Conducting Effective Performance Reviews

Presented by Andre Jones

5/20/13

This workshop was really interesting and informative -- the speaker held my attention the entire three hours!  The discussions were excellent.   The area where I felt I learned the most  was establishing performance expectations. Since I have worked with the same people for many years, we have developed an understanding over time of what is expected and now function smoothly. But this method wasn’t very efficient, and there were several bumps along the way. I very much favor developing expectations in a dialog with the employees right away, paying particular attention to the “top three things you are responsible for”. Relating those top three things to job descriptions, performance, and to the bigger picture (the branch or department, and the library as a whole and its mission and goals) should make it easier to establish individual employee expectations and goals. I also really liked the idea of setting three major goals- one for the employee, one for the team (branch or department), and one for the library as a whole. This will take some thought, but I'm sure it can be done for everyone and every job at WCFL. Touching base with employees on a more regular schedule regarding achieving those goals, and understanding what they need in order to be successful is very important.

The discussion of the performance appraisal itself has given me a method for assigning ratings in a more rigorous way. The WCFL Performance Management Form seems very cryptic and difficult to use. I have been using a form I found more suitable to branch operations to appraise more specific tasks and behaviors. Now I am beginning to see how the two forms relate to each other, and I’d like to take the time to analyze each one and map them together. I think it will make the rating scheme much easier to implement impartially and make the performance appraisal exercise more meaningful.    

Marilyn Pontius