Employee Performance Evaluations

Many employees dread performance evaluations because they see a review period as a time in which they will be heavily criticized. Morale suffers when employees feel unfairly criticized and you can lose productive time in the days or weeks leading up to a review because an employee spends that time worrying, fretting, or trying to cover his back for things he perceives you may think he's done wrong. Employee performance evaluations, however, can be more constructive than critical and allow an employee to grow rather than shrink in fear.

360 degree evaluations are becoming the standard method by which employees are evaluated. These invite feedback to be contributed from different perspectives, rather than relying on just the direct supervisor's review. Employees being reviewed are even asked for self-evaluations, so that they can see how their views align with those of their managers and co-workers.

Open communication is vital to constructive performance evaluations. If employees do not feel comfortable enough to provide their opinions and react to a manager's criticism, these evaluations are useless and the information may as well be conveyed as a letter to the employee. Both the manager and employee can benefit from performance evaluations, as each can better understand how to relate to the other, making subsequent interactions smoother and enabling work to be done more efficiently.

Software Can Assist Your Company with Employee Performance Evaluations

In order to complete an adequate employee performance review, you often need to elicit feedback from multiple sources. Coworkers, direct supervisors and employees from other departments can each provide a different perspective on how well an individual is performing his duties. If your company uses HR software tools, you can find modules that allow employees to submit evaluations online and have them organized in a single file that you can access during your employee reviews.