CEB (now Gartner) research reportedly found that managers spend an average of 210 hours per year on employee performance evaluation. Most managers end up spending much of this time creating reports based on quantity of work rather than the quality of work, failing to understand is that performance evaluation is for the employee’s professional growth.

Twenty-first-century employees are curious to learn and expect development opportunities in their workplace. To help them grow, managers should consider these essentials before conducting an employee performance review:

Employee Training Programs

The most important factor to consider when reviewing performance is employees’ response to the training and development programs they participate in. An appetite to learn is one of the most critical components of employee performance, and offering in-house training to your employees will help you understand whether or not they have that appetite.

Here’s how to identify curious learners:

• Note the new hires who show interest in onboarding programs.
• Find out which employees express interest in formal training programs and want to learn continuously.
• Identify the employees who apply what they learning in their everyday work to improve their performance.

Employee Efficiency

Efficient employees are the most profitable assets a company has. They know how to maximize productivity, avoid costly mistakes and meet deadlines without compromising the quality of their work.

While efficient employees often stand out from the herd, if you have a large workforce, it may take some effort to identify the most efficient employees. Here’s how to gauge an employee’s efficiency for performance evaluation:

• Conduct assessments with roadblocks to see how employees handle challenges.
• Obtain peer reviews to gain an insight into employees’ problem-solving tactics.
• Create up-to-date task lists to monitor employees’ deliverables and gauge how quickly and efficiently they finish the wok assigned to them.
• Create realistic deadlines, and conduct a deadline analysis every month to check if employees are meeting them.

Quality of Work

Suppose you are comparing the performance of two employees. Employee A churns out two reports in nine hours, and employee B creates one in the same amount of time. Employee A’s work often needs correction and refinement, which takes another couple of hours. On the other hand, employee B’s work is reliable and often error-free. Who is the better performer?

The most important factor to consider for employee performance evaluation is the quality of work. Relying on the number of working hours or the quantity of work to gauge employee performance can have great repercussions:

• It decreases the priority of work quality, which company growth.
• Employees tend to work extra hours, which can cause burnout.
• Rushed work can be unreliable and require additional work to fix or improve.

Improvement Over Time

Traditional performance management programs that focus on employees’ past performance can reduce employee motivation and productivity. Performance evaluation should be based on their improvement over a period of time.

It’s a manager’s responsibility to help employees grow using an effective performance management program. Such a program can be broken down into four steps:

1. Set the right goals.
2. Create a performance plan.
3. Employ goal management.
4. Give feedback.

If your company is not seeing growth in employee productivity, consider changing your performance evaluation system. Change your perspective, and evaluate employees based on the parameters mentioned above to inspire change and growth.