CONCEPT
Evaluation is an important step in the people management process. It is planned and structured to measure the performance of a collaborator or team against the established goals. But in addition to the character of measure, which is very important, it is formative, procedural and continuous, because its process is not exhausted in the act of performance verification.
EXPLAINING THE CONCEPT
The analysis of some of the key terms of the concept explicitly shows its importance and its impact on other stages of the people management process, the production process and the final result of the organization.
PLANNED AND STRUCTURED
These terms refer to the relationship that the performance evaluation has with the steps before and after it in the flowchart of the management process. Before its application it is necessary that managers, if possible with the participation of employees, define the matrix of competencies demanded by the functions and positions, as well as the performance indicators of employees. Only after that, the type of evaluation and the most indicated instrument are chosen to diagnose the extent to which the expected performances have been achieved. It should be emphasized that any type of evaluation, in order to be precise, reliable, cannot dispense with its dimension of measure and objectivity.
FORMATIVE EVALUATION
After its application, the collected data must be properly organized, classified, to implement the process of its analysis. Considering the performance and its relationship with the conjuncture, the analysis should identify the potentialities, deficient or absent competencies that impacted the performance result. Above all, to point out the causes that determined the outcome. That is why the data and information collected in the evaluation should be relevant and reliable, because it is based on them that interventions and corrective actions of performance will be implemented: improving deficient skills or developing absent competencies. What for? To qualify the performances in order to eliminate the gaps (gaps) identified between the expected results and the results achieved. In addition to basing the constant Feedbak, one to one meetings, training and development courses, the data and information collected in the evaluation, properly organized, will support other processes of people management: Selection and Recruitment, Onboarding, Reward and Promotion, Succession Process, Shutdown Process (Offtboarding). We will discuss these processes later and explain their links to the database and information obtained in the evaluation. Therefore, the evaluation must be carried out with excellence, have specific requirements for different functions and positions, in addition to the requirements that dimension the common competencies, especially the behavioral and socio-emotional ones that are more related to the aspects and values of organizational culture. For all this it has to be formative, because it will only make sense if it improves and qualify the performance of employees to exponentialize the results of the business and boost the growth of the company. And to be formative, that is, to improve, correct deficiencies and develop skills to qualify the performance of employees, it also has to be procedural and continuous.
PROCEDURAL AND CONTINUOUS EVALUATION
For the evaluation to be Formative, it needs to be procedural and continuous. You have to take into account other stages of the process, to be people management, and can not be limited to the time of application of the test or to a period: quarterly, semiannual or annual. It needs to be continuous, occur daily. The evaluation test can be timely, but the data and information they provide has to generate concrete actions to improve the skills of the employee, correct their deficiencies or develop the competencies demands for their role or position. This happens on a day-to-day basis and not at the end of a period, when applying a one-off evaluation test. The performance of the employee to generate value for the company happens on a day-to-day basis, so the evaluation has to be continuous. What’s that supposed to mean? That the manager has to apply test or fill out forms with indicators of their skills and results daily? No. Always having in your hands the history of the development of skills and performance of the employee registered in the database and relevant information about it, properly organized, classified and easily accessible, your manager should be attentive, have a trained look to identify deficient or absent competencies that are compromising the expected performance, as well as the technical knowledge and behavioral skills that are generating the expected performance that will impact business results. And intervene immediately giving Feedback guidance to the employee develop the necessary skills to better perform. Likewise praise employees who have demonstrated their knowledge and skills fundamental to the excellence of their performance. Praise increases employee and team productivity. Employees can also receive such feedback at One on One meetings that should be frequently and judiciously scheduled. In them the leader must define actions and the appropriate training and development courses for the employee to perform better and develop professionally. This increases your self-esteem, your self-confidence and is great for the company as well. It is always good to remember that it is the high performance of the employee that exponentializes the results of the business. And the leader should make it clear to the collaborator that whenever he sees need he will intervene. But attention: all feedback, compliments, qualified technical and behavioral skills, deficiencies in skills and performance, the corrective measures indicated, the PDI, the results of these measures, their effectiveness in relation to the investment made must be very well recorded in the database so that the company has a reliable history of the employee’s journey. For they are the ones who will base future actions of the people management process and give security and foresight to the decision-making of managers to minimize subjective, cognitive biases of their decisions. Research in the area reveals that subjective, incoherent decisions, the lack of guidance feedbacks are the cause of the negative view that employees have of their leaders. This creates a counterproductive relationship between them, compromises the organizational environment and causes the employee to leave the company boosting the turnover rate.
Annual one-off evaluations should be considered as a closure of a complete management process cycle and its results underpin the next year’s process cycle planning.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN COMPETENCE, PERFORMANCE AND RESULT
These terms were used in the concept of evaluation and in the analysis of your keywords. Let’s conceptualize these terms and establish the relationship between them.
Skills are skills that people have to effectively perform a particular profession, position or function. They are composed of three dimensions, synthesized in the famous acronym CHA. The C of knowledge, the Skills H, and the Attitudes A. Knowledge is theoretical knowledge, technical knowledge, learned in school, in courses and books. They are more easily verifiable. The skills are the realization of theoretical and technical knowledge. It is the dimension of knowing how to do, putting knowledge into practice. Attitudes are behavioral, socio-emotional skills that make up your emotional intelligence. It’s knowing how to be and knowing how to live together. Later we will talk about these three dimensions and give examples of each. Competence is a set of interrelated knowledge, skills and attitudes that people mobilize in a specific situation and context, to solve a problem, overcome a difficulty, face a new challenge, create, innovate and change paradigms.
And what is the relationship between competence, performance and outcome in the production process?
Skills are resources, means that enable people to present the necessary performance that leads to the achievement of the result. In other words, the skills are the knowledge that the employee needs to have to perform with proficiency their tasks in order to deliver the performance, the results of it expected by the company. One of the objectives of the performance evaluation is precisely to identify how much a employee is contributing to the development of the company to achieve its expected result. Also how much a deficient competency is negatively impacting the performance of the employee and consequently compromising the outcome of the business. Therefore, the relationship between competence, performance and results deserves special attention in contemporary people management. And the most successful companies in the market consider the importance of this relationship since the process of selection and onboarding of new employees, as well as seek to apply increasingly accurate evaluation instruments to measure this relationship. In the VDX People Platform assessment module, companies, who want to walk the path of success, will find support and metrics to accurately assess their employees’ competencies, performances and results.
Want to learn more about Performance and Competencies Assessment? Wait for the publication next week of the second part of this article on Assessment of Skills and Skills. Are you interested in knowing what to rate: Hard Skills or Soft Skills? Who in the company is the main responsible for performance evaluation? What are the differentials of VDX People Platform Assessment to make your business stronger?
