How Do You Assess Employees On The Job?

Well, this blog about assessing employees hits home as I just had my one-year work anniversary with ExactHire. I love my job, by the way, and wish everyone could enjoy coming to work as much as I do! (I am not kissing up because I have already had my annual review!) But, it brings up a good question that affects all employers regardless of size of company or industry…how do you assess employees?

There are multiple traits that can be reviewed to assess your employees:

Quantitative Measurements – these should be the most obvious characteristics to review

• Performance Objectives – These could be set by management as goals for the employee or for the overall organization. Examples might include sales goals of a specific dollar amount, obtaining a set number of new accounts/clients or safety goals in a production facility.
• Cost Effective – The employee’s productivity during his/her time at work vs. the cost to have him/her there. This can be a simple measurement for some types of jobs, like in the manufacturing industry where it is easy to count output of units produced, but it may be more complicated to compute in other industries such as consulting or healthcare.
• Absenteeism or Timeliness – Here is an easy one – most companies have some type of system in place to keep track of tardiness or absenteeism of their employees. Make sure that your employees are not abusing the system.

Personal Behavior – how the employee conducts himself/herself on a daily basis

• Works well with team – This is important to all jobs but is much more imperative to certain positions or industries. Depending on the nature of the business, if an employee is not a team player, that can make a work situation miserable for many people.
• Creativity – Again, this one can depend on the position, but overall, reviews how well the person handles change, problem solving and other situations that require the employee to “think outside the box.”
• Follows policies – Whether in management or low man on the totem pole, this one says a lot about people. Is your employee a strict follower of the policies or is he/she a “rule breaker”? Review how this can affect his/her performance and the performance of others.

Appraisals – evaluations done by various people anytime of the year for various reasons

• Self – Asks the employee to look at himself/herself to review how he/she thinks he/she is performing at current position.
• Manager – This is the most standard evaluation given…what does the boss think of the employee? This is important but is far more useful when combined with other evaluations.
• Peer – This one can be tricky but is equally important. Peers often have a lot of insight into the employee’s overall productivity.
• 360 Degree – All of the above! ExactHire offers a “360 degree survey” that takes into account all of these appraisal types to produce an overall summary or performance picture of the employee. These are very useful for a company to use for an annual snapshot of the team dynamics as a whole, as well.

Employers can use assessments to reevaluate employees at any time, measuring their cognitive and behavioral traits. If you have any concerns regarding a new hire, keep in mind that the use of employee assessments can help retain talent. In the long run, you will be able to find a good fit for your company as well as for the job at hand. The right person for the job will be more productive and stay engaged in his/her work…creating a positive atmosphere for everyone.

Image Credit: By Employeeperformance (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons