Lifestageperformance evaluation
Best Practices in performance evaluation
Now more than ever, employees crave feedback to support their career progression [1].
Organizations that reimagine how to deliver feedback about an employee’s performance can dramatically increase satisfaction and retention while also improving outcomes. Developing an equitable and inclusive method for evaluating performance helps managers and employees alike by building clear alignment on strengths, areas for growth, and opportunities for career progression.
[1]: shrm.org/topics-tools/news/all-things-work/reimagining-performance-review
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Step
1
Assess Current State
Before updating or revising your performance evaluation framework, it is important to understand your current practices and how well they are working for those involved. This includes understanding how both staff members and managers feel about the performance evaluation structure.
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Monitor for bias by sectioning your review of past performance evaluation data, including overall satisfaction and trust levels among staff and managers, by identity subgroups.
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Step
2
Define Your Vision and Overall Success Metrics
Developing an organization-wide vision for performance evaluation is a crucial early step of the process. Define your overall “why” behind performance evaluation, including whether or not your purpose is aimed at supporting skill development, providing leadership with talent review data, or building a positive culture through coaching. Ultimately your “why” will help define the structure you design, so it is critical that all stakeholders have a chance to weigh in on your vision.
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Staff who hold marginalized identities often have experienced biased performance evaluation systems in the past. Ensure that all staff members have an opportunity to provide input on your organization’s performance evaluation to avoid unintentionally incorporating bias into the process.
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Step
3
Define Your Strategy
Determine the needs for designing or redesigning your performance evaluation system and which staff member subgroups will be included in each phase of the process. Make sure to assess all subgroup involvement, including teachers, school leaders, school-based instructional staff, school-based non-instructional staff, and central office staff. Then, create a comprehensive project plan that outlines the various phases of work and the timeline for each phase. Plan your timelines accordingly, as (re)designing a comprehensive performance evaluation system for one staff subgroup typically takes anywhere from 3 to 12 months depending on the size of the organization.
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Clearly communicate with non-instructional staff members about the timeline for creating their performance evaluation system. This subgroup is as essential as instructional staff, so leaders should reinforce their value to build trust among these staff members.
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Step
4
Build a Comprehensive Stakeholder Engagement Plan
Performance evaluation systems typically involve every staff member within an organization. The successful (re)design of a system rests on the extent to which the process is inclusive and stakeholder-driven. Given the critical nature of stakeholder engagement, build a comprehensive stakeholder engagement plan that utilizes “communication cascades”, which enables feedback cycles to “cascade” up and down across each level of seniority within the organization. For every stakeholder group, define the role that they will play in the project and the structures that will be utilized to gather their feedback.
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When designing your stakeholder engagement plan, review it with key members of leadership to build their investment in the process and ensure that the plan is representative of your organization’s values.
EdFuel can design performance evaluation systems and processes for you.