How To Conduct Effective Employee Evaluations
If you, as a manager, are dreading the next round of employee evaluations, it’...
The employee self-evaluation is an important component of every successful business. Many managers, though, still wonder what it is and why it matters.
In this article, the management experts at Sling provide insight into the self-evaluation process and how it can have a positive impact on your business.
What Is An Employee Self-Evaluation?
An employee self-evaluation (a.k.a. a self-performance review) is a form containing a series of questions that asks team members to describe their jobs and their performance from their unique point of view.
During the process, employees are encouraged to reflect on past work performance and provide insight into their activities and abilities that their managers might have missed.
Most businesses conduct employee self-evaluations as part of a larger mid-year performance review cycle.
Whether you do it once a year, twice a year, or more, incorporating an employee self-evaluation form into your review is an excellent way to get each employee’s side of the story.
You know what you think, and, if you collect feedback from others (which we recommend), you know what his or her peers think. But giving the employee a chance to explain from their perspective may reveal facts you weren’t aware of.
This begins to highlight the importance of an employee self-evaluation and opens the door to our next topic: why it matters.
Why Does An Employee Self-Evaluation Matter?
1) Provides Insight Into Strengths And Weaknesses
As a busy manager with responsibilities of your own, you can’t be everywhere at once. So unless you micromanage all of your team’s activities, you won’t see everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.
You can certainly get a more complete picture of each team member by asking coworkers for feedback, but that’s only two-thirds of the story. For true insight into the strengths and weaknesses of each employee, you also need to get their individual points of view.
An employee self-evaluation is the ideal solution. It allows each team member to highlight what they think are their strongest and weakest points.
These might not match up with what other employees report or what you observe, but the team member in question might not have had the opportunity to display those qualities until now.
Use the self-assessment information they provide to really get to know each team member from all three sides.
2) Encourages Communication
Communication is the bedrock of every successful team. Good managers are always looking for ways to improve workplace communication between themselves and each employee, as well as between members of the team.
One easy and effective way to encourage communication throughout your business is to incorporate an employee self-evaluation into the review process.
When you meet with an employee for their performance review, think of the self-assessment as an opportunity to talk with and get to know the team member.
Use the information they give you as a starting point to discuss:
- Their performance
- What they think they’re capable of
- Their contribution to the team
- Where they see themselves going in your business
- How you could put their talents to better use
The employee self-assessment is like a door from one room to another: you can choose to stay in your room and view the employee from afar, or you can choose to walk through the door and get to know the employee up close and personal.
3) Reinforces Core Values
As an owner or manager, you create the employee self-evaluation form and choose the questions to include. Instead of simply choosing questions at random, build the assessment so that it establishes and reinforces your business’s core values.
Ask about such things as:
If you have trouble identifying your core values, read through your employee handbook, your mission statement, and your vision statement to get a better idea of what principles and ethics are important to your business.
With repetition and discussion, team members will begin to see that your business’s core values are an integral part of their daily activity and that they should work to improve those skills in everything they do.
4) Highlights Accomplishments
Each member of your team has their own unique personality. Some like to be in the limelight, while others prefer to stay in the background.
The accomplishments of the high-performing employees at the forefront of your team are usually pretty obvious, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t high-potential employees elsewhere.
In fact, the stars on your team might owe a great deal to the contributions of those team members who never get recognized.
Even if those employees in the background don’t get the lion’s share of the accolades, you need to be aware of their accomplishments. That’s where self-evaluation becomes a valuable tool for getting to know your team.
A self-assessment gives each employee an opportunity to highlight their accomplishments without being overshadowed by the outgoing, “big personality” members of the team.
5) Emphasizes Personal And Professional Goals
The employee self-evaluation is also an excellent opportunity for you and the employee to emphasize both personal and professional goals.
Asking direct questions about the targets they reached and the targets they missed — as well as about the targets they’d like to shoot for — provides a clearer picture of how the team member would like to improve both personally and professionally.
Identifying these areas of improvement infuses their day-to-day activity with a new sense of purpose that can prevent them from suffering employee burnout or becoming disgruntled (both of which can lead to divisions in the team).
6) Spotlights Job And Career Growth
Another important aspect of employee self-assessment is its ability to shine a light on job and career growth.
Questions about where the employee sees themselves in one year, two years, five years, or even 10 years is a powerful tool for getting inside the heads of your team members.
When you understand what employees want from their future in your business, you can take steps to make it a reality. And when an employee feels like they’re growing and evolving in your organization, they’ll be much happier in their job and perform all that much better.
After two or three performance reviews (coupled with two or three employee self-evaluations), you’ll have your team members on the right track and on their way toward the job and career goals that are the best fit for them.
That’s good for your team and your business!
Communication Is Key
The combination of employee self-evaluation and periodic performance reviews is a powerful tool that improves the way your employees work. It’s also a powerful tool for forging strong employee/employer relationships.
Those relationships motivate your team to do their best even during the most difficult project. That’s the recipe for success.
One of the best ways to build strong relationships is through good communication. The better you communicate with your employees the stronger your team will be. The Sling app can help.
We built the Sling suite of tools to:
- Streamline communication
- Simplify the scheduling process
- Track labor costs
- Build employee engagement
- Organize work hours
- Remove the difficulties in finding substitutes
- Keep your team members on task throughout the day
Regardless of the industry, Sling can keep you and your team members organized and focused on the project at hand. That will translate to more positive performance reviews throughout the year.
And when you’re organized, everything runs more smoothly. Sling even helps with that.
The on-board artificial intelligence (A.I.) keeps track of time-off requests, work preferences, and other employee information. If you double-book an employee or schedule them for a time they can’t work, the Sling A.I. will notify you and prompt you to make the necessary change.
These are just a few of the benefits Sling can bring to your business. Experience the myriad ways the Sling app can make your managerial job easier by signing up for a free trial today.
For more free resources to help you manage your business better, organize and schedule your team, and track and calculate labor costs, visit GetSling.com today.
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This content is for informational purposes and is not intended as legal, tax, HR, or any other professional advice. Please contact an attorney or other professional for specific advice.
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