Subscribe to my Feed
« Was Ryan Howard’s 200th career run baseball really worth a lawsuit? | Home | Want great business ethics? Get a life! »
When it comes to employee evaluations, honesty is the best policy
By Lauren | October 30, 2009
Continuing my Friday series on keeping your business out of court, let’s talk about a topic that many managers dread. It’s nearing the end of the year, which means that companies are starting to work on annual employee evaluations. It’s an important process, and one that’s riddled with legal pitfalls.
For most of us, it’s just no fun to tell people about their shortcomings, especially in print. There’s a tremendous risk of hurt feelings and lingering resentment that can do real damage to long-term working relationships. Additionally, evaluations are usually tied to compensation, so a mediocre performance review can come with real financial consequences. Rather than defend their opinions to angry employees, too many supervisors sugarcoat evaluations, telling employees that they’re doing a better job than they really are.
The problem arises when a problem employee hits a boss’ breaking point. All of a sudden the boss wants to fire the employee right now for long-standing shortcomings, but the employee’s personnel file looks like it’s been dipped in gold. It can cost a lot, both in legal fees and aggravation, to deal with the discrepancy.
Painful as it may be, tell your employees the truth on their annual evaluations. It’ll not only give them fair notice and a chance to improve their performance, it’ll protect your company if you ever have to defend a termination in court.
Topics: Business Ethics, Risk Management, business communications, corporate responsibility, ethics |