Successfully Conducting Employee Performance Appraisals

Wendy L. McCoyDirector HR & BenefitsFlorida Conference of The United Methodist Church

Agenda

Expectations of supervisors and coaches

Performance management process

Preparation for meeting with employee

Conducting the appraisal & setting goals

Addressing poor or ineffective performance

Follow-up feedback and coaching

Defining acceptable and unacceptable performance

Q & A

Performance Expectations

Setting performance expectations is the foundation and first step in performance management.

By setting performance expectations first, the employee knows what is expected and the supervisor has specific performance criteria to measure quality and productivity.

Expectations of Supervisors

Conduct (at least) an annual performance evaluation

Create an environment for ongoing dialogue

Have the basics before you begin such as, current job description, performance expectations and goals for success

Connect the dots….to the Mission and Vision of the local church

Performance Management Process

Step 1The Basics

Job DescriptionGoal Setting

Performance Expectations

Step 2Preparing for &

conductingthe employee

meeting

Step 3Follow-up coaching

& regular

performancecheck-ups

Preparation for Employee Meeting

Schedule meeting with employee

Ask employee to conduct a self-assessment prior to the meeting

Collect data on employee’s performance (work records, attendance, work product, input from peers and others)

Supervisor should complete draft evaluation form prior to meeting

Preparation for Employee Meeting(Continued)

Record major accomplishments and document examples of both strengths and areas for improvement

Use behavioral examples where you can to avoid “hearsay”

Be prepared to discuss performance of routine tasks and long term goals

Provide specific feedback on how tasks are accomplished (behaviors)

Be prepared to discuss current and future goals for employee

Conducting the Appraisal (Continued)

During the meeting, both supervisor and employee review their responses to the assessment

Start with areas of agreement and reinforce the positive

Identify areas for improvement and ask for recommendations to build a plan for improvement

Conducting the Appraisal(Continued)

Ask the employee to take the lead in reviewing their own performance.

Saying things such as, "I see from your self-evaluation, we pretty much agree with this (positive) point."

"What did you find most rewarding this year?"

"What would you do differently if you could do it over again?"

Conducting the Appraisal (Continued)

Make sure you have plenty of specific examples to make your observations clear.

Concentrate exclusively on factors directly related to job performance and use language that paints a picture for the employee.

For example:

"You usually don’t speak in department meetings and you don’t ask questions when you’re stuck on an assignment, which contributes to a higher rate of errors and missed deadlines" - is better than,

"You’re a poor communicator."

Conducting the Appraisal (Continued)

More examples:

Instead of saying,

"you're doing a great job," say -

"your planning and preparation for this meeting was really great. That helped to make the meeting more productive."

Or instead of saying,

"you need to improve your time management skills," say,-

"I noticed you missed the deadline to send information to accounting department; let's discuss what happened and talk about ways to avoid this in the future.

Conducting the Appraisal (Continued)

Attempt to avoid defensiveness

Discuss behaviors not “personalities”

Avoid terms such as “always” and “never”

Encourage participation and be supportative

Try to end the meeting on a positive note

Goal Setting

Use your mission and vision to align individual goals

Make sure the goals are “SMART” Specific - with enough detail to be clear Measurable - use quantitative goals when available,

use milestones, use thoughtful judgments Attainable - realistic in terms of employee's control,

timeframe, and resources available Reasonable - realistic in terms of what can really be

achieved Time-based - with dates set for achieving milestones,

results and completion

Goal Setting

Performance objectives are written to describe the measurable results an employee needs to achieve within each key responsibility area.

Goals and objectives are nearly synonymous and are often used interchangeably. To differentiate between the two remember this:

“The goal is where we want to be. The objectives are the steps needed to get there.”

Goal Setting (Continued)

Three components create a clear objective:

Performance – what the individual is tasked to do.

Criteria – the quality or level of performance that will be considered acceptable, often described in terms of timeframe, accuracy and/or quality.

Conditions – conditions under which the performance is expected to occur.

Goal Setting (Continued)

Three components creating a clear objective are Performance, Criteria and Conditions.

Example:

The employee will scan accounts payable invoices into electronic filing system weekly taking care to make sure invoices are correctly categorized by vendor name and date of payment.

Addressing ineffective (poor) performance

Most performance problems can be resolved through effective communication between supervisors and their employees.

A counseling session is an opportunity to clarify expectations and discuss performance problems.

Have some specific examples of poor performance so that you can respond to the inevitable, "What do you mean?"

Addressing ineffective (poor) performance (continued)

Do not emphasize past poor performance, instead, seek to clarify future good performance.

To prepare for a counseling session with an employee, write out and then practice saying what acceptable performance in the job would mean. Listen to yourself. If it doesn't make any sense to you, it won't make any sense to the employee. Be as specific as possible.

Follow-up Feedback and Coaching

Be specific about what you observed (focus on behavior, action, results, etc)

Explain the impact their actions had on the department / organization

Be equally rigorous with positive feedback

Seek to understand their perspective or point of view

Ratings Defining acceptable and unacceptable performance

Make this your “baseline” year. You are not required to designate a numeric rating

Provide clear written statements indicating the level of performance using the performance factors

Set goals and objectives as a basis for future evaluations