Best Management Practices

Reprinted from AGOSNET.com

     One of the benefits of ELEA membership is access to AGOSNET, a web-based employment law resource full of training bulletins on a variety of employment topics, sample policies and procedures, and free advice from attorneys trained in employment and risk management law.  The following is one of the training bulletins you missed if you aren’t accessing www.agosnet.com on a regular basis.  Your User I.D. and password were included in your welcome letter when you joined ELEA this year, but if you have misplaced it, please e-mail Gayle Denny, ELEA Executive  Director, at eleanational@cs.com to have it re-sent to you.

 Don’t just file those Performance Evaluations:  Use them!

      Does your organization complete performance evaluations (PEs) on a regularly scheduled basis?  Are your PEs tied closely to employees’ jobs?  Are your evaluators prepared to create honest and helpful evaluations?  Are your PEs documented?  Does each employee sign his or her PE?  Is the employee given an opportunity and place for a response?

     If you answered “yes” to all of these questions … great!  Your answers reflect best practices in the area of performance evaluations. 

     Now don’t waste all that effort by losing sight of those evaluations at a later time when they are needed.  Take, for example, the following case in point:

• An organization needed to make a reduction-in-force (RIF, or layoff) due to bad economic conditions.

• In order to decide which employees were to be terminated, the organization developed a spreadsheet containing several merit-based categories - e.g., attendance/tardiness.

• The ratings in each category were based solely on the prior six months and did not consider previous performance evaluations.  Five computer operators were teminated based on the spreadsheet ratings, and the organization indicated that these five “were not self-starters.”

• One of the operators filed a lawsuit against the organization.  He claimed that he was selected for termination based on his race and national origin (rather than on merit, or the relative lack thereof).  A jury agreed … and awarded him $22,500 in back pay and $250,000 in punitive damages.

     The award was upheld on appeal based on evidence that, during his five years of employment:

• The employee consistently received top ratings on his performance evaluations.

• His work was classified as “outstanding” and “exceeds requirements”, and

• He was classified as a “self-starter” on his most recent performance evaluation.
   

     Had the organization’s managers simply reviewed their own performance evaluations, they would have realized that their argument (that the employee was a poor performer who was not a “self-starter”) would appear to be nothing more than a pretext for discrimination.

     The failure to consider performance evaluations as part of their RIF process ended up costing this organization over a quarter of a million dollars.  It also cost them an employee, who, by their own evaluations, was an asset.

Bottom Line:  Performance evaluations are important tools for improving job performance, and for monitoring and documenting problems with employees.  Don’t forget to refer back to them when taking any action.

By Byrgen Finkelman