by Dennis Aubuchon

Created on: November 20, 2011

Performance evaluations are present in most if not all organizations.  It makes no difference whether you want to make a profit or you are a non-profit organization.  As an organization it is necessary to evaluate those who are performing required tasks but it is also important that the evaluations be fair.  This involves considering factors that affect employee performance.  Some may be controllable by the employee while others are out of their control.  Employers who conduct evaluations usually do so on an annual basis but they can be semi-annually or quarterly dependent upon the organization and the policies in effect. 

Some factors which affect employee performance are health issues, family emergencies and stress.  Employees who are not healthy or not feeling 100% result in performance below expectations not only for the employer but themselves.  Employees and employers usually have some expectations in mind when tasked are being accomplished.  Basically overall most individuals want to do a great job for their employers but they also want to be properly evaluated for the work they do.  Family emergencies and stress are other factors to be considered in evaluating the work of employees. 

We as individuals have lives outside the workplace and while the work must get done employers must or should consider family responsibilities.  Another area that affects employee performance is the evaluations employees receive.  Getting a low performance evaluation may or will affect future employee performance as it will affect the morale of the employee.  Individuals who feel they are not appreciated may sometimes get into a frame of mind not to do anything extra as they feel they are not properly appreciated.

Other factors associated with employer responsibilities include such elements as training, proper instruction, guidelines and policies regarding specific issues.  Granted there are gray areas in specific responsibilities within an organization but if clear guidelines are provided it would have a positive effect on employee performance.   Clear instructions are a necessity in any work environment and having such elements in place is clearly a positive aspect..  Employee performance can also be impacted by different instructions from different management personnel related to specific issues or policies.  Conflicting instructions is not a position in which employees should be placed.  It creates a situation where one person will be satisfied and another will have an issue in not following their instruction or guidelines.  While this does not exist in all organizations it is something that can and does happen within an organization.

The factors discussed above by no means include all the possibilities that can impact employee performance.  How employee evaluations are conducted and the facts on which they are based are important to achieve an accurate evaluation.  Organizations that will be successful are the ones who can address factors which affect employee performance.  This may require adjusting policies to consider how various factors affect their employees.  The key is factors cannot be completely eliminated in all cases but minimizing their impact will have a positive impact on the job to be done. 

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