Performance Evaluation Benefits The Employees And The Employers Alike

Performance evaluation is the process where an employer assesses an employee’s work at regular intervals and then provides a constructive feedback.

Some of the main objectives of an employee’s performance evaluation are:

1. To improve the productivity of the organization.
   
2. To take better decisions about an employee’s overall performance.
   
3. To have better clarity when it comes to promoting or terminating an employee.
   
4. To assess whether an employee can meet the required goals or not.
   
5. To improve the performance on an employee.
   
6. To motivate an employee to give the best.
   
7. To decide what steps can be taken to help the company to grow.
   
8. To reduce employee turnover.
   

So, we see that the purpose of performance evaluation is in the benefit of the employees, employers and organization.

However, somewhere down the lane, the performance evaluation process has lost its essence. Many employees dread the process and feel that it only creates misunderstandings and demotivates them at work.

74% of the workers at Fast Company say that their performance evaluation does not have any good comments about their work, which makes them unsure about the whole process and about the feelings of their employers.

Performance appraisal is supposed to be a developmental experience for the employee and a ‘teaching moment’ for the manager.”

So, if the performance evaluation is done with positive intentions in mind then it surely leads to good results.

Let us take the example of First Reliance Bank that wanted a performance evaluation of its employees to understand the capabilities of each employee and to design goals accordingly. The company performed regular monthly evaluation along with an annual performance review to understand the capability of each employee and to see whether the set goals are achieved or not.

After the evaluation, the company began to understand the strengths of its employees. There was a better transparency in the work and the constructive feedback helped the employees to improve consistently, thus contributing in the overall growth of the company.

So the question that arises next is, how can an organization effectively evaluate its employees?

Well, there are many ways to evaluate an employee, but it is not necessary for an organization to follow all the methods. Each organization follows the methods that suit their company culture.

Some of the ways are:

1. Random quality checks of the work that has been completed. This method does not give the employee the time to prepare. Evaluation based on this method gives the employer a chance to understand the real performance status of an employee.
   
2. Client feedback is another way in which the work of an employee is evaluated.
   
3. 360 degree evaluation is a method where each employee is evaluated by everybody associated with their department like the managers, peers, seniors, etc.
   
4. Self-evaluation is the method where an employee gets a chance to elaborate on his/her weaknesses and strengths. This is the chance where an employee can bring his/her achievements into focus if they have been missed by others.
   
5. Checklist method is the simplest of all, but effective by all means. There are a set of questions that need to be answered. It helps the employees to understand their scope of improvement.
   

Performance evaluation if done properly can significantly enhance the growth of the company. Therefore, it should be considered as a matter of importance and should be conducted with great responsibility.