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Employee evaluations shouldn’t come as a surprise
By Lauren | November 6, 2009
Continuing my Friday series on ways to keep your business out of court, let’s continue with last week’s discussion about employee evaluations. It’s such an important topic, and one that creates so much legal risk, that it’s worth a second post.
Last week, I talked about the reasons why managers tend to softpedal criticisms in their employees’ annual performance reviews. There’s a related problem that frequently arises. Managers are usually very busy people, and giving employees negative feedback is rarely a lot of fun. Consequently, some managers wait until year-end to tell employees about weaknesses in their performance. The employees get blindsided with a bad review and lower-than-expected pay raises, then file suit claiming that the reviews were a sham and they’re really being discriminated against for illegal reasons (as in “the company didn’t do this to anyone under the age of 50″).
The answer, of course, is to give your employees regular, honest feedback throughout the year. Then document the feedback, both good and bad, in memos to their personnel files. By the time December rolls around, your superstars and slackers should both know exactly what they’re doing right and wrong. Yes, it takes time and energy, but it’s worth the extra work. Your employees will respect your honesty, and the good ones will appreciate even your less-than-flattering observations, as long as they come with the chance to improve. You’ll bolster morale, strengthen employee trust and, in the process, protect your company from expensive, stressful lawsuits.
Topics: Business Ethics, Risk Management, business communications, corporate responsibility, ethics |