How to write better employee evaluations.

In the vast majority of factories, shops and offices across the country today, the most dreaded and despised supervisory function of all is the periodic written employee evaluation. Supervisors don't like to write them because it puts them on the spot. Workers don't like to receive them because

they think they are artificial and unfair. In fact, no one in the organization completely trusts them. Nevertheless, writing periodic job reviews continues to be a basic responsibility for most managers, supervisors and foremen. Formal written performance appraisals are universally disliked; but remain universal anyway.

To make matters even worse, these much-maligned job reviews continue to carry enormous clout in organizations of all sizes. No matter how unscientific or untrustworthy they may be, written evaluations still determine wage increases, bonus amounts, promotion possibilities and, even job security, in a large proportion of businesses and industries nationwide.

Entire lives and careers can be shaped or shattered by a single written evaluation. It's no wonder formal performance appraisals are feared equally by those who give them and those who get them.

Among human resources professionals, it is generally agreed supervisors everywhere need to do a much better job of evaluating their employees. It has to begin by identifying the trouble with the way many job reviews are handled today.

What's Wrong With Written Evaluations?

About the only thing supervisors and subordinates agree on regarding written job assessments is they don't work. The most common complaints include the following:

* Supervisory personnel rarely receive training on how to write effective evaluations. Somehow, it is assumed anyone worthy of becoming a manager or supervisor has the innate ability to appraise the work of others accurately and to reflect their assessments in writing. This is one of the business world's more fallacious assumptions.

Analyzing a worker's overall performance requires skills which have to be learned. Likewise, writing clear and concise evaluations is an art which needs to be perfected over time through carefully guided practice. Many supervisors today write ineffective evaluations simply because they don't know how to do it any better.

* Some managers (particularly those new to the supervisory ranks) don't have the breadth of experience necessary to judge and compare the performance of a diverse group of workers. To evaluate properly, supervisors need to compare the performances of others with something more than just their own personal work experience. It takes time and exposure to build reliable standards of behavior and productivity.