The best companies are adopting self-evaluation. Why? because self-evaluation is beneficial for both the employee and the employer. Let’s investigate…
What is self-evaluation?
Self-evaluation is a process of defining goals by employees, achieving goals by employees, and evaluating results by employees, all by himself. It is a process which allows employees to set his goals, and evaluate himself at the end of the cycle.
The older methods of performance evaluation were not entirely reasonable. The employer, at the end of the cycle, used to judge each employee’s performance. This may be fair from employee’s perspective. But, there are also chances where employees are not entirely happy with employer’s decision.
Now, there has been a ton of research on the subject of Employee’s Performance. How to increases productivity? What reduces efficiency? What kind of environment encourages better performance? And the list of questions goes on.
There’s fair chance of the employer being wrong about a particular employee’s performance. This scenario definitely deserves the benefit of the doubt. If the employer is wrong about the employee regarding the hard work he has invested, there’s a possibility the employee may start to dislike his employer.
To overcome these awkward situations, employee self-evaluation method has been adopted in performance management. In a self-evaluation, the employee decides his goals and he evaluates himself at the end of the cycle.
Why is self-evaluation beneficial for an employee?
Only an employee knows his circumstances. What sort of problems he is facing in personal as well as professional life. Only an employee, should decide what he wants to achieve in future. An employee knows better than his employer about his short-term and long-term goals.
When an employee jumps into the process of self-evaluation, he becomes responsible. He has to decide what should be his goals. As the employee has decided his goals, he will be responsible enough to accomplish it. On the other hand, he will be analytical enough to set realistic goals.
There is a probability that the goals set by the employer could be invalid for a particular employee. Hence, when the employee sets his goals, it becomes realistic.
When it comes to evaluating the results, honesty arises. As the employee has set the goals himself, he would definitely know the reasons why he completed. He would also know, how much can he excel in the further sprints. On the basis of the previous experience, he can set the goals for the next sprint.
On the other hand, if the employee fails to achieve the desired goals, he accepts the results and tries to find the loopholes in his work methods. Next time, he would keep in mind to set realistic goals.
Why is self-evaluation beneficial for an employer:
As an employer, it’s your duty to provide a good working environment for your employees. We have plenty of examples where employees are not entirely happy because decisions were inflicted upon them, without taking their point of view. This is not a happy environment for employees, and an employer should be aware of know that.
By adopting self-evaluation tool, the employer is allowing employees to make their own decisions. He is providing a space to be fearless with their decisions, yet realistic.
Many a time it happens, an employer decides employees’ deadlines. And when employees fail, it ruins the relationship between both. The project deadline is already incomplete and a conflict between employer and employee is created as well.
By allowing your employees to set goals for themselves, you are making your employees like entrepreneurs. They will choose what to achieve, they will judge themselves, they will make necessary changes in their work style.
If an individual is not achieving particular goals, you can suggest various solutions. If he is interested in some other areas of work, you can provide training. It’s better for your business that your employees enjoy their work.
Purpose of self-evaluation:
There are bundles of benefits of adopting self-evaluation in your business. Here are few of the most important benefits of self-evaluation in performance management:
- Employees will develop entrepreneurial qualities. They will adopt a realistic approach, they will set their goals after doing a strong analysis, and they will develop an attitude of challenging themselves.
- The communication between employee and employer will improve. Employees can communicate with the manager regarding their goals. The manager or employer can give suggestions based on his previous experiences.
- The business goals will be realistic, and hence achievable.
- Based on your previous cycle, you can be assured about your future goals.
- Employee promotion or increment will be easier to decide. The employer can clearly see, who has achieved the goals and who has failed to do so. The deserving candidate deserves a promotion or a motivational increment.
- Employees can be more focused on the chosen career. If they do not fit in the career they are in, they have legit data to make an informed decision whether to continue with the same field or not.
An ideal approach to self-evaluation for employees:
- As an employee, think about your current situation in completing goals. Decide whether your approach is right? With that approach, can you accomplish future goals?
- Think about your current designation in your company. Also, remind yourself where do you want to reach? With the selected approach, can you reach that goal?
- Make an informed decision about your short-term goals.
- Communicate with your manager or employer regarding your future goals. Maybe his suggestions can bring a lot of change in your decisions.
- Fix a certain goal with a timeline.
- Try to follow your approach throughout the timeline.
- At the end of the sprint, if you have found desired success, make a note of the reasons. If you have failed to achieve your goal, make a list of the factors that affected it as well.
- Be honest about your performance, and try to make next goal more realistic and achievable.
Bottom Line:
A large majority of firms from all around the world are accepting this approach of self-evaluation. We have seen logical benefits of this method, and it has turned out to be amazing in a lot of companies. Apart from working very well in business revenues, self-evaluation lifts employees on personal levels too. Employees who have developed this habit of evaluating self, are more analytically strong. These employees will develop business qualities over a period of time. Employees with self-evaluation methods are realistic, honest, and dedicated compared to those who don’t apply their minds in such process.
Employees who don’t enjoy their work can analyze their results, and make an informed decision about changing their area of interest. There are many cases where employees have analyzed themselves and they jumped to the conclusion that they are going in a wrong direction, career-wise. People who don’t enjoy their work will drop organization’s overall efficiency. And it’s not beneficial for the employee too.
In recent times, performance management methods are evolving. Companies have started adopting more feasible solutions for self-evaluation like performance management systems. These techniques are practical, and they are realistic. Hence, they are achieving success at a faster pace in the industry now.