Employee Evaluation

How to turn an employee review into a positive, productive tool

By Amara Rose

Too often, an employee performance evaluation ranks with dental visits as an unpleasant but necessary annual task. Yet when approached strategically, the employee review process can be painless — and profitable, once employees understand how their contribution affects the company's vision, values, and bottom line. Putting an effective evaluation system in place can:

Promote consistent, objective evaluations
Ensure that you conduct reviews regularly
Boost employee and manager participation in the review process.

Tap easy Web-based and software solutions

A growing number of companies offer easy-to-use Web-based solutions and software for evaluating employee performance.
Try: SuccessFactors offers online employee evaluation forms and software that work for companies of any size. Their Manager's Edition product is great for managing reviews of 1 to 25 employees. It's easy to set up and lets you create flexible, professional reviews quickly. ManagerAssistant is employee performance software that can help you automate, monitor and track employee reviews, evaluations and appraisals. TrakStar is Web-based employee review software that can be customized for businesses of any size. PerformancePro, from HRN Management Group, was designed by HR professionals to help small to mid-sized companies streamline and improve employee performance reviews.

Write your own or consult an appraisal authority

Employee performance evaluation service providers can help you custom-design an appraisal process.
Try: To do it yourself,order a six-part, editable employee assessment form from HRIT. Find a performance appraisal specialist at the HR-Guide.com directory or search for "performance appraisal" or "performance management" in the ASTD Buyers Guide, the online directory of the American Society of Training & Development. A variety of performance appraisal solutions are available at Business.com.

Partner with employee assessment software

Identify superstar employee traits and use your list as an evaluation benchmark.
Try: Tidemark software assesses core employee values with detailed employee evaluation forms, then creates a "Retention Profile" based on aggregate responses, then ranks each team member against it. Wonderlic offers a battery of online tests and personality profiles that can be used for hiring, evaluation and professional development.

Outsource employee evaluations

Stay lean and leave the HR functions to others.
Try: Check out service providers that offer to manage the employee assessment process (among other HR tasks) for you, including Gevity and Amcheck. Or, to keep costs down, find an independent consultant by searching the American Society of Training and Development Web site for a local chapter; then visit the local chapter's Web site (some have online member directories) and contact the chapter membership director for a referral to a performance appraisal specialist. Or look into providers of 360 reviews.

Spruce up your performance management skills

There are numerous good (and bad) ways to conduct an employee review. Make sure you know how to make it productive by learning online from human resources specialists.
Try: Check out HRIT's free tutorial on performance evaluations.

Keep up with the latest trends and strategies

New products and services that can help with employee evaluation are being introduced all the time.
Try: Business.com's "What Works for Business" blog is a great way to keep up with the latest HR solutions, trends and strategies for small and medium business -- including employee evaluation.

Gather information and others' input as appropriate, for the entire employee review period.
Write the review from an objective, balanced perspective.
Write an employee performance evaluation from an objective, balanced perspective.
Obtain employee input.
Provide feedback and coaching.
Provide the employee with a copy of the review.