A Guide to Rating Employees on Annual Performance Reviews
I walked into my manager’s office with a bit of a swagger and a smug look. “Everything for this week is done,” I said. “All project plans have been updated, the communication plan has been revised, the issue with the integration team has been resolved, and I even called the customer and gave them an update on next week’s plans.”
Expecting kudos and accolades, my hopes were quickly dashed.
“Good, sounds like you’ve done your job. That’s what you’re getting paid for.” he said.
What? No “good job,” or “wow, that’s amazing,” or “how do you do it?” Nope. Nothing. Just “you’ve done your job.”
It took me aback, but he was right. A manager expects employees to do their job at a certain level of proficiency equivalent to ‘good.’ It is a reasonable expectation, and why the company is paying them.
Now that many companies are coming up on performance review season, this disconnect between employee and manager sometimes becomes an issue. Employees want high scores on their reviews and managers want to provide a fair representation of each employee.
“A manager expects employees to do their job at a certain level of proficiency equivalent to ‘good.’ It is a reasonable expectation, and why the company is paying them.”
How can you reconcile your expectations with those of your employees? Use a simple scale called the Unknown Stranger to Game Changer scale. Hypothetically, let’s say your performance review scores are on a scale of 1 - 5 with 1 being low and 5 being high; share the following rubric with your employees to ensure clarity on both sides.
1 - Unknown Stranger
Nobody knows you, what you do, or what value you bring to the company. You don’t venture much beyond your desk, do hide behind emails and instant messaging, and rarely make a noise. You want to stay as far away as possible from this side of the scale.
3 - Solid Employee
You are a good, solid employee that does what is expected of you. You are good at what you do, you deliver on expectations, and have good working relationships with others. There’s no shame in being in the neighborhood of ‘meeting expectations’ because you’re doing what you’ve been hired to do.
5 - Game Changer
You go above and beyond what is expected for your position. You’ve ventured outside your immediate group of peers and colleagues and connected with others that allow you to get things done efficiently. You may have introduced new processes or technologies in your group that then spread into other departments, to their benefit. High performers aspire to reach this rare air.
It’s true that everyone wants to be a 5, and it’s also true that not everyone will be a 5. Setting the above expectations for what each rating represents makes the process less arbitrary and more fact-based. Oh, and this is like the Richter Scale. A whole number jump indicates a 10-fold increase. So, if an employee is at a 3.5 or 3.8, they are a good distance away from a solid 3 of “doing your job.” Employees should be encouraged to keep up the good work as they head for the rare air.
Over the years I’ve unfortunately lost touch with my straight-shooting manager. But I feel confident he would give me a good solid “3” on this article, and that would be just fine with me!
