3. Examination--The manager and employee should meet on a regular consistent basis in order to review both of the above. Whether or not this is a formal review process each time, or an informal coaching session, this element will help foster the employee's willingness to work on issues, keep doing what he is doing well, and affirm that the employee and manager are still on the same page as far as the expectations are concerned. The meetings will also provide an opportunity for other issues and problems to be discussed. This type of dialogue strategy helps both parties to wor

The problem lies less with the concept of performance evaluations: more than 90% of the employees at a company concerned about performance evaluation issues, indicated that they thought honest appraisal of their performance was critical to their success. Some 40% also felt they had never received such an appraisal--despite four-fifths of those employees having at least one signed review on file! The respondents were obviously not receiving what they needed from the documented reviews.

Based on the number of articles and books written on the subject, there is no lack of expert opinion. Experts tend to agree with employees that appraisals are important; the problem is none of them has the same opinion on what to do about it. The bottom line is employees want to know how they are doing, and their companies want to tell them. In a nutshell, the problem with most systems of performance evaluation is their failure to address more than a handful of specific traits the company deemed important at one time or another. The solution involves more than developing a new form, however. There are at least six factors that will lead a company to produce a system that works for employees, managers, and the company.

Performance--The first factor necessary in the quest for the ideal performance evaluation is that it must be exactly that: performance based. While this may seem simple and self-evident, there are many companies and managers who have lost wrongful termination lawsuits brought by former employees on just this oversight. Performance based evaluation is the cornerstone of effectively communicating to employees where they stand with the company. To evaluate an employee on performance 3 key elements must be in place first:

1. Expectations--The employee must have a clear understanding of the expectations that he must meet. This can mean having a formal job description, or forming specific goals that must be attained in a certain time frame, or any combination of the two. Whatever the method, it is of the utmost importance that the employee constantly know exactly what 'performance' means for him.

2. Examples--The manager must document any instances of both exceptional performance and poor performance. This will give her an opportunity to provide tangible evidence to the employee when discussions begin, and to identify the achievements that should be reinforced, along with those areas that need improvement.

3. Examination--The manager and employee should meet on a regular consistent basis in order to review both of the above. Whether or not this is a formal review process each time, or an informal coaching session, this element will help foster the employee's willingness to work on issues, keep doing what he is doing well, and affirm that the employee and manager are still on the same page as far as the expectations are concerned. The meetings will also provide an opportunity for other issues and problems to be discussed. This type of dialogue strategy helps both parties to wor

Based on the number of articles and books written on the subject, there is no lack of expert opinion. Experts tend to agree with employees that appraisals are important; the problem is none of them has the same opinion on what to do about it. The bottom line is employees want to know how they are doing, and their companies want to tell them. In a nutshell, the problem with most systems of performance evaluation is their failure to address more than a handful of specific traits the company deemed important at one time or another. The solution involves more than developing a new form, however. There are at least six factors that will lead a company to produce a system that works for employees, managers, and the company.

Performance--The first factor necessary in the quest for the ideal performance evaluation is that it must be exactly that: performance based. While this may seem simple and self-evident, there are many companies and managers who have lost wrongful termination lawsuits brought by former employees on just this oversight. Performance based evaluation is the cornerstone of effectively communicating to employees where they stand with the company. To evaluate an employee on performance 3 key elements must be in place first:

1. Expectations--The employee must have a clear understanding of the expectations that he must meet. This can mean having a formal job description, or forming specific goals that must be attained in a certain time frame, or any combination of the two. Whatever the method, it is of the utmost importance that the employee constantly know exactly what 'performance' means for him.

2. Examples--The manager must document any instances of both exceptional performance and poor performance. This will give her an opportunity to provide tangible evidence to the employee when discussions begin, and to identify the achievements that should be reinforced, along with those areas that need improvement.

3. Examination--The manager and employee should meet on a regular consistent basis in order to review both of the above. Whether or not this is a formal review process each time, or an informal coaching session, this element will help foster the employee's willingness to work on issues, keep doing what he is doing well, and affirm that the employee and manager are still on the same page as far as the expectations are concerned. The meetings will also provide an opportunity for other issues and problems to be discussed. This type of dialogue strategy helps both parties to wor

Performance--The first factor necessary in the quest for the ideal performance evaluation is that it must be exactly that: performance based. While this may seem simple and self-evident, there are many companies and managers who have lost wrongful termination lawsuits brought by former employees on just this oversight. Performance based evaluation is the cornerstone of effectively communicating to employees where they stand with the company. To evaluate an employee on performance 3 key elements must be in place first:

1. Expectations--The employee must have a clear understanding of the expectations that he must meet. This can mean having a formal job description, or forming specific goals that must be attained in a certain time frame, or any combination of the two. Whatever the method, it is of the utmost importance that the employee constantly know exactly what 'performance' means for him.

