Evaluating your employee's performance

Key Idea

When you review your employee's performance, remember to give equal time to good performance as well as to performance problems. You are looking for specific examples that can be supported with documentation and that are worthy of discussion in your performance appraisal. In some cases, your performance appraisal involves a general rating of the employee's performance. Refer to your company's guidelines on rating overall performance.

For good or superior performance, make sure you know what specific details support the claim. The more specific the feedback, the more likely the employee can repeat and improve upon the behaviors.

For performance that needs improvement, try to identify the cause-and-effect links between the employee's behavior and attitudes and performance. Also ask yourself how you may have contributed to or interfered with your employee's performance. Consider some of the following factors that could be a supervisory responsibility: unclear expectations and/or direction, inadequate assistance and resources, lack of skills or experience to do the job, low motivation, low self-confidence.

Evaluating direct reports is a tough job. How will you further enhance high performance—while addressing areas needing improvement?