What are employee assessments?

An employee assessment is an evaluation of an employee’s skills, abilities or job performance. Assessments help managers explain their expectations, identify areas for improvement and collaborate with employees to enhance their career potential. In some cases, employers use assessments to evaluate performance for raises or promotions.  

Why should you assess employees regularly?

Although assessments are helpful for deciding who deserves a raise or a promotion, they have several other uses:

• Evaluating employees makes it easier to determine who needs additional training. If you notice that an employee lacks a particular skill, you can provide on-the-job training or enroll them in a class to help them improve their performance.

• Employee assessments are a useful tool for succession planning, which is the process of identifying your company’s future staffing needs and determining how to fulfill those needs. Evaluating employees makes it easier to uncover skills and abilities that could be applied in other positions, giving you the opportunity to match current employees with future openings.

• Conducting regular evaluations may help you uncover a skills mismatch. For example, a job description may emphasize skill in using a specific software package, but an assessment may reveal that employees only use the software once or twice a week. If you know that there’s a mismatch, you can edit your job descriptions accordingly, making it easier to attract quality applicants to your organization.

Tips for conducting employee assessments

If you’re conducting employee assessments, here are some tips to guide you through the process.

1. Schedule assessments regularly

Schedule regular assessments based on your company’s needs. Assessments help you make timely adjustments to employee goals and provide training opportunities. If you’re a department manager, you may need supervisors or team leads to complete questionnaires or surveys, so give everyone plenty of time to prepare.

2. Track objective metrics

It’s important to establish objective performance measures when evaluating an employee’s skills, abilities and job performance. Otherwise, supervisors may make decisions based on their personal feelings. Objective measures also help reduce bias, helping to ensure that evaluators focus on job-related criteria instead of relying on stereotypes.

Here are some examples of objective performance criteria:

• Deadlines. Evaluate timeliness with deadlines, whether the measurement applies to projects or individual tasks. An employee’s ability to meet deadlines shows you can trust them to manage their workload and keep clients satisfied. 

• Sales. Whether you use a customer relationship management system or a simple sales tracker, you should be able to determine the average value of an employee’s sales over a certain period of time. This makes it easier to compare salespeople based on their output rather than on subjective criteria.

• Customer rejection rate. In a manufacturing environment, tracking the customer reject rate for each employee is a great way to assess performance. If one employee’s reject rate is significantly higher than the average, they may need additional training. 

3. Refer to the job description

A good job description describes an employee’s duties and explains the knowledge, skills and abilities required for the job. If you’re responsible for the assessment of employees, use your company’s job descriptions as a guide. 

Before you start the assessment process, ask employees to add missing information, such as new duties or additional skills. This can help you learn more about their performance, assess their willingness to take on new tasks and identify additional skills that could benefit your company. For example, a high-achieving employee may list skills you didn’t know they had, making it easier to engage in succession planning for your organization.

4. Be positive

It’s important to be positive throughout your conversation. Ensure that you express appreciation for exceptional performance and recognize the traits that make the employee a valuable asset.

If an employee’s performance doesn’t meet your expectations, deliver the feedback professionally. Rather than criticizing the employee, let them know what they can do to improve.

5. Focus on solutions

If an employee needs significant improvement, focus on solutions. Be collaborative and open about your company’s needs. Most employees have suggestions for improving their work processes, so don’t be afraid to ask for feedback. Communication is a two-way street, so work with employees instead of only focusing on their shortcomings.

The right solution to a performance problem depends on what type of problem it is and how much it impacts your organization. For example, if an employee makes one or two mistakes early in their tenure, they may need a little more training. Further problems may lead you to evaluate their skills and abilities and whether those align with their position.

6. Set clear goals

Have employees and their managers set clear goals and expectations. Make sure that performance goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART). If you don’t set specific goals, employees may struggle to understand your expectations. It’s important to set measurable goals so employees can easily track their progress.

An achievable goal is something that an employee can realistically accomplish. A goal should also be time-bound, in other words, it should have a deadline. This allows you to track employees’ progress and make adjustments to the goal or its timeline as needed. The outcome may reveal overall areas of improvement for your team. 

Best practices for assessing employees’ knowledge, skills and performance

To maximize the benefits of employee assessments, apply these best practices:

• Inform employees. Ensure all employees are aware of timing, feedback processes and benchmarks for performance. Include assessment information in the employee handbook or on your company’s shared hard drive.

• Prepare. Review personnel files, previous assessments and feedback from managers and coworkers. Make a list of discussion points and questions.

• Provide examples. Obtain work samples and other accurate indicators of performance.

• Measure results. Compare results from previous assessments to track each employee’s progress.

• Use objective criteria. Stay away from opinion-based assessments as they may not be relevant to an employee’s job.

• Ask for feedback. Encourage employees to share feedback about their job duties, skills and abilities. Gathering feedback gives you valuable insight into the skills and abilities required to succeed in a specific role.

• Have a conversation. Rather than having an employee listen while you read off several pieces of feedback, have a conversation. Give the employee a chance to respond to each point and correct any inaccuracies.

FAQs about employee assessments

Why are employee assessments important?

Employee assessments provide an objective overview of an employee’s contributions to your organization. Therefore, you can use these assessments to determine who qualifies for a merit-based raise or who needs additional training. Employee assessments also help employees stay engaged, stay on track to reach their goals and strengthen their career potential within an organization.

Can assessments reduce turnover?

Assessments are one of the best employment practices for increasing employee retention. They help hiring managers determine if training is needed, what can be done to improve an employee’s career potential and whether the employee is a good fit for a job or the company culture.

Employee assessments also give team members an opportunity to discuss performance, suggest improvements and make plans for attaining goals or promotions. Assessments increase retention because they are a constructive way to improve employer-employee relationships.