In a small business, taking time to evaluate your employees and provide them with annual reviews and feedback seems like number 37 on the list of things to do…which means it never bubbles up to the top of the pile.
This is a mistake which is robbing you of productivity and employee satisfaction. Annual reviews force you to think about your employees critically at least once per year, and provide them with guidance as to what they need to do to improve their performance.
Below you will find a link to a sample evaluation form I have developed for use in my companies.
Notice in the example that I rank performance into three categories: Skills, Productivity, and Attitude. Of these three, Attitude is the most important. Give me a person who is conscientious, shows up on time every day, and is a team player, and I’ll develop the skills necessary for them to be productive.
In the evaluation, I assign “points” to each general category (attitude, skills, productivity) and to each criteria within the category (conscientiousness, team player, etc.) so that the sum of the criteria is equal to the category total. Then I score the employee on each criteria, and the result is a quantitative measure of how that employee is fairing.
The last section of the evaluation is Goals. This is critical to include, since you are now helping that person to understand what you want to see moving forward. This lets them know that you care and notice their work and their impact on the business.
Take a look at the this sample. Performance Review – Sample
I use this with great effectiveness in my companies…let me know if you find it helpful.