Why do you need an employee evaluation form?
Three key objectives are achieved through an employee evaluation form:
- Organises feedback before a performance review
The key to a successful evaluation is in investing time to record feedback before meeting with an employee. The more time you spend preparing and organising your thoughts, the smoother and more effective the meeting will be. - Documents an employee’s strengths, weaknesses and areas of opportunity
An employee evaluation form helps you keep track of benchmarks and objectives laid out for an employee through documenting achievements, challenges and progress. Not only is this useful information for HR purposes, but it’s also valuable in helping you understand and be up-to-date with the position and an employee. - Creates a roadmap for employee success
An employee evaluation form reveals all areas an employee excels in as well as areas which require improvement. By having a layout of specific goals needed to be achieved, employees will be able to focus on improving in the weeks or months ahead.
Who is responsible for filling out the employee evaluation form?
In some organisations, the HR Manager is responsible for filling out the employee evaluation form, while in others, the employee’s direct supervisor or head of the department completes it. In other words, the employee evaluation form is filled out by whoever is conducting the review with the employee. This existing relationship eliminates any room for confusion or misinterpretation of comments while fostering a more honest and direct approach.
Some companies also include self-evaluations within their performance reviews. In such cases, both the employee and whoever leads the employee review meeting with fill out a form or an applicable portion of a form.
When should you use an employee evaluation form?
One of the most common uses for an employee evaluation document is to assess employee performance, goals, and achievements as part of an annual review process. Often, employers use yearly reviews to determine whether an employee qualifies for a raise, bonus or promotion.
However, these forms may also be used to document areas of opportunity or measure whether or not an employee has corrected previously cited problems. This documentation gives employees a clear path to improvement, and also provides employers with a clear paper trail to support disciplinary action, termination and other difficult HR decisions.
What should an employee evaluation form include?
What is included in an employee evaluation form depends on an employee’s department or level within the organisation.
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- Nevertheless, here are some essential elements all employee evaluation forms should include:
- Basic information about the employee and the reviewing manager such as the names of both parties.
- The period of review and the date the evaluation is shared.
- An explanation of the rating system in simple terms.
- A clear method of ranking skills such as 1 to 10, poor to excellent, and so on. Consider including a rubric for additional transparency.
- Clear, specific and measurable goals
- Information that shares the timeframe and method of measuring what you want the employee to accomplish. This will help employees meet their goals within a timeframe while understanding each goal set for them.
- A section for additional comments for documenting all necessary information such as notes of a particular project, highlighting key accomplishments or expansion on other feedback.
If you’re looking for a feedback form template, this article will help you navigate your way to conducting an employee evaluation.
Should employee evaluation forms be shared with the employee?
The decision to share employee evaluation forms, or a feedback form, with employees varies from one organisation to another and this policy should stay consistent throughout. That is, an employee evaluation form should not be shared with one employee but not another.
While some companies choose to share the full evaluation form with their employees, others may only share specific elements of the form such as the goals subject to the next review period.
On the other hand, some companies choose not to share employee evaluation forms at all to prevent the inadvertent sharing of confidential information between employees such as salary details.
While performance reviews can be conducted without a formal employee evaluation form, the quality of your performance review will be noticeable as a reflection of the time taken to prepare for it. By using a standardised evaluation document, organisations are able to effectively track employee performance in the most straightforward way to ensure critical conversations are put on record.
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