Performance Evaluation Task Essay Example for Free

Performance Evaluation Task Essay All employees want a fair and accurate performance evaluation. It’s it important that an evaluation reflect each employee’s job duties and how well they have performed. In this scenario, the engineer’s first performance review ended with him being angry over the way in which he was being evaluated. There were three main issues with the engineer’s evaluation. The engineer felt that no one in the company, including the plant manager was qualified to complete his annual review. He felt this way because he is the only trained engineer in the company. As a result, the engineer had little confidence in the way that he was being evaluated and was upset that most of his review was based on relationships with other co-workers and his own personal characteristics. For the second annual review the plant manager is exploring other options when it comes to evaluating the engineer. The three most commonly-used sets of evaluation criteria which should be used in evaluations are individual task outcomes, behaviors, and traits. In this scenario, the engineer could be judged on what he was able to accomplish. For example, the changes that the engineer suggested resulted in considerable savings on manufacturing energy cost and eliminated a significant safety hazard that had been previously overlooked. Behavior refers to not only how the employee works with others but also organizational performance, promptness, and suggestions for improvements. In the scenario, the engineer clashes with other employees and has a poor attitude towards co-workers. However, the engineer’s suggestions have led to positive changes with the company. Traits are referring to the engineer’s attitude, showing confidence, and being dependable. In this scenario, the engineer demonstrates a poor attitude towards co-workers and does not pay close attention when the manager is speaking. When you compare the most commonly used sets of criteria of claim evaluation the manager needs to determine the importance or weight of each category. Is what the employee achieved as important as how the tasks were done or that they got along with the other members of the team? What the engineer achieved is something that can be measured though the completion of tasks.  Behaviors and traits can be more subjective. It could be the engineer’s personality to be standoffish or he doesn’t socialize well with others. This doesn’t necessarily mean the engineer is not a successful employee. In the annual review, the manager should consider the outcome of his tasks as the highest priority. Behaviors should be the next factor, and finally traits. In an effort to get more buy in of the performance evaluation process, the plant manager can include the opinions of supervisors, peers, and subordinates. This is an example of a full 360-degree program. There are advantages and disadvantages to this process. The advantages include the hope to give everyone more of a sense of participation in the review process and gain more accurate readings on employee performance. The use of multiple sources is more likely to capture a variety of behavior more accurately. It also provides employees with a wider perspective of their performance. Some of the disadvantages of the 360 degree evaluation are that it has the potential to be misused. Some corporations allow employees to choose the people who evaluate them which can provide some inaccurate feedback. There can also be issues in handling disagreements and contradictions between those who complete the evaluations. (E-textbook) The plant manager will also need to consider how the engineer would be evaluated. There are several options when considering how to evaluate an employee. The first method that can be considered is a written essay. This is a written narrative describing an employee’s strengths, weaknesses, potential, performance, and suggestions for improvement. The success of this method can be determined as much by the evaluator’s writing ability as by the employee’s level of performance. Another method of evaluation is critical incidents. In this type of evaluation, the evaluator focuses on the behaviors that make the difference between performing a job effectively or ineffectively. It provides an example of what behaviors are wanted and those that are opportunity areas. The third and one of the most popular methods of evaluation is the use of graphic rating scales. In this evaluation method, a set of performance factors such has quality of work; cooperation, attendance, and initiative are noted. The evaluator rates each of the factors on incremental scales. One of the advantages to this method is that  they are less time consuming to complete. They also provide for easy analysis. However, evaluation methods can be biased and have as much to do with the evaluator as with the employee being evaluated. For example, the evaluator unintentionally can inflate an evaluation or even undervalue the evaluation. The evaluator can also be influenced by the assessment of one characteristic. Some evaluations can be biased by the evaluator favoring employees who have similar qualities to their own. Or in some cases, the evaluator can see the process as an opportunity to reward or punish employees. While the evaluation process at times is not perfect there are ways that it can be improved. In the scenario, the engineer feels that no one is qualified to complete his evaluation including the plant manager. He has little confidence in the evaluation process and that the rating themselves focus on personal characteristics and relationships with co-workers. One way to improve the evaluation process is to train evaluators. If no one is qualified then the company needs to make a qualified evaluator. Training someone to be an evaluator can make for more accurate ratings of an employee. This can help to build confidence that the evaluations are accurate and fair. Another alternative is to use multiple evaluators such as in the 360-degree method. This provides an opportunity to achieve more accurate evaluations. The evaluators can review different areas of job performance such as evaluating suggestions for improvements and personal characteristics. A third option is to evaluate selectively. In the scenario, the evaluation would only be done by someone who has some expertise in the area in which they are evaluating. This again can help the engineer have confidence in the evaluations that are being completed. In conclusion, the engineer wants a fair and accurate evaluation. He wants to have confidence in the people who are completing that evaluation and that he is being evaluated on criteria such as improvements to company and how timely and effectively his tasks are completed.