Alignment, Accountability and Annual Evaluations

Few things at work create as much apprehension and stress as the annual employee evaluation. It is a laborious, tedious and essential requirement of leadership, which at times feels like an impossible standard of capturing an entire year’s worth of performance in an hour or less. To quote management expert Peter Drucker, “Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing.”

First off, evaluations are the right thing. They’re not just something HR makes you do once a year for busy work. Employees deserve to know how they’re performing and what the expectations of leadership are. Without an open and honest conversation, it would be difficult to advance the organization’s mission and deliver great care to patients.

Meaningful evaluations include three basic tenets:

1. Aligned goals with the organization set to show specifically how the employee and their job contribute to the greater whole.
2. An accountability structure that ensures full knowledge of where the employee stands, what is to be expected if they exceed their goals and are doing well, and what to expect if the employee does not meet performance.
3. A holistic view of the employee’s experience that year, which means giving constant feedback more than just once a year.

Goal alignment is key. Sometimes an individual employee’s goals don’t advance that of the leader or are contradictory to the organization’s. Moreover, some employees may not even fully comprehend how their work ties into the greater scope of the organization. This can create siloed thinking—or worse,  disengagement. Once all the employees are moving in the same direction and understand the importance of their individual performance, true progress can be made.

Accountability structures create a transparent working environment that informs the employee what to expect, good or bad, based on their behaviors and performance. It is important to realize that while effort is important, it cannot be used as an objective metric. Like sports, the results at the end of the game are all that count.

The biggest pitfall to avoid is viewing the employee’s performance within a short window of time. This is often heard as “You only write down the bad things,” or “You only see me when I’m in trouble.” This requires a greater vigilance of leadership, ensuring you have accurate records and, more important, checking in with your staff on an ongoing basis. Studer Group has wonderful employee rounding tools, TV has Undercover Boss. Both do essentially the same thing: Find and reward employees doing good things, and act on negatives immediately. The annual evaluation should not be the only time to air grievances and reward good behavior from six months ago.

While evaluations take time, they are a powerful tool in organizational performance and employee engagement. Doing them well takes practice, but doing them is the right thing.

This article was initially printed in the publication "Briefings On The Joint Commission February 2015"

Patrick Pianezza, MHA, NREMT-P, is a consultant experienced with Studer, HCAPS, Gallup and Press Ganey principles. Along with nearly a decade of experience in the prehospital arena, he has worked for Johns Hopkins Hospital and Studer Group. E-mail ppianezza@gmail.com.