Performance Evaluation and Management in the Workplace

Performance Evaluation

1. The Concept of Performance Evaluation

Performance evaluation is a structured and systematic process used to measure, evaluate, and influence an employee's job-related attributes, behaviors, and results. It aims to discover how productive an employee is and whether they can improve in the future. While all companies want to increase their employees' productivity, only a few are checking the improvement in performance through evaluation. In general, employees work at only 60-70% of their capacity.

Performance evaluation gathers five key aspects:

• Job Analysis:
  • Output quantity
  • Output quality
  • Behavior developed (service level, customer attention, etc.)
  • Job-related attributes (loyalty, honesty, cooperation, etc.)

  The chosen evaluation method influences its efficiency.

• Evaluation of the Measurement Methods: The evaluation process acts as a contract between the employee and the organization and serves as a control system.
• Employee and Evaluator Characteristics
• The "Feedback" Process
• Suitability of the Evaluation Process with HR Objectives

Performance Management

What must be evaluated?

• Results: Quantity and quality obtained by the employee over a certain period.
• Area of Responsibility: Within their designated area.
• Accountability: Activities for which they are directly accountable.
• Job Description and Objectives: Should be based on the job description and related to the annual objective setting.

How must it be evaluated?

• The evaluation should be consistent, regardless of who conducts it at a given time.
• Performance criteria must be established beforehand to validate the evaluation process.
• If the performance evaluation doesn't include behavioral aspects of the job, it is inefficient.
• If it includes job aspects that are not relevant or important to the job's result, it is contaminated.

Methods of Evaluation

• Direct Classification:

  • The easiest and first method.
  • The supervisor lists all their subordinates, ordering them by their performance or other criteria.

• Alternating Classification:

  • Uses the same list as in direct classification.
  • Then, the supervisor chooses the best and the worst performers.

• Comparison Between Pairs:

  • Each employee is compared with all the rest, one by one, according to different criteria, one at a time.
  • The list is established by counting the number of "beats".

• Forced Distribution Method:

  • Designed to overcome the lack of different degrees.

Issues with comparison methods: All are based on the idea that performance is best measured with only one criterion: general performance.

Valuing and Behavior-Based Systems

• The supervisor registers efficient or inefficient actions employees make when performing their jobs.
• Similar approach to a SWOT analysis.
• It is very simple, fact-based, and comparable.
• Requires training.
• A list of good/bad performance standards is created.

• Narrative Reports:

  • Differences in length and depth of the analysis disable them from making internal and extra-departmental comparisons.

• Conventional Valuing Scales:

  • The most widely used method.
  • Vary in the number of measured performance dimensions.

Who Must Evaluate?

• Superior Evaluation: Supposedly, the superior best knows the subordinate's job and its expected performance.
• Employee Self-Evaluation: Has become very popular.
• Evaluation by Colleagues: A useful performance predictor.
• Evaluation by Customers: Generally, internal or external customers can be considered.
• 360-Degree Evaluation: To take advantage of each method's strengths while offsetting disadvantages, companies have begun to use combined evaluation methods.

When to Evaluate?

This section is missing from the original text. It should address the frequency and timing of evaluations (e.g., annually, semi-annually, quarterly, or on a project basis).