2. Examples--The manager must document any instances of both exceptional performance and poor performance. This will give her an opportunity to provide tangible evidence to the employee when discussions begin, and to identify the achievements that should be reinforced, along with those areas that need improvement.

3. Examination--The manager and employee should meet on a regular consistent basis in order to review both of the above. Whether or not this is a formal review process each time, or an informal coaching session, this element will help foster the employee's willingness to work on issues, keep doing what he is doing well, and affirm that the employee and manager are still on the same page as far as the expectations are concerned. The meetings will also provide an opportunity for other issues and problems to be discussed. This type of dialogue strategy helps both parties to wor

1. Expectations--The employee must have a clear understanding of the expectations that he must meet. This can mean having a formal job description, or forming specific goals that must be attained in a certain time frame, or any combination of the two. Whatever the method, it is of the utmost importance that the employee constantly know exactly what 'performance' means for him.

2. Examples--The manager must document any instances of both exceptional performance and poor performance. This will give her an opportunity to provide tangible evidence to the employee when discussions begin, and to identify the achievements that should be reinforced, along with those areas that need improvement.

3. Examination--The manager and employee should meet on a regular consistent basis in order to review both of the above. Whether or not this is a formal review process each time, or an informal coaching session, this element will help foster the employee's willingness to work on issues, keep doing what he is doing well, and affirm that the employee and manager are still on the same page as far as the expectations are concerned. The meetings will also provide an opportunity for other issues and problems to be discussed. This type of dialogue strategy helps both parties to wor

3. Examination--The manager and employee should meet on a regular consistent basis in order to review both of the above. Whether or not this is a formal review process each time, or an informal coaching session, this element will help foster the employee's willingness to work on issues, keep doing what he is doing well, and affirm that the employee and manager are still on the same page as far as the expectations are concerned. The meetings will also provide an opportunity for other issues and problems to be discussed. This type of dialogue strategy helps both parties to work together at their most effective.

Goals--The second factor necessary in the quest for the ideal performance evaluation is related to the first, but while this element can be a component of the performance requirements, it can also be a separately developed set of expectations. That is to say, the setting of goals is critical to the success of any performance evaluation. This area is one that is always challenging for managers and employees alike. The idea would be to develop goals, with the employees input, which align to the business strategy of the department, division, and company. In other words, while basing the analysis of an employee on performance, and the expectations that have been delineated in the first factor, the employee should also have an opportunity to develop objectives for himself that directly or indirectly impact the greater good. To clarify, suppose that Jack is a software engineer. His performance (factor one) may be measured by his ability to develop software. The expectations and examples would be related to this general ability. Goals, on the other hand, could be set that raise the bar-- Jack's contribution is valuable only if he develops the right software application in a specific time frame. His goals could be related to quality, timeliness, and appropriateness. While the goals could be used to gauge his performance, the opposite is not true. It is not enough for Jack to be able to write code; he must also be able to do it well.

That being said, it is important that goals have the following 5 elements to be effective:

1. Specific-- Goals must clearly specify the objective. It is not enough to say "Jack will write code." It is far better to say, "Jack will write code for the XYZ application…"

2. Measurable-- It does no good to set a goal if the end cannot be determined, or if there is no clear understanding of the goal being met. Again, if Jack's goal is "Jack will write 5 lines of code for the XYZ application, " that is far easier to measure if he has completed 5 v. 4 lines of code, than if he is only to write code.

3. Attainable-- This aspect is probably one of the most critical aspects of writing goals. If Jack is not a software engineer, but instead an assembly line worker, setting a goal for him to write 5 lines of code is useless. If a goal is not doable, it should not be written. The biggest difficulty with this is understanding that challenging is not the same as impossible. There is a delicate balance between creating challenging goals and creating ones that are unachievable.

4. Results Oriented--Goals should be designed so there is some