Poorly designed and ineffective evaluations can do more harm than good. As a matter of fact, this topic can lead to very passionate and heated discussions amongst organizational members. While working with many organizations, we hear how evaluations look similar for members across the organization, regardless of performance, and how this can lead to resentment and apathy. We’ve even heard of supervisors having members write their own evaluation and then simply signing them!
We are often questioned on the merit of evaluations and what the best approach is. We believe that performance measurement systems that are tailored to the individual vs. the collective whole, are better suited in further developing and motivating employees.
As WPI first began to develop our Performance Systems, we considered common ways evaluations are historically done.
One of the main reason evaluations fail to develop people is that they are too heavily task based. You know what I’m talking about, “package this many pencils,” or “make these many sales.” The problem with this approach is how the pencils are being packaged, or how the sales are being done is missing. In other words, if maximum sales are the task, the employee may use rogue or rude approaches with customers to sell the product. Off task behavior will likely lead to lower future sales. Our experience is, expectations weighted too heavily toward the task itself, can lead to employees engaging in unwanted behaviors… it’s called checking the box.
A second cause for failures with these systems is that many are subjective versus objective. Think for a moment when you received an evaluation and after reading it, you thought, “I really didn’t think I did this well through this rating period.” Many can also remember a time when they received an evaluation that had little documentation, and certainly lacked specific information on vital work that was done. This can be demoralizing to the employee.
A third and final failure point is when no evaluation system used. There may be one institutionalized with some leaders using it, but other leaders who do not. This can cause employees to be left wondering where they stand with the leader…in group or out group. Additionally, equity issues can arise and begin to erode at group cohesion.
Properly designed and consistently used performance development systems that focus on behavior and growth can be a positive game changer for businesses everywhere.
WPI systems focus more on behavior versus task and our systems work.
Feel free to contact us today to continue this conversation and find out more about the WPI approach. Join and follow us on our social media platforms as well.