Performance assessments on employees are a common practice in today’s business world. They help employees to get detailed feedback on their work. And how higher echelon perceives their work. It’s a great tool to spot candidates for promotions or drive corporate culture.
Recurring dates or special events like an employee leaving the company need assessments. The end of a project or a trial period are other milestones requiring reports.
This post seeks to address how to write a meaningful assessment report. One that generates value for all parties involved.
Assessment frameworks
Many frameworks are available trying to aid with grading employees. A part of them requires a “secret” language. For example, if someone is a drunkard you should describe him as a very social character.
Frameworks like this (and all other frameworks) are useless. They focus on checklists or filling blanks. Aiming for efficiency they neither focus on corporate culture nor an employee’s individuality. Instead, they are excluding the employee from the equation.
Nobody can gain anything from such a framework. The employee has no chance to understand the grading. The reporter’s why for the grades gets lost. The receiver gets numbers and has no clue how they came together.
Instead of using such a framework, you should create one from which you will gain real value.
Core values
Before creating such a framework you need to think about the core qualities you are looking for in employees.
Many companies are hiring for skills only, which is a big mistake. Skills matter to some degree, but a good teacher can teach a skill to anybody. Look for eager and motivated learners and teachers instead.
Communication and empathy are great values supporting this. We are looking for the ability to state intent and communicate goals in a clear fashion. This will reduce the number of meetings in a significant way. Empathy helps us to understand the problems of others. To see their strengths and weaknesses, as well as their potential for improvement.
You also want creative employees. Not the next Picasso 🖌, but people that find new ways and solutions. People who stick out and who will help you stick out. People brave enough to leave the trodden path. People embracing change.
Which leads to initiative, the most important value you could be looking for. These “hungry wolves” will look for opportunities in places you can’t even imagine. They drive evolution and improvement in your company. They keep raising the bar and motivate others to follow their example. They are able to execute any plan with success, regardless of the circumstances. These are tomorrow’s decision-makers and you don’t want competitors to get them.
Using these values you will not only get top-notch employees. You will get future leaders who can take responsibility at a moment’s notice.
Now that we have our core values, how should we use them in an evaluation process?
Evaluation
When evaluating employees your driving questions must be: How do I want to be evaluated?
As human beings, we are striving for individuality and we want others to see us as such individuals. If an evaluation does not reflect that, we can not consider it fair.
That leaves us whit one solution: Describe each employee as individual and as accurate as possible.
Let the above core values guide you and write your thoughts and conclusions. Give room for strengths and weaknesses alike. Write about great initiative and solutions. But also mention areas where you see improvement or where failures happened. Highlight lessons learned and don’t spare praise. Praise is a better teacher than blame. Don’t copy and paste. Clear your mind after each report.
And as with every human interaction trust is the name of the game. It is not possible to evaluate employees without integrating them into the process.
Before you pass your reports up the chain take some time and talk them through with your employees. It will not only show that you value them. In turn, they get an opportunity to get an outside view of their weaknesses and strengths. In the beginning, people may react with displeasure if they have to face their weaknesses. Integrating them in an open discussion will reduce that feeling. Together you can identify ways to improve in such areas and create new development goals for the upcoming assessment. Instead of letting a negative feeling sink in, you now have a tool to transform it into motivation.
Benefits
That sounds like a lot more work than just checking off a list or filling in some blanks. Which benefits can we gain from such a framework?
If you integrate this kind of assessment in a quarterly or biannual process you will get an extraordinary feedback loop. Spotting strengths and using them for promotions will inspire others to follow that example. This will also help in creating a company culture valuing these strengths. Spotting weaknesses early on and communicating them prevents them from becoming part of the culture. Employees know their weak spots at all times and can improve on them. The inclusion into the process combined with respect for individuality will create a great bond based on trust and loyalty.
And to be honest, if that sounds like too much work for you, you should reconsider your position.
Let me end this excursion with a quote for your meditation
Hire character. Train skill. — Peter Schutz
