7 Reasons Why You Must Evaluate Employee Performance

Evaluating employee performance is the assessment of the employee’s effectiveness in doing the job. Though seemingly tedious, it is a task that you must undertake at regular intervals.

Here are some reasons why you must do a regular performance evaluation or appraisal:

Reason #1: To recognize the training and development needs of employees

Performance appraisal helps you to identify the shortcomings of employees and to recognize the need for their training and development. This knowledge will help you plan development and training programs that will be beneficial to your employees. Without regular appraisals, training will be largely haphazard and add little or no value to your employees.

Reason #2: To determine the extent to which employees contribute to    organizational success

When employees do not reach the standards of performance set, organizational success cannot be achieved. Employee evaluation therefore helps you determine the extent to which each employee meets standards and how much they contribute to your success.

Reason #3: To motivate employees to perform better

When an employee is evaluated and commended for doing well, he/she is motivated to perform better. Those rated poorly during evaluation are also inspired to improve their performance before the next evaluation.

Reason #4: To keep employees on their toes

Another reason why you must evaluate employees’ performance is to keep them on their toes. When employees know that they will be appraised and that their promotion depends on the outcome of their appraisal, they become more committed to their duty.

Reason #5: To develop acceptable behavior in employees

Regular appraisals are one way of identifying deviant behavior. Appraisals help you to not only identify deviant behavior but also to correct such behavior. Thus, employees develop patterns of behavior that are acceptable to your organization.

Reason #6: To foster employee-management relationship

Appraisals usually occur in the form of an interaction between an employee and management (management-oriented appraisal), an employee and supervisor (supervisor-oriented appraisal) or an employee and co-worker (peer-oriented appraisal). The aim of these interactions is to determine performance. Good interactions however, have an additional benefit. They help you to know who the employee really is, understand his/her needs, shortcomings and strengths; thus creating a relationship between you and employees. Regular appraisals strengthen this relationship and foster unity in the workplace.

Reason #7: To identify employees that deserves promotion

Employees deserve to move from one level to another as they progress in their careers. The tendency is to promote employees every 3 years or so. But promoting a redundant employee just because he/she has worked for a certain period of time may be counterproductive. Appraisals will help you identify employees that actually deserve promotion and reduce the chances of promoting redundant employees.

From the reasons above, it is clear that you must regularly evaluate the performance of your employees to achieve business success.

When evaluating performance, the three most important criteria to use are:

• ·        Personal Qualities
• ·        Professional Qualities
• ·        On-the-Job Qualities

In my next post, I will show you how to carry outperformance appraisal using these criteria.

See you soon…..