Successfully Conducting
Employee Performance
Appraisals
Wendy L. McCoy
Director HR & Benefits
Florida Conference of The United Methodist Church
Agenda

Expectations of supervisors and coaches

Performance management process

Preparation for meeting with employee

Conducting the appraisal & setting goals

Addressing poor or ineffective performance

Follow-up feedback and coaching

Defining acceptable and unacceptable performance

Q&A
Performance Expectations
Setting performance expectations is the
foundation and first step in performance
management.
By setting performance expectations first, the
employee knows what is expected and the
supervisor has specific performance criteria
to measure quality and productivity.
Expectations of Supervisors

Conduct (at least) an annual performance
evaluation

Create an environment for ongoing dialogue

Have the basics before you begin such as,
current job description, performance
expectations and goals for success
 Connect the dots….to the Mission and Vision of
the local church
Performance Management Process
Step 3
Step 1
Follow-up
coaching
&
regular
performance
check-ups
The Basics
Job Description
Goal Setting
Performance Expectations
Step 2
Preparing for &
conducting
the employee
meeting
Preparation for Employee Meeting

Schedule meeting with employee

Ask employee to conduct a self-assessment
prior to the meeting

Collect data on employee’s performance (work
records, attendance, work product, input from
peers and others)

Supervisor should complete draft evaluation
form prior to meeting
Preparation for Employee Meeting
(Continued)

Record major accomplishments and document
examples of both strengths and areas for improvement

Use behavioral examples where you can to avoid
“hearsay”

Be prepared to discuss performance of routine tasks
and long term goals

Provide specific feedback on how tasks are
accomplished (behaviors)

Be prepared to discuss current and future goals for
employee
Conducting the Appraisal
(Continued)

During the meeting, both supervisor and
employee review their responses to the
assessment

Start with areas of agreement and reinforce the
positive

Identify areas for improvement and ask for
recommendations to build a plan for
improvement
Conducting the Appraisal
(Continued)

Ask the employee to take the lead in reviewing
their own performance.

Saying things such as, "I see from your selfevaluation, we pretty much agree with this
(positive) point."

"What did you find most rewarding this year?"

"What would you do differently if you could do it
over again?"
Conducting the Appraisal
(Continued)

Make sure you have plenty of specific examples to make
your observations clear.

Concentrate exclusively on factors directly related to job
performance and use language that paints a picture for
the employee.
For example:
"You usually don’t speak in department meetings and
you don’t ask questions when you’re stuck on an
assignment, which contributes to a higher rate of errors
and missed deadlines" - is better than,
"You’re a poor communicator."
Conducting the Appraisal
(Continued)
More examples:

Instead of saying,
"you're doing a great job," say -
"your planning and preparation for this meeting was really
great. That helped to make the meeting more
productive."

Or instead of saying,
"you need to improve your time management skills," say,"I noticed you missed the deadline to send information to
accounting department; let's discuss what happened and
talk about ways to avoid this in the future.
Conducting the Appraisal
(Continued)

Attempt to avoid defensiveness

Discuss behaviors not “personalities”

Avoid terms such as “always” and “never”

Encourage participation and be supportative

Try to end the meeting on a positive note
Goal Setting

Use your mission and vision to align individual goals

Make sure the goals are “SMART”
 Specific - with enough detail to be clear
 Measurable - use quantitative goals when available,
use milestones, use thoughtful judgments
 Attainable - realistic in terms of employee's control,
timeframe, and resources available
 Reasonable - realistic in terms of what can really be
achieved
 Time-based - with dates set for achieving milestones,
results and completion
Goal Setting
 Performance objectives are written to describe the
measurable results an employee needs to achieve within
each key responsibility area.
 Goals and objectives are nearly synonymous and are
often used interchangeably. To differentiate between the
two remember this:
“The goal is where we want to be. The objectives are the
steps needed to get there.”
Goal Setting
(Continued)
Three components create a clear objective:

Performance – what the individual is tasked
to do.

Criteria – the quality or level of performance
that will be considered acceptable, often
described in terms of timeframe, accuracy
and/or quality.

Conditions – conditions under which the
performance is expected to occur.
Goal Setting
(Continued)
Three components creating a clear objective are
Performance, Criteria and Conditions.
Example:
The employee will scan accounts payable
invoices into electronic filing system weekly
taking care to make sure invoices are correctly
categorized by vendor name and date of
payment.
Addressing ineffective (poor)
performance

Most performance problems can be resolved
through effective communication between
supervisors and their employees.

A counseling session is an opportunity to clarify
expectations and discuss performance
problems.

Have some specific examples of poor
performance so that you can respond to the
inevitable, "What do you mean?"
Addressing ineffective (poor)
performance (continued)

Do not emphasize past poor performance,
instead, seek to clarify future good performance.

To prepare for a counseling session with an
employee, write out and then practice saying
what acceptable performance in the job would
mean. Listen to yourself. If it doesn't make any
sense to you, it won't make any sense to the
employee. Be as specific as possible.
Follow-up Feedback and Coaching

Be specific about what you observed (focus on
behavior, action, results, etc)

Explain the impact their actions had on the
department / organization

Be equally rigorous with positive feedback

Seek to understand their perspective or point of
view
Ratings
Defining acceptable and unacceptable performance

Make this your “baseline” year. You are not
required to designate a numeric rating

Provide clear written statements indicating the
level of performance using the performance
factors

Set goals and objectives as a basis for future
evaluations