We've had several discussions about teacher accountabilty and objective criteria for evlaluating such, but I am curious how this works in the private sector. I've worked in banking, insurance, retail, etc.and never had one. How does this work at your job? Is salary affected by your score? Are they used exclusively for promotions? What criteria do they use?
If your company knows what it's trying to do, knows what the purpose of each position is and has correctly identified critical success indicators for each position and each team, then employee evaluations are valuable in these ways:
1. They are based on measurable data resulting from the performance of duties.
2. They are compared to both the success of the overall team and to the goals set at the previous evaluation.
3. They set defined and measurable goals to be accomplished in the period leading to the next review.
4. They define the impact that achieving or failing to achieve these goals will have on the overall team.
5. They help to define what the goals should be and what the "measurables" should be also. All goals and measurables should be refined constantly to help the organization better direct the work of the individuals and teams to achieve the overall goals.
The first evalution of any series is practcally worthless. If they are annual, they are also practically worthless. Most companies measure results financially in monthly cylces. Employee evaluations should be geared to match whatever the periodic measure of overall success for the organization is.
If evaluations are tied to income, the evaluation itself diverts from the more important goal of improving performance.
A good evaluation should leave the employee with an excellent understanding of how his work affects the organization, impacts profitability, can be improved to make a more complete contribution and will be measured in the future.
It should leave the evaluator with an excellent understanding of how the direction of the work affects the worker, impacts his/her attitude toward the employer, can be improved to enhance the comfort of the worker in the workflow and what changes are thought to be needed or important by the worker.
An evaluation in the best application is the basis of effective communication in the workplace. In the usual application, it is an unpleasant interuption of the daily activities that exists outside the flow of work and outside any relavance to the jobs being performed.
