Employee Performance Appraisal

If you establish performance goals during the annual performance evaluation process and have often wondered where to start, here is a little guidance. I work with many supervisors and employees who see goal setting as the opportunity to list the classes the employee will attend for the coming year. And, while learning goals are appropriate, the goal setting process can be much more meaningful. Here are four kinds of goals that you might consider when setting annual performance goals.

1. Essence of the Job Goals – These are the goals that clearly describe tasks that are required on the job. For example, an accountant might have a goal to prepare and submit monthly financial statements. A librarian might have a goal to catalogue and re shelf returned books within 12 hours. A mail clerk might have a goal that requires her to deliver all mail daily to all work sites. Essence of the job goals make the expectations for the job clearer than they are listed on the job description. These goals personalize the job to the position and to the individual employee.

2. Project Goals – Project goals are those activities that the employee will pursue with a beginning and an end and may be above and beyond the employee’s routine duties. Project goals can be related to improving systems, developing new products, creating new programs, or anything else that you can think of.

3. Professional Development Goals – Professional development goals specify what the employee will learn for the coming year. While attending a class to learn something new is noble, I challenge you to find new ways to help employees develop their skills while clearly linking the goal to the organization’s needs. For example, “cross training in a new work area at least one day per week” is a professional development goal. A better goal would be to cross train in the accounting department at least once per week and be able to reconcile bank statements by October 31. Or, “attend a training class on PowerPoint and develop a new slide show to be used in new employee orientation” would be more challenging than just attending the class. Make sure the professional development goals not only develop the employee, but also help your organization.

4. Performance Improvement Goals – Performance improvement goals should be saved for those times when you want to emphasize clearly that an employee’s behavior must change. Performance improvement goals include things like, “arrive to work ready to serve customers at 8 a.m. every day” or “limit the number of customer complaints you receive to three per quarter.” Obviously, not all employees would need these kinds of goals. However, they can be helpful in documenting your performance expectations in a clear and measurable way.

Now, go out there and set some goals! Make your expectations clear and everyone wins!

It goes without saying that employees are the core of any company. The most successful companies are those with the best employees and the best employees are those who are able to function to their maximum potential. According to statistics, most companies utilize barely twenty percent of their employees‘ potential. Performance management is critical in enabling managers to not just motivate employees and maximize efficiency, but also to deal with poor performance issues.

How Performance Management can Increase Productivity …

Managers who want to increase motivational levels in employees need to use effective performance management techniques. They need to take into consideration that different human beings have different motivational factors. While monetary incentives may influence certain people to give their best, other employees may crave recognition. Studies show that formal recognition is the single biggest motivator for most people. People love being recognized in front of other people – colleagues, family, and friends. This simple recognition translates directly to enhanced productivity. (Think Queen of England and her annual Honors List.)

Dealing with an employee’s less-than-impressive performance and ways to improve it is another part of performance management. If an employee has been tardy on more than one occasion or his performance figures are showing a steady downward curve, there are effective performance management techniques through which the manager can help him get to the root of the problem and work on self development. Empowerment of employees is another performance management technique that can enhance productivity levels. Most employees like being trusted with jobs and knowing that they inspire enough confidence in senior managers to get the job done well.

…and Decrease Employee Turnover

When it comes to performance management, most companies agree that they could do better. Unfortunately, many companies think that paying people more is enough to retain talented personnel. This is hardly the case. Effective performance management cuts across junior-senior levels to engage employees in analyzing how performances could be maximized. For example, hiring a consultant to conduct an anonymous survey and based on the survey data, creating employee focus groups to address any areas of concern. This not only adds to the quality of the data, it also encourages employees to engage in the process.

Further, employees could be asked for their input regarding the course of action. Such engagement of employees is an important part of performance management and employee retention. Whenever monetary incentives are used (and they are equally important; nothing like the sight of greenbacks to boost employee morale!), they should include all employees who have completed a certain evaluation period. This helps emphasize that employee retention is important to the organization. Another effective performance management technique is to factor in loyalty to the company or level of responsibility (how many people work under that employee, the size of budget under their control, etc.) as part of the incentive plan.

By implementing an effective performance management program, a company can positively influence employee productivity and decrease organizational turnover.