Key principles related to the design and implementation of an effective Employee Evaluation System part 2/3

Today - according to the schedule of our weekly blog struggles, the time has come for the next part of knowledge in the field of employee assessments. Previous part you can find here. As part of my exploration of the subject, I came to the conclusion that it would be optimal to divide the issue into three parts (instead of the two previously planned). The article will be friendly to the reading eye, and we are sure that the topic will be included in a decent informative framework.

Principle 3 - Designing the system, specify precise criteria and measures, remembering that they result from the adopted assessment concept.

When designing the assessment system, an extremely important issue is the choice of concept and setting assessment criteria. When choosing criteria, you can apply a concept based on:

• performance criteria (regarding work results, such as: quantity and quality of work performed, timeliness of tasks performed, economic effects, including: amount of profit per employee, value of sales, etc.),
• behavioral criteria (regarding behavior observed during the tasks performed in the perspective of the requirements, including readiness for professional development, professionalism in action, attitude to clients, supervisors and colleagues, etc.),
• personality criteria (such as creativity, responsibility, reliability, resistance to stress, etc.),
• or qualification criteria (education, experience, skills, predispositions).

The choice of assessment concept can also be a combination of all of these criteria. Regardless of the choice of assessment concept, the criteria to be assessed should be assigned a specific weight, specifying both priority criteria, as well as secondary or additional criteria. The selected indicators do not have to be the same for everyone. It may happen that similar jobs will have different indicators, but they must be adequate and specific to the job. The specified evaluation criteria should be measurable and the method of calculating them must be understandable for both the assessors and the assessed persons themselves.

Principle 4 - Make sure that each participant knows the evaluation principles and criteria.

The effectiveness of the system is demonstrated by its openness - the principles and criteria according to which the assessment is carried out must be public and generally known to everyone in the company, otherwise the system ceases to fulfill its "developmental" function, because employees do not receive information about their strengths and areas requiring improvement (desirable in a given position in the context of effective implementation of tasks). A good strategic move is to familiarize employees with the adopted assessment criteria, in order to learn their opinion and obtain acceptance, the more so that the assessment process, despite being an indispensable activity, invariably raises a lot of controversy mainly among the assessed persons and leads to an increase in their sense of threat, which may result from low employee self-esteem or be dependent on external factors (e.g. high unemployment, competition in the labor market) and the professional environment (no information strategy in the area of assessment). The evaluation criteria, even the most explicit and in line with the company's strategy, will not fulfill their function unless they are publicly presented and explained, and thus will not be understood by employees. The requirement to understand the system applies to both assessors and assessors. This is an important condition for the effective design and implementation of an employee evaluation system, because, as S. Celińska - Nieckarz rightly pointed out, "in order to assess a person, behavior or situation two conditions must occur: the assessed entity must be familiar with the subject of the assessment and know the criterion according to which an assessment has been made. "

Principle 5 - When specifying assessment methods and techniques, remember to adapt them to the specifics of the company.

Determining the assessment model, defining the goal (s), selecting the concept and determining the evaluation criteria constitute a strategic dimension decision, while determining the degree of formalization of the assessment and determining specific methods that will be used during the evaluation of individual groups of employees within the adopted concept are tactical decisions . As part of the adopted assessment concept, ranking techniques, employee behavior oriented techniques (such as descriptive methods, point scales, critical event techniques, weighted scales, selection tests) or work-oriented techniques (characterized by a departure from focusing attention on employee behavior and focusing on assessing the contribution of work to tasks, achieving the goals set by the company). An Effective Employee Evaluation System must be developed for a specific company and can be a "mix" of techniques and methods, provided that they are tailored to the specificity of the company resulting from its organization, ways and areas of market functioning, tradition, organizational culture, and finally personality of people employed in it. The transfer of "template" assessment sheet templates and procedures is usually inadequate and of little use.

Principle 6 - Define the frequency of the assessment so that it is compatible with the personnel and corporate strategies.

As part of the design of the Employee Evaluation System, the frequency of evaluation should be determined so that the information from the evaluation provides the information necessary for the efficient implementation of the recruitment strategy and the selection, motivation and development of staff. The frequency of assessments depends also on whether the sieve or human capital model operates at the organizational level. If the sieve model is used, the frequency of assessments will be higher, because it is necessary to "separate employees who are successful at work as soon as possible from those who do not." Lower frequency of assessment will be when the company presents a soft orientation (human capital model), due to the fact that this model develops and disseminates a culture of settlement and understanding, treats employees as a unique resource, including them in the management process, motivates them to work by using not only financial incentives, but also by delegating power and responsibility, showing respect, recognition, trust, creating conditions and opportunities for self-realization. In this model, the management has the "greater capital of patience" which it gives to subordinates and employs an individualized approach (varied in pace, direction and efficiency) of individual employees' development, hence receiving frequent information from the assessment process is not so important from the point of view of implementing recruitment strategies and selection. It should also be remembered that the frequency of assessment should be compatible not only with personnel substrategies, but above all with the company's strategy.

The next article will be finalizing our series of correct employee assessments. We will give two final rules to the workshop, and thus put a full stop on "I", and in this case on "O".