What are the methods of performance evaluation?

By Mary
Performance evaluations are a collaborative endeavor coordinated between the various departments and HR. The evaluations are informed by the various managers in each department with the outcomes falling to each of the respective managers since they are ultimately responsible for the employee’s performance. There are several methods: Purpose, Written evaluation, Critical incidents, Graphic Rating Scales, Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales, Forced Comparisons and Group Order ranking method. Lets go over each in detail.

 

Purpose

The purposes of a performance evaluation is multifaceted: 1) to determine if the employee has been adequately fulfilling their role on the job and, if not, address that and, in some cases, offer assistance if the problems are of a temporal or personal nature. If the problems are temporary, then the organization needs to assess that situation with an eye towards what’s best for the organization; If the problems are outside of a personal nature, the individual could be re-evaluated for a more suitable job role; 2) if the employee has exceeded the expectations of the organization, meritorious awards could offered with the possibility of promotion and/or a salary increase.

 METHODS

Written Evaluations
Written evaluations or essays, where the employee’s performance, achievements, strengths, weaknesses and history can documented and inserted into their personnel file is, perhaps, one of the simplest and most effective methods and has been in use for decades. Although there are no standardized formats or scoring methods, this technique is an effective means to track an employee’s history within the organization.

 

Critical Incidents

Using this method, the evaluator focuses on how effective an employee is in a given situation, citing specific actions the employee took that were deemed effective or ineffective. This method provides the organization with the necessary documentation to share with the employee as a means of job-related growth and improvement and as a way to evaluate future promotions and/or salary enhancements.

 

Graphic Rating Scales

This is one of the oldest and most effective means of employee evaluation. The manager or evaluator goes through a specific checklist of performance indicators, scoring the employee on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 the lowest (needs complete retraining or is poorly informed about job duties) to 5 (complete mastery of all phases of the job). This method, coupled with the essay/ written evaluation, may create the best overall performance profile of the employee.

Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales

This method combines aspects of the Critical Incidents method and the Graphic Rating Scales method, focusing more on examples of actual behavior rather than on general descriptions or traits. This is otherwise called “Personality Test.”

 

Forced Comparisons

This method evaluates an individual’s performance against the performance of other employees in a relative rather than an absolute sense. The two most popular methodologies are group order ranking and individual ranking.

 

The Group Order ranking method requires classification of employees into groups based on the aggregate number of employees being evaluated. This method is often used for student evaluations and subsequent graduate school recommendations. The Individual Ranking method ranks employees from best to worst in a linear sense in that the difference in performance between employee #1 and #2 would be the same as the difference in performance between, say, employee #9 and #10 where the numbers indicate their rank.

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