professional assessments

EricJRN, MSN, RN · May 31, 2006

Just a couple of suggestions:

- Documentation is important. If your employee doesn't believe you're being accurate about something you write (whether it's customer service complaints, tardies, call-ins), they may just tune you out and you'll have a hard time using the performance evaluation to encourage/plan any improvement. If the proof is there, it's harder to deny.

- No surprises on evaluations. If something's bothering you about an employee, let them know well in advance of their annual appraisal. If you don't let them know and give them a chance to correct the problem, it's not fair to blindside them. (I once read that, 'Evaluations should last all year, not just one hour.')

Daytonite, BSN, RN · May 31, 2006

You start with "average" as you score each category. The easy part is giving the kudos for really nice or excellent work. I try to remember specific incidents that I can cite. The rule on negative remarks is you cannot mention anything negative that you have not already counseled them about either verbally or written. The evaluation is not supposed to be a surprise about anything negative. I'd say "had one incident with a patient where ---, but has worked toward improving this since." You can give them a goal "I'd like to see you doing more of such and such" in the final comments section is one way to handle the negative stuff indirectly.

What I learned from the evaluation process was to lose my embarrassment bringing those little negative things to a subordinates attention during the year. The evaluation really is a two way street. You learn from it as well as the employee you are evaluating. What you learn is where you have not been up to par or as fair as you thought as a supervisor. So, you correct your behavior as well.

I started filling out a blank evaluation form that listed adjectives and adverbs I could use as a template for filling out these evaluations. After doing enough of them they get pretty boring and redundant. Every once in awhile I would come up with a comment that I felt was good enough to remember to use on other evaluations so I'd put it on this sheet. I don't have it anymore. Got lost when I moved. However, I think that if you look enough on the Internet you might find some sites that list these. Major thing was to make sure that if the employee's yearly raise was based on the score they got on their evaluation you better have documentation to back up the negative comments that are giving them a low enough score to prevent them from getting their raise. Anyway, if that is happening, there should have been prior documented disciplinary action.

I hated doing these too. I would sit and stare at these forms for the longest time. It was painfully hard to come up with clever things to write on them. Me, who can talk the leg off a horse! One would sometimes take me a couple of hours to do. No kidding!