I’m not sure which forum would have been best for this. This one will have to do.
I’m working for a small consulting firm providing engineering services to telecom/cable providers. In addition to my engineering functions, I am the CAD dept. manager. Employee management is something I have little or no experience with; I’ve only assumed this task recently. Next week, I am to hold employee reviews and performance evaluations for the members of the CAD dept. (4 people) and I’m looking for a little advice from all you nice folks.
Do any of you have experience conducting reviews or evaluations that you’d like to share. I’m also interested in hearing tales of joy or woe that may have happened to you when you were evaluated by your manager(s). Does anyone have any opinions on peer, rather than manager, reviews?
Thanks all.
What do I believe in? Not much that isn’t explained by logic and scientific experiment. And, you better believe, I want to see the logic and the laboratory equipment.
–P.J. O’Rourke–
Well, I can tell you the MOST important thing, from my own experience. It is something that my manager in my last job obviously did NOT know.
a) If you have criticism, be ready to support it with EXAMPLES;
b) Do not INVENT or MAKE UP these examples;
c) On the whole, remain OBJECTIVE and judge your employee by his job merits rather than by your own opinion of him as a person.
By no means am I saying you would be remotely like my last manager, Uncle. But beware: unsupported criticism pisses people off beyond belief - even if it IS justified.
If you’ve not managed these folks for very long, you might ask their previous manager (if possible) to participate. If your company normally does not do peer reviews, you might do so anyway, just because of the situation. They should be kept confidential between you and the respondent and include, of course, both the subject’s areas of strength as well as those where they might need some improvement. Several managers where I work do this very effectively. At my company we also use evaluations to set goals for the coming year - so everyone knows what the basis will be for the next evaluation.
Best advice: Think of all the evaluations you’ve recieved. Take the best techniques, and use them on your new charges.
Well, I hate to toot my own horn, but, what the heck…
I just had my review in October. It was absolutely wonderful!! My boss just raved and raved, I couldn’t believe it. I know I’m a good worker, but I don’t feel I give 100% at this job, more like I’m biding time til I move back to NJ to get a better one. (Actually, this job is great, but pay in central PA is not what I have become accustomed to.) I got a raise and a promotion (4th of both in 2 years) and when he told me what my increase was I said I thought I deserved more. My theory being he just had nothing but fabulous things to say, how could he say no? Needless to say, after a couple of weeks and proposals to the CFO, I got the extra amount I wanted.
If your head is wax, don’t walk in the sun.
-Benjamin Franklin
Sorry to reiterate Coldfire’s post, but absolutely, if you are going to criticize any aspect of an employee’s performance, you MUST have documentation of the events you cite. Otherwise the criticism is worse than useless…you’ll not change behavior and you’ll have a disgruntled employee forever.
I had a manager make me write my own review, only to find that she used the basic content to rewrite the evaluation. Don’t do this, it’s maddening.
The way my company does it: each employee does his/her own personal evaluation a week or so ahead of time. Then they meet with their supervisor, who fills out his/her employee evaluation in a question and answer session with the employee. They can debate about ‘I think you did ok, but you think you did great, why the difference?’ issues, and both come away feeling like the evaluation was fair and accurate. I always make sure to keep a file of good examples, and highlight them in my evaluation. Our raises are always in line with our performance: if you need improvement, you get a small one, if you’re invaluable, you get a large one.
The place I worked before, we were called in one by one to the VP’s office, with no advance warning or time to get positive examples together. We were (or I was) told a list of what I was doing wrong and how I needed to improve performance and was not given a chance to provide evidence to the contrary. It didn’t matter anyway, because everyone got the same measly 3% raise whether or not they deserved it. Yes, I’m bitter.
UncleBeer, here’s how they did it at my last company, although it’ll be tough to implement if “next week” is written in stone.
Each employee chooses 5 peers to evaluate him. These 5 peers, the employee and the supervisor would receive forms with specific objectives (e.g. Customers, Teamwork, Skills, etc.) listed on them. The form required the person filling it out to list 3 strengths and 2 weaknesses (I think it was somewhat flexible) in each area, with supporting examples, and then return to the supervisor. The supervisor would summarize the feedback and present it to and discuss it with the employee in a one-on-one.
