomplishment. The goal is
to force managers to critically and objectively evaluate the work of
their employees. On the dark side, this is done to determine what
corrections to the employee's behavior are necessary; on the bright
side, this is done to ensure that those who deserve a reward will
receive it, even if their manager might be tempted to hide in their
office and play Solitaire rather than pay attention to their staff.
Don't forget that most managers hate evaluations even more than you
do, usually because they haven't invested enough time in feedback and
thus, have to "lower the boom" all at once at the end of the year.
If informal evaluation (feedback) has been effective, employees have
always had a chance to learn of and correct any problems, or to
report problems to their manager and ask the manager to correct them.
By the end of the year, there should be no remaining reason to have
to "correct" an employee because any problems were identified and
fixed earlier. Contrast this with the traditional approach to
employee evaluation, in which you walk into the manager's office for
the first time all year and are suddenly confronted by a long list of
your flaws, and are summarily beheaded because you didn't somehow
intuit their existence and fix them.
<<Are they more common in software companies than others? Do they
seem to be more common at higher-paying jobs or does the pay rate not
matter? Are they more common among companies in some parts of the
country than other?>>
I suspect that evaluations are pervasive. I doubt they're much
different among industries or professions because management buzz-
speak spreads like kudzu or mold: once a plausible-sounding
management guru espouses a particular process, it spreads throughout
the environment and becomes irremovably intrenched. In some
professions, such as psychiatry (and presumably high-security
government work), there's ongoing monitoring to ensure that you're
still safe to do your job. But even if you're self-employed,
evaluations are an ongoing phenomenon: clients who like your work
will tell you so, or will at least come back for more, whereas those
who aren't satisfied won't hesitate in the least to tell you so, or
will quietly drop you from their contractor list.
The key thing to remember is that if you're clever, you can help
define the purpose and practice of evaluations: a sudden sharp shock
that comes only once at the end of the year, like the jolt at the end
of the hangman's rope, or an ongoing form of communication that
ensures everyone has the same understanding and uses that
understanding to stay happy and efficient at work.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --
Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
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