I usually disregarded the email announcing employee evaluations. I was pretty confident I’d never be evaluated.
Evaluations at the paper where I worked meant the editors scheduled a meeting with reporters not doing their jobs. You knew who was in trouble when you saw them do the walk of shame across the newsroom, go into the conference room (otherwise lovingly known as “the closet,” since it previously was a coat closet) with the editors and shut the door.
Otherwise, the editor would come to your desk with a little form for you to sign if you wanted the offered pay increase. No negotiation. No praise. No hassle.
It was an efficient approach, for sure. It wasn’t an effective one.
Managers tend to assume that employees know where they stand if they don’t hear from us. This “no news is good news” philosophy is a terrible approach to management.
Employees want feedback, both positive and negative (Consider reading Managers: Reduce Stress by Providing Feedback). This is especially true during difficult financial times when there is more job instability. Employees want to feel secure in their positions, understand what they’re doing well, and know where and how they can improve.
My adviser friend, Erin Gibson, and I present for College Media Association about the approach student editors should take when evaluating their peer employees. Here is our advice from almost two decades of experience in advising at two different schools.
Schedule regular evaluations
It doesn’t matter when you do your individual evaluations, but you must do them. We do our evaluations at the end of each semester. Erin and her staff do theirs in the middle of the semester, providing students with a few weeks to settle into theirs jobs but still time to make adjustments or improvements. Schedule evaluations whenever it makes the most sense for your staff.
Review everyone
Resist the temptation to review only those employees who need improvement. People love hearing when they’re doing a good job too. This also will help them stay motivated and consistent in their positive performance.
The EIC and I choose a day we are both available to perform evaluations, then offer it up to the staff. Any staffer who cannot attend evaluations on that day, perhaps because of course schedule or holiday travel plans, is told to email the EIC to schedule another time.
Every staffer is evaluated. If staffers do not sign up for evaluations, it is assumed they no longer want to work for us. The importance of the evaluation meetings in securing their job for the next semester is communicated several times with the staff.
Standardize the meetings
Evaluations make people nervous. Attempt to minimize those nerves by explaining the purpose of the evaluation before it occurs and at the beginning of the meeting.
In our evaluations, the EIC reviews a standard form with the staffer, then asks two questions:
- Do you have questions or concerns about your job with Student Publications?
- What can I do to make your job better?
I then ask staffers what job they hope to perform for Student Publications during the next semester.
The meetings usually take about 15 minutes each.
Have a form
As Erin says, an employee review session is not the time for improvisation. Whether an employee deserves praise or needs a hard dose of reality, you want to be prepared for what you are going to say.
An evaluation form that addresses skills and professionalism allows you to be consistent in your evaluations of each employee. Erin’s staff uses these 360-degree review forms for the editor’s evaluation and self evaluations.
My EIC also uses a standardized form to evaluate each staffer. I encourage her to provide specific examples of positive performance and areas for improvement. If the EIC feels she cannot adequately evaluate a staffer (for example, photographers who report directly to the photo editor), she meets with another editor to complete the evaluation form.
The EIC submits all of the forms to me so I can review them before evaluations begin. I discuss with her any changes/additions I have, but mostly this is just so I am not surprised during evaluation meetings.
Offer sincere feedback
You should always offer your employees honest, constructive evaluations. They may not always like what you have to say, but they should leave your office feeling like they were treated fairly and that they have the ability and opportunity to improve.
Advisers, stay in the background
All staffers are reviewed by myself and the EIC or editor to whom they report. My role in the review process is as a facilitator. I do a lot of listening, intervening only when necessary or if my EIC asks me for help with an issue beforehand. My primary goal is to be there to support the staff, specifically the EIC, who may be doing this for the first time.
Encourage feedback
The 360-degree evaluation builds feedback into performance reviews, according to Erin. This allows employees to evaluate themselves before they are evaluated by someone else. This type of review provides a foundation for self-insight.
Erin said she asks her EIC to question employees about why they ranked themselves the way they did. She said this encourages discussion and helps the EIC understand how staffers view their roles and responsibilities.
Avoid surprises
Staffers also shouldn’t be surprised during their evaluation meetings. We do informal evaluation constantly, so this is just a method of wrapping up the semester.
Although you have a formal review process, your employees really shouldn’t be surprised by anything that comes up during their review. Informal review should be an ongoing part of your job.
Terminate if necessary
Sometimes the fit between employee and organization is poor. John Maxwell wrote that communicators always should be direct and concise. He tells the story of a leader who opened an employee meeting with “Do you want to keep this job?” When it was confirmed that the employee did, he asked “Would you like me to tell you how to keep this job?” I love this direct approach. And, as Erin pointed out when we were discussing it, you could save yourself a lot of time explaining all of the issues you’re having with an employee if he/she already has realized the job is a poor fit.
Although it’s not fun, sometimes you have to terminate employees. If you do, be clear about why specifically they are being fired.
