A question about evaluations?

[Geoff Hart]

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.
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Geoff Hart   ghart at videotron.ca

(try geoffhart at mac.com if you don't get a reply)

www.geoff-hart.com

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