How to Evaluate Employees: 5 Practical Tips

Evaluating employees’ performance is essential for an employer to understand whether they are coping with their work well, track their progress and help define their next goals. But how exactly you measure the performance can hugely affect not only the results but the performance itself.

This is why it is crucial to establish practical and well-grounded metrics and procedures for evaluating your team’s performance. This article shares a few tips on how to do this better.

Set clear expectations from the very start

It’s important that you set clear performance standards from the get-go. More than just fulfilling a checklist, these standards should outline what an employee in a specific role is expected to accomplish. Whether in the form of KPIs or certain goal fulfilments, they should be both measurable and corresponding to the employee’s level of expertise.

These goals should also be achievable, so if an employee is struggling or doesn’t meet the standards, they need to have a clear understanding of what they need to accomplish in order to meet the expectations. Needless to say, the same standards of performance should apply to every employee who holds the same position.

Evaluate the performance rather than personality

We often have preconceptions and stereotypes about different things and people, including our employees. This is an extremely important thing to remember if we are willing to stay as objective as possible when evaluating their performance. Irrespective of our personal attitudes, an employee can show good or not-so-good results, and the goal of an evaluator is to be as impartial as possible.

Of course, this doesn’t at all mean one must fire employees whenever they fail to meet the KPIs — there needs to be a balanced approach that accounts for both quantitative and qualitative data as well as other team members’ opinions. Besides, if an employee who is generally ‘a really good guy’ has been underperforming for a while, perhaps there are some solid reasons for this that are worth discussing in a one-to-one talk.

Ask the right questions

One efficient way to evaluate an employee is by asking questions and letting the employee evaluate themselves. Besides, self-evaluation can help managers understand how aware the employee is about their own strengths and weaknesses. By evaluating themselves, they’re also opening up to new possibilities.

Self-evaluation should be a goal-orientated document that will help the employee to realize what they want to achieve this year and how they are going to go about it. Questions can vary from department to department, but, usually, they revolve around such things as current achievements and challenges, future goals, necessary resources and skills, etc.

Convey regular performance reviews

Employee performance reviews are an essential way for organizations to retain talented employees and help them grow. The goal of any performance review is to help employees identify their strengths and weaknesses, offer feedback, and help them set goals.

Performance reviews have traditionally been annual evaluations, but more businesses are switching to quarterly, monthly or even weekly check-ins on the current results. Feedback as often as every week or month provides employees with a better idea of how they’re performing and helps them to know how they can improve.

Use performance management tools

One way to reduce costs on tracking your employee’s performance is to consider integrating performance management software into the evaluation process. Clear objectives will help employees focus on their development, help you to track their progress, and open the door to thoughtful feedback.

Brainy HR, for example, enables you to set goals for your employees and give continual feedback in a structured way. You can also set a custom performance review cycle to fit your company’s needs and requirements. What’s convenient, employees get reminders before their performance review so that they can get ready. The feature also includes a self-evaluation section which can be used to initiate the discussion about employee’s personal development and notify the manager once the questionnaire is completed.