Nearly 50 percent of landscape contractors conduct performance evaluations for their employees, while 12 percent do so only for year-round employees and 9 percent rate only managers’ productivity levels. But what’s surprising is that a decent number of contractors – 30 percent – don’t conduct reviews at all.
Not only do employee evaluations make workers aware of their strengths and weaknesses as well as provide them with improvement goals, but they also are motivational meetings that can help control employee turnover and improve a company’s competitive edge. Following are some tips from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Ala., on completing effective employee evaluations:
Be honest and fair in evaluating all employees. Make sure to look at all evaluations as a group to ensure the appearance of biases does not exist. The purpose of performance evaluations is to take a realistic snapshot of an employee’s performance. For instance, don’t say an employee is improving if he or she is not performing well.
Be consistent in your approach. Don’t create a situation where it appears that you bend over backward to create excuses for one employee while holding another employee’s feet to the fire. Define your criteria for each level of ranking and use the same criteria for every employee. Don’t set separate criteria for certain employees.
Give comments. A number used to rank an employee’s performance is useless without a written comment. Comments may confirm achievements or be constructive depending on the nature of the ranking.
Make your comments consistent with the rankings. Don’t give someone a “meets expectations” ranking if your comment describes a substandard performance.
Be realistic. Don’t inflate ratings – this only inflates an employee’s expectations.
Rate the employee’s performance, not the employee’s attitude. Keep your comments job related and on the employee’s ability to perform his or her job. Avoid phrases like “bad attitude,” “not a team player,” and other subjective comments. Instead, explain the behavior that has created the attitude.
Set goals with the employee. Don’t just criticize a deficient performer; set goals for follow up and improvement. Work together to create an action plan to help the employee in deficient areas. Set a follow-up period and be sure to reevaluate the employee at the appropriate time.
An evaluation should motivate an employee to want to improve. The employee should feel excited about the challenges and his or her ability to meet them. If employees hear only about their failures and weaknesses, they’ll start to believe they can’t succeed. Instead of striving for improvement, they’ll keep a low, defensive profile. If employees get support and encouragement from their supervisors, they’ll gain the desire and confidence to keep trying. When the supervisors’ suggestions for improvement bring results – and recognition – employees are even more likely to listen to future suggestions.
Eliminate surprises. The evaluation should be a “review” of the past year’s performance. Through previous counseling and other communications, the employee should be aware of any concerns you might have about his or her job performance. The annual evaluation is not the time to “save up” all your complaints and “attack” the employee.
In preparation for the evaluation, ask the employee to review his or her own performance and expectations for the future by preparing a self-appraisal. The employee might complete the same evaluation form that the supervisor uses or may draft a memo or list reviewing performance strengths and weaknesses and future goals. Having the employee go through the same exercise should make it easier for him or her to understand the process.
