My last article on employee performance (CEM, June 1998) addressed the issue of finding out what the employees need to do their jobs, and what they expect of you, the management to fulfill the bargain — creating an environment that can nurture superior performance. This article will deal with the steps that need to be carried out to evaluate and then reward superior performance, and equally important, how to keep the staff striving to achieve that performance.

That you are reading this article is due to my colleague that appears on the inside back page, Dennis Conrad, who kindly pointed out that I had agreed to write on this subject nearly a year ago, but had not done so. Yes, he was right! I had agreed, but I was just so busy taking care of more important business! And that is exactly the point! Evaluating employees on a frequent and regular basis is not seen as a profit making exercise. It takes time and effort, many of the evaluators do not believe in it, and therefore the employees do not believe in it either. Eventually, or maybe from the very beginning, everybody involved looks upon it as a dreaded chore to be executed as quickly and painlessly as possible, usually to satisfy the Human Resources Dragons! What I am going to propose is going to seem radical and very time consuming — it is not. All it requires is some groundwork at the beginning of the process and commitment from all managers once the project gets under way.

Evaluations should be carried out every three months, at the most four months. Prior to the start of the first evaluation session, each supervisor should attend a class that defines the standards of evaluation. The easiest way to do this is to identify employees that they know and then have an open discussion that establishes the benchmark for each measurement category. Everyone must accept and understand this baseline standard during the training session. Once this is done you have to establish a database to track the information, but to understand that, you first need to understand the actual evaluation process.

The evaluations of line staff should be carried out by as many supervisors as possible, with 10 to 12 evaluators being the ideal number. Each evaluation should be carried out separately from the other so you have 10 or 12 truly individual opinions. The evaluation form should be very specific in the areas that it evaluates, with five rankings representing from poor to excellent performance. At this point, I know what you are thinking, I have one hundred line staff, with ten evaluations each, that’s 1000 pieces of paper with information on it, this guy is out of his mind. Just stay with me here, to be successful you have to do each part of this program!

Now you understand why you need the database program to store all the information on each employee. The database has to accomplish a number of tasks. It must be able to tabulate all the scores in each category for each employee. It should automatically throw out the highest and lowest overall score from each evaluation. It should also track how each evaluator scores the employees. This will enable you to identify the supervisor who gives average scores to all employees, as well as the supervisor who consistently evaluates certain employees the same way, when everyone else does not. This keeps the evaluators honest and concentrating on taking the process seriously.

Most important, the final product must be presented visually in graph format so that the employees can see (not read) the following; where they stand against everyone else, the median score, and the minimum acceptable standard. From this exercise you will end up with an evaluation process that is the fair consensus of a group of supervisors. That of course is actually the easy part, next come the reward for good performance, and the improvement of performance that does not meet the standard.

Sub-par performance, when presented in a visual manner, with data gathered from ten sources very rarely meets with any argument to the contrary. You see, all that work you did to ensure the process is broad based presents the unvarnished truth to the employee, only the paranoid conspiracy buffs will continue to believe that the company and the supervisors are out to get them. At this point, prepare a plan of action with the employee that he or she must agree on. The elements of the plan are simple — improve the areas of work that do not meet the minimum standard within a certain timeframe, normally 30 days, never longer than 60 days. The employee and manager agree on what training, if any, the company should provide to achieve the goal. The key here is the plan must be developed together in a partnership atmosphere, without any management coercion. When the timeframe expires, the employee receives a new evaluation using the same broad based process. If there is improvement, great, you have improved performance, if not, extend the time, reassign the employee or take more serious progressive action.

Now the tough part — rewarding the superior performance that your efforts produce. You at this point are thinking "this is going to cost me money" and you are half right! If you are able to measure your increased productivity, you should reward the front-line employees, with additional compensation, and maybe you have the luxury of doing it every time, but we know that most firms do not have that luxury. So what else do you do each time you carry out evaluations?

On each shift you have a non monetary reward that is presented to the highest scoring employee in each job category. It is presented in front of the whole shift, with the winner’s name kept secret until the presentation. This reward can be as simple as an elaborate framed certificate, (do not let the finance department decide how much you can spend on this "non-revenue producing event"!) but whatever you do, it must be presented at a ceremony that demonstrates its importance to the organization and the employees. The level of belief that the employees have in the reward and its worth will be reflected by their improved job performance. The highest ranking manager in the company, (the CEO) and the department head must present the award, and photos should be taken of the event. By now, if you are in sync with my line of thought, you are also thinking, "And the photos will be framed before presenting them to the winners". Yes! You do not want the photos and certificates going into drawer, you want them on the walls of your employees homes. Friends will ask about them, the employees will recount the award story and purpose, and will once more validate the reward program.

A couple of final thoughts. The whole evaluation process, from day one of handing out the evaluations to "Awards Day" should take no more than three weeks. If you drag it out, it disrupts operations, and will seem like too much of a chore for employees and the evaluators. There will undoubtedly be a segment of management, who I shall charitably classify as "dinosaurs"! They think this type of exercise is a waste of time and energy. While they remain in your midst you can never succeed, not only at this, but at anything in the workplace that requires enlightened management. If you are a powerless employee amongst dinosaurs, consider moving to an enlightened company, many of them will welcome your talents. If you have the power to change the culture of the "dinosaur" management, start looking for the meteor that will assist you in your difficult task!