A comprehensive employee appraisal is often made up of

several different methods of performance evaluation. You

can choose to use just one evaluation process when
judging an employee's performance, but when you use
multiple evaluation methods you are able to get a
broader picture of the areas where the employee needs
improvement and what recommendations you should
make to support employee development.

Self-Evaluation
The self-evaluation is often effective when teamed up with a
performance review. The employee is asked to judge his own
performance by using a form that requires multiple choice
answers, essay-type answers or a combination of the two. One of
the benefits of a self-evaluation is that a manager can compare
the self-evaluation to the manager's own appraisal and see the
areas where there is a discrepancy in an understanding of
employee performance. This opens up conversation between the
manager and the employee that can be beneficial to employee
development.

360 Evaluation
An employee's development consists of progress made within his
own department, and the effectiveness of his interaction with the
rest of the company. A 360 degree performance evaluation is one
that involves input from managers in other departments that the
employee works with on a regular basis, according to the Missouri
Small Business and Technology Development Centers. Employees
are evaluated on their effectiveness within their own department
based on their job descriptions, and they are also evaluated
based on how effectively they work with the rest of the company.

Graphic Scale
According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United
Nations, the graphic scale of performance evaluation is one of
the more common ones used by managers. The employee's
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performance in various areas of her job duties is graded on a

scale. The value in a graphic evaluation system is that it allows
managers to compare the performance of several employees
simultaneously. The system can be done with numbers or
letters, and it usually consists of a range, running from
poor to excellent.

Checklists
A checklist evaluation method is simplistic but effective. It
consists of a series of performance questions that are traditionally
given the option of yes or no, according to online educational
resource Open Learning World. An excessive number of negative
responses indicates developmental training is needed for that
employee. The checklist can be used as a quick way to identify
employees that have deficiencies in too many performance areas.

Critical Incident
A proactive manager keeps an ongoing log throughout the year of
an employee's performance, and then uses that information to
fuel discussion during the employee performance review. This
method of keeping a list of good and bad incidents of employee
performance is known as critical incident evaluation.

Managers

and

performance

business

appraisals

owners
to

can

provide

use

periodic

feedback

to

employees, set goals and identify areas that need

improvement.

The

annual

performance

review

or

evaluation is an opportunity to offer pay increases or

bonuses. Managers, supervisors or business owners can
use a variety of methods to evaluate the performance of
workers during the review period.

Rating Scales
A rating scale allows the business owner to determine the key
areas the appraisal will evaluate, such as specific job skills,
teamwork, communication skills, reliability and flexibility. The
business can tailor the rating scale to reflect the skills
necessary to perform the duties of the jobs in the
organization. For example, the appraisal for a human
resource worker may add more weight to the rating for
communication skills while an assembly workers review
may focus more on technical skills.

Critical Incidents
Business owners or managers can maintain documentation for
each employee in the company. The documentation describes
incidents or areas where the worker performed well or areas that
need improvement. The method requires the manager to provide
a detailed analysis of the incident to help workers improve. Some
managers use a rating system with the critical incidents method
to provide a rating for the workers performance during the
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incident, such as a demonstration of teamwork or communication

skills.

Management by Objectives
Workers and managers work together to create a list of objectives
for the worker to attain during the review period. The objectives
must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time based
to meet the management by objectives criteria for goals and
objectives. For example, workers can set an objective to increase
their sales by 5 percent during the review period. The objective
has a specific measurement that the worker can attain during the
one-year review period.

Additional Methods
Business owners can also use a 360-degree feedback
performance appraisal, which includes the appraisals of coworkers, customers and management to provide a complete
picture of the workers accomplishments during the review period.
A ranking method ranks the worker against all other workers in the
department or company based on performance.

Employee evaluations are a critical component of running nearly any business

and having an effective measurement system in place helps you get the most
from your staff. Besides this, evaluations help you recognize worker
achievements, objectively compare multiple employees and identify areas where
improvement is needed. The question is, How do you select an effective system
that fits your companys specific needs? To answer this question, lets go over
four popular types of employee performance evaluations and the advantages
each offers.

1) Numerical Rating Scale

Due to its simplicity, this is one of the most widely used systems and tends to
be highly effective. Its also popular because it allows employers to measure
employee performance on a plethora of areas such as teamwork, communication
skills and reliability. A numerical rating scale is beneficial because a business can
customize the system to rate whatever employee traits or characteristics it
deems as important. This commonly involves rating individuals on a (1 to 5) or a
(1 to 10) scale with lower numbers being unsatisfactory and higher numbers
being satisfactory. In turn, employers can use tangible data to determine if an
employees performance is poor, average, good or great.

2) Objective-Based
This is another simplistic evaluation system and is a clear cut way to track
progress. In an objective-based evaluation, an employer and employee will agree
upon a specific goal for the employee to meet coupled with a deadline. If the
employee meets the objective, then it speaks highly of them and vice versa. This
is perhaps the most black and white of all systems and is a practical way to
monitor the overall success of employees.

3) 360-Degree Appraisal
If youre looking for comprehensive feedback on an employees performance to
form in-depth insights, then this is the way to go. A 360-degree appraisal works
by gathering feedback from multiple parties such as managers, coworkers,
customers and even vendors. The more information you collect, the more
accurate the performance review becomes, and the more the picture comes into
focus. Although this form of evaluation is somewhat laborious and timeconsuming when compared to the first two techniques, many employers prefer it
because of the unbiased data they receive and the multi-dimensional vantage
point it creates.

4) Critical Incidents
This system is defined as A method of performance appraisal involving
identifying and describing specific events (or incidents) where the employee did
something really well or something requiring improvement. For example, you
might record an instance of a stressful situation where an employee out-shined
and exceeded expectations. On the other hand, you might record a serious
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mistake an employee made that was detrimental to productivity and created a lot
of lingering problems. For a critical incidents evaluation system to be effective,
its important to keep detailed records and you may want to implement a rating
system for increased objectivity.
Understanding the concept behind different types of employee performance
evaluations allows you to choose which one, or combination, is best for your
business. In turn, youll be equipped to objectively measure the progress of your
employees and ultimately fine-tune your operations.