I don’t know how my current employer does it. I hope to be out of here by then.
“Strainger, the SDMB National Ambassador of Goodwill” - special
It’s like raising kids, Unc; Firm. Fair and Consistant.
It sounds like you just picked up this crew, so you will be unable to do a proper eval.
Mostly you’ll be establishing baselines. One thing you can do is to solicit feedback (confidentially) for each person from a cross section of their contacts; peers, other managers, etc., plus themselves.
In my experience most people judge themselves more harshly than others would.
If you like I can attach and e-mail some sanitized forms I devised that will help you streamline the process. They’re in Excel.
Lots of good ideas here. I think it might be difficult to do a peer-type review just because of the limited number of people involved.
Vestal, if you would like to forward your forms, I would be grateful. You can e-mail me at rseaney@teamsigma.com
¡Muchas gracias!
What do I believe in? Not much that isn’t explained by logic and scientific experiment. And, you better believe, I want to see the logic and the laboratory equipment.
–P.J. O’Rourke–
Uncle Beer-
I’ve never been in management, but I have been the subject of employee reviews, so here’s my input.
You must start with the premise that employee reviews are a useless waste of time and proceed from there.
What really works in managing employees is, on an ongoing, daily basis is to tell them, “hey, don’t do that”, “It would work better if you did it like this” “Good job on X, keep it up”, basically, providing the employee with useful information that will enable them to do their job better, sprinkled with expressions of a job well done.
With this in mind, write your employee evaluations including this kind of information.
UB…As you know, I am familiar with your last employer. Learn from their management example:
a) Ask in-depth questions
b) Offer constructive criticisms
c) Listen intently to their comments
…Then completely ignore them. A fight to the death will then determine a victor who will be entitled to further employment and a chance at promotion and pay increases.
We both worked for that company for several years. It seemed to work for them.
A fight to the death or maybe just a good nose up the ass while tongueing the balls of one of the most incompetent, unscrupulous, worthless bastards on this green earth. Oh wait, there was two of those guys. 13 years out the window just like a fart in a hurricane.
By the way, that was two employers ago for me and those are the guys that aren’t sueing me. Go figure.
Easy one-step assembly instructions.
Pour Beer A in Uncle B.
Uh… as an employee, I beg to differ. Ongoing feedback is a necessity, as is a formal review at least once a year. I wanna know what my boss thinks of me, and I want him to spend at least a couple hours doing an overview. I also want the opportunity to do the same. The worst jobs I’ve had are the ones where the managers think that reviews are a waste of time.
I’ve found that most employees have an idea of what they need to improve, and a gentle nidge will usually set them straight, for a while at least. Bad habits (like internet usage) are hard to break. I do generally have positive things to say on evaluations, my theory being that people work better when they know they are appreciated and respected. I have employees that are doing much more for me than they did for their previous manager, simply because I thanked them and told them what a great job they were doing. In my company, performance evaluation scores don’t not affect raises at all, that’s solely based on longevity, so there’s very little reason for associates to get terribly anxious about it. Also little incentive for them to improved thier job performance, if they know they’ll be getting the same piddly raise regardless.
My opinion? Document and be able to give examples. There shouldn’t be any suprises to the employee. Good evaluations take a hellish amount of time, but they’re worth it if done right.
Give a copy of the blank form to the employee to fill as well. Sit down and talk about where your views agree and differ. The point is two-way communication. I’ve been chagrined and enlightened when employees have pointed out institutional reasons for problems that I never even noticed, e.g. equipment problems, onerous reports, etc.
If done well, both have a better idea of what’s needed and how to get there. And praise strengths! Yeah, it could come back to haunt you as documentation, but most people are like Mark Twain: “I could live for a week on a good compliment”.
Sorry. I’m pontificating, but so many evaluations are just grim exercises in futility. It makes so much more sense to use them to open some honest talk about how the job is going.
For the quarterly review cycle here we cap the evaluation meeting with making a list of the three to seven goals to be met for the next quarter. These can be project related (e.g., finish the web-based interface), process related (e.g., develop a smooth working relationship with Product Development), growth related (e.g., take an XML course), and so on. This won’t do you any good for this time around, but next period will go a lot smoother with something concrete as a starting point.
