Employee Evaluations

[chiph]

Every company I've worked at so far has held yearly employee evaluations. Mostly a joke, but one was actually meaningful.

All the evaluations have been "top-down". Microsoft, OTOH, does "360-degree" evaluations, where not only does your manager review you, but your fellow employees rate you as well.

Something I'd like to see is more frequent evaluations, say, at the end of each project.

Comments?

Chip H.

 

[KenCunningham]

My current employers do not operate an evaluation policy, but my previous ones did. I must admit, I quite liked the evaluations, as they tended to give you a benchmark of performance with which to compare your efforts each year. Yes, some were probably unfair, but it is important to hear warts and all views sometimes, at least then you know whet you're up against and can do something about it. I'm not too sure about evaluation following the completion of a particular project, that might be slightly over-egging the cake I think. Just my twopennorth.

 

[LesleyW]

I think a true 360 degree review is where your boss reviews your performance... and you review your bosses!

In our company we are very structured in our approach to reviews, but to be honest we haven't yet got a system that really works. We;ve just abandoned (thank goodness) a system that some HR-guru devised where you have to say in advance what you will do, and how you will prove you did it well. In a technical environment, that's not always possible. I mean, you could hardly anticipate that a particular problem was going to come up and you would have a flash of intuition that would solve it, saving the company £x da de da de da.

We still do evaluations after each project - as staff move around between projects to different managers, this is one way of making sure that however is in charge of deciding raises has a record of each employees performance.

I dont' exactly enjoy evaluations, but would probably feel a bit at sea if we didn't do them

 

[nkulsh]

I agree that most times evaluations are more bothersome than helpful but their importance in decision making is huge. That's a different issue that most companies do not take their evaluation process very seriously, hence their evaluation procedures are more of a formality than an efficient tool. The intent behind 360 model was to break free from the clutches of one single person deciding what you were and the value of what you have achieved.

I think it is imporatnt to design a system which evaluates a person Project wise in general and organization wise in particular. This model would eventually give the correct picture of what a person is worth to the company today and the potential of the person to the company for future.

A little more creativity and effort is still needed to derive such a model but shortly that is what you would see in the very near future because every employee is a n asset to the company and an investment where returns are expected and must come.

 

[chiph]

The other purpose of evaluations is to give management a tool to decide who stays and who goes.

Again, at Microsoft (I don't work there, really!), once a project is over, employees must apply for work at another project (existing, or upcoming). If you don't get accepted immediately, they'll keep you on for a month or two, to give you time to apply for other projects. But eventually it will be painfully obvious that you wan't wanted, and someone from HR will stop by with some empty boxes for you to use.

I don't know if this is right or wrong, but it has the advantage of being brutally efficient at making sure the company always has the best and the brightest. Even if you get let go, you'll have the miracle phrase "Microsoft Employee" on your resume, which will likely open other doors for you.

Chip H.

 

[JGirl]

If you have employee evaluations then count yourself lucky.....The last place I worked at had a policy that said they gave evaluations, but in practice, it never happened.....but they'd always let you know when something goes wrong. (ie. when you have done something wrong).

Although in that company, evaluations would have been a waste of time anyway......its impossible for your boss to evaluate your performance when they dont even know what they are paying you for!

The idea of end-of project evalauations is great - that way, any posible problems that arise can be 'nipped in the bud' and it gives the bosses an opportunity to see how you are involved with the major projects of the company, rather than trying to remember what the hell you worked on 11 months ago, and whether you did a good job or not. The downside is that it fills in even more management time.....management at my old employers certainly didnt need any more ways to aimlessly fill in time!

Anyway, thats my couple of cents worth.
J

 

[Kjonnnn]

At the last place I worked, not only did you get to review your boss, for Your review could name 3 other people (peers or management) who could have input into your review.

Rare.

 

[CitrixEngineer]

We have quarterly reviews, which are combined with strategic goal-setting for the next quarter. So each review covers not just performance, but the way in which you achieved (or did not achieve) particular goals. Since the goals are a combination of employee, management and company chosen goals (you can choose some of your own!), the motivation is there to achieve these things in addition to your normal work.

I think that it works to give you a feeling of achieving something as well as simply holding on to your job...

We discussed reviewing our managers, but on the whole, staff did not particularly want to. We simply give them feedback at our own reviews.

I totally agree that all projects should be reviewed, post-mortemed and PLANNED. There seems to be a "fag-packet" element to project planning at most companies I've worked for, so "feature-creep" is a huge problem that tends to give IT departments a bad name for not completing projects on time.

I think this also applies to employee evaluations - plan what is to be achieved as well as review past achievements, with some room for manoeuvre... CitrixEngineer@yahoo.co.uk