Job Expectations

• Prior to writing an evaluation of an employee's performance, it's important to review the duties and scope of responsibilities associated with the position. This is especially important if it's a newly created job or if the worker recently took the place of someone who had been in the position for a long period of time and never updated the original job specs. Obtain a copy of the employee's job duties from your HR department and make note of the last time it was revised.
  
  

Input from Multiple Sources

• Having the employee prepare a self-evaluation is a good way to determine if what she thinks she's supposed to be doing is consistent with your own expectations. This is beneficial if you don't supervise the worker on a day-to-day basis (i.e., she works in a regional office) and haven't had the chance to personally observe all of her actions, interactions, and attitude. Depending on the nature of the business, you may want to solicit comments from her peers or some of the other managers in the division as well as take into account any comments made by customers or vendors who have been in frequent contact with her.
  
  

Focus on Specifics

• Whether the comments in the employee evaluation are positive or negative, it's essential to provide concrete examples of when an assignment has been well done and where there are areas that could use improvement. To say "always " or "never" in an appraisal is misleading because no one is ever perfect or terrible, for example, all of the time. Praising an employee for outstanding behavior will reinforce that those behaviors will continue in the future. Conversely, explaining what was done incorrectly and what transpired as a result (i.e., losing a valued customer) puts the employee on notice that this isn't an acceptable standard. Ideally, an employer should keep informal notes from one review period to the next so as not to have to rely on memory each time an appraisal comes due. For serious infractions, employers can't wait until the next review to discuss it and must instead document the incident, discuss it with the employee as soon after it occurs as possible, and place a note in the personnel file.
  
  

Accentuate the Positive

• The content of an employee appraisal that opens in a positive vein is likely to be better received than one that immediately jumps in and labels the worker as a hopeless idiot who can't do anything right. Even if the appraisal is going to result in the employee's termination, the worker is less likely to sue if it's suggested that the job and the company may not be the best match for the worker's interests and skill sets (i.e., a performing artist who is wildly creative and gregarious isn't going to fit in with a bunch of buttoned-up accountants who don't say two words all day and rarely step out of their cubicles).
  
  

Room for Improvement

• For the employee whose marks are less than stellar, it's critical to look for possible reasons that this has happened instead of automatically assuming that it's the employee's fault. It could turn out, for instance, that the worker hasn't had a sufficient amount of training to do the job and could benefit from additional classes. There could be a personality dispute in the office that you're unaware of. There could also be a multitude of outside factors influencing the employee's ability to perform the duties assigned to him. Your objective in the employee appraisal is to discuss the areas of weakness and recommend a reasonable course of action that could bring his job performance up to the expected level. In concert with this course of action should be a timeframe during which his progress will be measured.
  
  

Future Plans

• Employee performance reviews often include references to the worker's future growth and development. In some cases, these are prepared in conjunction with a detailed career plan in which workers and their supervisors discuss what kind of training and work experiences could be pursued in order to move up the corporate ladder or into a different area of expertise. The employee appraisal can be an effective tool for deciding whether the worker is ready for the next step in her career by reviewing such elements as initiative, leadership, diplomacy, teamwork, and her ability to handle tasks under pressure.