Employee performance evaluations may seem like a lot of work for very little payoff. Your HR department spends hour-after-hour at least one month each year making sure your managers turn in their employee performance evaluations on time. Why?
Is it to protect yourself, and the company, in the event of a legal action by a disgruntled ex-employee by documenting negative behavior or below-average work-related performance? Or, is it to keep track of high performing workers in order to reward them appropriately?
Actually, it does both…and more!
We can all agree that it's important to reward employees who meet or exceed performance standards. By acknowledging their contributions, you are showing their value to the team, department and company, but you need some acceptable established basis for this reward. An effective recognition system is simple, appears fair and equitable to all involved, and encourages continued, similar behavior from that person and other employees. On the other hand, no one sets out to be a bad employee — deep down, everyone wants to do a good job, learn how to improve if they have missed the mark, and earn a reward the next time around. So, an employee performance evaluation gives employees who aren't meeting expectations a baseline to learn how to improve in order to be viewed as successful in the future. Generally speaking, employees want to do well and be appreciated for their hard work. The employee performance evaluation is the tool that provides the measurement for creating a pay-for-performance culture within an organization. This practice will go far in creating a workforce that is engaged, productive and loyal.