What is an Employee Evaluation?
An employee evaluation can be called many things, including a performance evaluation, employee review, job evaluation, employee performance evaluation, and performance appraisal. An employee evaluation measures several aspects of an employee's job, including the quantity of work, quality of work, and overall characteristics of the employee at work.

Performance evaluations are important because they help align employees with overall organizational strategy. Setting employee goals and objectives and evaluating if those goals and objectives are met helps an organization's success and most importantly, the employee's individual success and job satisfaction. The ultimate goal of an employee evaluation is to improve performance, morale, and reward past employee performance.

How to Implement an Effective Performance Management System
The best way to begin implementing an effective performance management system is to identify job criteria - elements of a job where employee performance can be measured. An employer must set expectations for employees on how their work is being measured, compared with other standards, and communicated to them.

A manager may look at several areas to determine performance information for each employee.

Result of their work Character traits Behavioral traits

The first type of information to look at for job evaluations is the result of an employee's work. What has an employee accomplished on the job? When looking at this information managers can expect well-defined and measurable feedback. The other two types of information to look at when performing an employee evaluation are far more elusive and more difficult to evaluate - character traits and behavioral traits, such as personality and attitude on the job. These traits can sometimes be vague, so it's a good idea to further define and explain employee expectations.

Finally, identify defined standards so employees know what level they are at. The standards should be realistic, measurable and understood by all employees - especially the manager and employee.

Ultimately, a good performance management system will let the employer properly identify, measure, evaluate, improve, and reward employee performance.

Next: Different Types of Performance Evaluations