Powerful Performance Evaluations.

In her latest book, "Powerful Employment Policies'; Lauren Bernardi covers the increasingly important topic of employee policies and handbooks. The book is organized into three main parts: sample policies, personnel forms and a manager's manual with guidelines on how to enforce the policies.

The following is a partial excerpt from the Manager's Manual section of the book on how to manage performance successfully.

Performance Management Is More Than Just Filling Out a Form

The goal of performance management is to encourage employee excellence and productivity. You do this by providing feedback on what the employee is doing well, so that he or she can duplicate it, as well as by identifying those areas in which the employee needs to improve.

As a manager you will, no doubt, be evaluated on your ability to provide meaningful feedback and guidance to the people who report to you.

Too often managers view performance management as a review form that you fill out once a year and forget about. But the form is quite possibly the least significant part. Performance management is a continuous process that has three key components:

* evaluating employees on their past performance;

* planning future performance through goal setting and creating improvement targets; and

* coaching and reinforcing employees to help them meet their goals.

The day-to-day management of employees must do the bulk of the work. Your employees need constant feedback about how they are doing, and they need your support to help them improve on areas in which they may be weak.

You do not do anyone any favours by simply leaving them alone and ignoring them. This is particularly true with top performers. Too often, we leave them alone, because we know that they're doing a good job. What we don't want is top performers who become discouraged because they never hear any words of praise or acknowledgement for a job well done and seek work elsewhere.

Completing The Evaluation Form

When it's time for the formal, written evaluation, take care in how you complete the form.

Do not rate everyone the same or excessively high just because you don't want to upset anyone. The best way to help employees excel is to provide them with candid feedback and specific examples.