“A mind can speak when only it is allowed to speak.”

– HRinAsia

An employee evaluation form gives not only an opportunity for managers to appraise employee performance and development at work, but also a way to hear employee’s thoughts regarding their job. According to Ankur Shah as in Value Walk, great performance can take business to an optimum level. Therefore, ensuring employees’ high performance through evaluation form is essentially needed to measure what employees want and need.

As important as needed, HR professionals should know how to create great and pre-eminent evaluation. Saba wrote that great evaluation form contributes directly to success of performance management process, whereas poorly-designed performance form can cause frustrated and disengaged managers and employees from process which defeats the whole purpose.

See also: Employee Turnover: Understanding Why Top Talents are Leaving

According to Saba, a pre-eminent evaluation form should include:

o   clear information and instructions,

o   guidance of managers and employees on what they need to provide,

o   flow logically from past performance to development needs, goals, and aspirations,

o   illustration of various levels of competency demonstration.

Meanwhile, UGA Library inscribes that evaluation forms should meet the following purpose:

o   To promote communication between employee and supervisor about performance, policies, and practices.

o   To establish goals and expectations for coming year.

o   To identify how employees can develop their skills and to encourage them for such development.

o   To review and make changes to employee’s position description in order to accurately reflects duty and responsibility of employees.

o   To provide justification along with other relevant information and recommendation for salary increase.

o   To assist supervisors in determining overall performance rating.

When crafting employee evaluation form, you should match it with your business and talent management needs. While this could be a daunting task to do, there is a general guideline you can follow to ensure that your form is user-friendly.

Make it simple by providing clear instruction and example so employees know exactly what information is required in each section and by following sequential order of evaluation forms.

Keep them familiar by using corporate language and terminology for all aspects of process such as names and descriptions.

Gather information needed to achieve goals for appraisal by being clear about purpose of your appraisal process and ensure you are gathering right information on your form.

Create different forms for specific jobs or roles by listing right core and leadership competencies for jobs and by providing clear, relevant, and appropriate descriptions of expected level of competency demonstration for role.

Choose most effective rating method for competencies by considering whether numeric ratings is needed or better to use description ratings. You also need to choose better feedback method to best supports performance.

Encourage smart goals by prompting managers and employees to provide specific, relevant description and provide enough space for all details. You should also be sure that overall number of goals is reasonable. Providing an example of a SMART goal can be particularly helpful.

Address development needs (both professional and career) by providing space for identifying and establishing training goals.

Provide sufficient space for feedback. So, make sure you give enough space for detailed comments.

Use most effective evaluation form. Saba stated that effective evaluation form is not paper-based. Paper-based usually inherent limitations you might never overcome. Thus, most effective forms are by creating a dynamic web-based application for your employees to be easily navigated and always available.

Read also: HR Challenge: Meeting Evaluation and Promotion Expectations of a Diverse Workforce