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Performance Reviews
From Dreaded Ritual to Positive Contribution

Claude Oppenheim, Ph.D., President
Oppenheim Education and Management Consulting

Performance Evaluations are High Stakes

The annual ritual of employee evaluation fills many managers and employees with dread. Managers are pressed for time, and may not have the training and expertise necessary to conduct evaluations well. Most of us try to avoid conflict, and managers fear that evaluations may involve communicating unwelcome news. They worry: how does one tell employees that things should change, yet maintain good working relationships and loyalty to the organization? If it later becomes necessary to discipline or even dismiss an employee, how do managers ensure that the evaluation process has warned of problems, and, if there is a dispute, that it will be judged to have been fair and in accordance with due process? Employees, on the other hand, are concerned that they will be respectfully and fairly treated, and their contributions to the organization recognized. Performance reviews are high-stakes events for all players concerned: employees, managers and organizations.

Ten Characteristics of Effective Evaluations

Evaluations that are respected by employees, and protect evaluators and organizations, display the following ten characteristics:

1. Policy based and transparent: There should be clear written policy outlining the purposes of evaluations; who will perform them; how often they will be done; and the consequences of favourable and unfavourable evaluations.
2. Evaluatee participation: Evaluatees should have the opportunity to contribute to their evaluations, and to respond to the evaluation reports.
3. Fairness and balance: Evaluations should ensure that strengths as well as weaknesses are addressed, and that neither is overemphasised at the expense of the other.
4. Evidence based: The evidence for conclusions should be cited.
5. Comprehensive: Evaluations should address all aspects of the employee's role.
6. Economy: Comprehensiveness must be balanced with economy. Evaluations should not consume disproportionate amounts of time, money and energy.
7. Clarity: Evaluation reports should be clear about what features of the employee's performance are commended, and which require change. There should be no confusion about what changes are merely recommended, and which are required.
8. Professional: The manner in which evaluations are conducted, and the quality of written reports, should convey respect and professionalism.
9. Confidential: Evaluation results should only be shared with the evaluatee and his/her supervisor/s. Reports should be filed in a single, secure location. Multiple copies should not be created.
10. Natural Justice: Evaluatees should have the opportunity to appeal evaluations with which they disagree.

Why Performance Evaluation is so Difficult

It is extremely difficult for an in-house evaluation to be truly objective. Especially when there is a long-standing working relationship between the evaluator and the evaluatee, pragmatic considerations can too easily colour the evaluation process and outcome. Where an employee is cooperative or would be hard to replace because of special expertise, the evaluator may be reluctant to be entirely frank. In addition, not all managers are well trained in evaluation. Even when they are, the many demands on their time may make it impossible for them to give the process the careful attention it requires to be fair and defensible.

How Consultants can Help

While it is usual for the evaluation of an organization's most senior executive officers to be contracted to an outside consultant, the evaluation of other staff may also be outsourced.

Consultants can assist organizations to develop evaluation systems tailored to their individual circumstances. The evaluation process can be as comprehensive as the organization desires, depending on its needs, wishes and resources. In any case, evaluations must be thorough enough to be fair and credible, without being unwieldy, unduly expensive or excessively time-consuming. While the consultant's role may be limited to assisting with the development of policy and procedure, the consultant may be involved more extensively. Consultants can train in-house evaluators in the evaluation process. Consultants can also be involved in performing the evaluations.

It is possible for the entire personnel evaluation process to be contracted out. On the other hand, a process may be developed that includes the participation of both in-house and external evaluators. For example, if the organization wishes its employees to be evaluated each year, alternate evaluations can be conducted by the internal and external evaluators. Or a certain percentage of the evaluations conducted each year may be performed by an outside evaluator. Or, where none of the organization's managers has a background in the function performed by the employee, an external evaluator can assess the performance of that function, while the in-house evaluator assesses more general issues of work-place performance. Not only may sharing the evaluation function between internal and external evaluators be more cost-effective, but ongoing collaboration with properly qualified external evaluators will provide valuable professional training to the in-house evaluators.

Where consultants are contracted to conduct evaluations, they may recommend a form of "360 degree" evaluation, where data will be collected from all appropriate sources, certainly including the evaluatee's supervisor. In schools, this type of process is commonly used in the evaluation of administrators, but less frequently for evaluating teachers. Teacher evaluation too often relies (or worse, pretends to rely) almost entirely on classroom observation, which must be part of the process, but should not be not be the only source of data. In a comprehensive and credible process, systematically collected input from parents and students can provide highly valid information. Instruments are available that allow even very young students to participate.

The judicious use of appropriate consultant services can greatly enhance the professionalism, defensibility and usefulness of performance evaluation. Instead of these evaluations being the almost meaningless ritual that they too often are, they can contribute significantly to the quality of the performance and satisfaction of personnel, and to the reputation and success of the organization.

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