Assessing Employee
Performance
Thomas P. Holland, Ph.D., Professor
Institute for Nonprofit Organizations
Performance Appraisal
• Opportunity for worker and supervisor to discuss
the individual’s work, review past performance,
and identify goals for future improvement
• Can be done punitively, constructively,
superficially
• Should be based on job description and explicit
expectations of role, observed performance and
not personality or rumor; what you see and what
you want to see instead.
• Should be scheduled regularly (formal) and take
place casually at times between
• Should result in mutually acceptable plan for
improving performance in coming time period
Key Components of Assessments
• Measurement: performance should be evaluated
against mutually understood targets and objectives
• Feedback: provision of information to individual about
performance, achievements, needed improvements
• Exchange of views: truthful, two-way conversation about
what has happened, explanations for performance, ideas
about changes
• Positive reinforcement: emphasize what has been done
well and make constructive criticism about what should
be improved
• Agreement: joint understanding of goals, what needs to
be done to improve performance and how it should be
undertaken
• Record: conclusions should be documented on forms
and/or narrative and included in personnel file, with copy
to individual.
Appraisal Skills
• Asking good questions
– How do you feel about how your work has been
going?
– How do you see the job developing?
– What do you think happened and why?
• Listening, paying careful attention to speaker,
avoiding interruptions and generalizations
– Could you tell me more about that?
– Let me check my impression. Do you mean that….?
• Giving feedback, based on facts and evidence,
building on skills, promoting understanding of
what changes are important and why, emphasis
on future successes
Examples of Assessment
Approaches and Tools
• Microsoft Office has Employee Performance
Review Form
• AFSCME Employee Performance Review
Form.doc
• www.k-state.edu/hr/forms/reviewforms.html
• www.successfactors.com
• www.socrates.com/Newsletter0105_Performanc
e.asp
• www.2020software.com/search/Employee_Annu
al_Review_Form
• Search web for additional examples
360 Assessments
• Provides performance feedback to individual from
several sources
• Uses questionnaire composed of statements about
quality of person’s work, including all relevant
components
• Individual plus several others fill out questionnaire
independently
• Others’ responses averaged, kept anonymous
• Averages of others’ assessments and person’s own
assessments compared
• Identify aspects of person’s performance that
– both agree done well (good news you expected)
– both agree not done well (bad news you expected)
– other’s ratings higher than person’s own (good news you didn’t
expect)
– others’ ratings lower than person’s own (bad news you didn’t
expect)
More on 360 Assessments
• Challenges person’s views of self and work, differences
between self-perceptions and those of others
• Useful to identify specific areas needing improvement,
leading to learning contract with supervisor
• May be repeated to assess changes
• Items must be short and clear, relevant to person’s role
• Useful to have larger numbers of others knowing
person’s work doing ratings
• Anonymity of raters essential, only averages reported
• Opportunities for comments can be provide useful
information
Using Assessments in Coaching,
Mentoring, and Training
• Identify specific competencies needing
improvement
• Formulate goals for attainment
• Specify appropriate methods for addressing
them, set tasks and timeframe
• Implement development activities
• Monitor movement, make use of feedback to
refine efforts
• Continue practicing through work assignments