By: kevin lone

kevin lone — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 19:55:45 +0000

My thoughts are, the only time you should “grade” an employee, is when your sending them out the door! Thought process being that coaching should never fall to the level of arbitrary number or letter assignment of someone’s abilities. This is because as we’ve watched review forms go from 10 pages of definitions and terms years ago, in an effort to have everyone maybe see the form the same and grade the same, to 2-4 pages as our patience, attention spans and limited available time has dictated that “we don’t have time for those long forms”. Therefore because my experiences are different than yours my view on a “3” is going to be different than yours and ultimately the employee undergoing the review. My 3 is you’re doing what we require, good job. Your 3 might be your an average performer for the role, could be better could be worse. The employee’s view might be “A 3! WTGG (“what the gosh golly” – out of respect of those who don’t want to go down the censorship road). I always did what I was asked, work was always done, rarely late and I feel I’m an asset…. but a 3, that’s like a C or D in school… I never got a C or a D. I’m going to look for a job where I’m valued” – but your 3 was meant to say “we value you and your doing a good job”.

Regardless, coaching isn’t about what someone perceives a grade of 1 or 2 or 3 or …. you get the idea… is! It’s about discussions on making them better employees and people. So the annual process of sitting down with employees to discuss how they’re doing is a great idea because some employers may not do it otherwise. Then employees are left wondering how they’re doing. You remove the thoughts in their head about “am I going to get fired today? Am I doing a good job?”….

But that’s just my 2 cents but since I’m Canadian and we don’t use the penny anymore I guess it’s been upgraded to 5 cents!

Comments on: Why Everyone Hates Your Performance Review

By: kevin lone