Involving Employees in Performance Management

Performance evaluations are something we do WITH employees, not TO employees! The following is an excerpt from Painless Performance Evaluations: A Practical Approach to Managing Day to Day Employee Performance (2006).  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Frequent and informal feedback throughout the year is what it takes to make the annual performance evaluation painless. If employees know that you expect them to share their successes and challenges with you throughout the year, you can develop a dialogue that prevents surprises at evaluation time. You can encourage such sharing through:•      Weekly or monthly check-up meetings that are conducted face to face, on the phone, via conference call, etc.•           Weekly or monthly written reports.•           Frequent emails and phone calls between you and the employee to share incidents and situations that occur on a daily basis.•          A "me file" that the employee is encouraged to maintain -- a place where they can keep a record of their own performance.By letting employees know that you are interested in their work experiences and by asking for their perspectives and ideas on a regular basis, you will create a work environment of strong communication, dialogue, and trust