Much as it is necessary to communicate clearly to purchasing staff what their duties are and how they are to be performed, it is also necessary to tell them the criteria on which they will be assessed.
The clearest way to do this is to develop specific performance goals. Ongoing feedback should be provided where possible of both a formal and informal nature.
Whenever performance fails to meet expectations, the supervisor should immediately counsel the employee to identify the deficiencies and suggest concrete ways to improve.
Similarly, the manager should also give the employee feedback when performance is good. Any impression that managers maintain secret dossiers on their staff is likely to undermine any kind of trust within the working relationship.
Accordingly, employees should have the opportunity to review and comment on evaluations and similar records before they become final, (e.g. by providing in any written appraisal, a section for the employee to sign and to provide comments at the end of the form).
One of the critical goals is the appraisal process, which should reinforce the priority given to competing assignments by the organization. Critical goals are those that represent or relate to the work having the highest priority that has been assigned to the person who is being assessed.
For most goals of this type, the central question is whether they have been attained. Goals can be critical only where they relate directly and significantly to the accomplishment of at least one of the strategic goals of the organization.
Very often staff simply do not understand the consequences of what they are doing for the organization as a whole.
For this reason, the supervisor conducting the evaluation should be able to explain to the employee the impact of his or her contribution (or poor performance) to the organization, and the consequences that are likely to flow from what is done or not done.
A stretch goal is equally important and is a task set for an employee (usually during the assessment process) as a specific responsibility for the coming year that goes beyond his or her previous responsibility and is intended to provide the opportunity to develop new skills and understanding.
Stretch goals challenge the individual who is being assessed to do something over and above the bare minimum that is necessary for the organization to reach its intended goal.
Whereas critical goals are strategically focused, stretch goals may relate to such other elements of organizational performance, as operational enhancement (e.g. streamlining operations), improvement of customer or member relationships, enhancing the image of the organization, resource conversation or the like.
Nevertheless, stretch goals must be consistent with the overall strategy of the organization. Such goals serve the cause of staff development and lay the basis for enhanced performance by the organization itself.
The constituents of a stretch goal are personal to each individual who is being assessed. What is acceptable as a stretch goal varies from one organization to another, depending on the goals of each organization and its particular circumstances.
Performance of routine non-critical tasks should not be ignored in assessment, but it is important for the process to emphasize those tasks that are critical. Staff needs to understand that even stellar performance of the irrelevant does not improve the prospects of the organization.
By the same token, too much attention can be paid even to individual critical tasks when workers become obsessed with them. Generally, work needs to be considered in a balanced and rational way.
Sporadic instances of outstanding performance are good in themselves, but work must be consistently solid to have value. If moments of brilliance must be offset against moments of incompetence, the overall performance may be no more than mediocre.
For assessment to produce any meaningful results, there must be some consistency in the criteria of assessment from one individual to another.
Stephen Bauld is a government procurement expert and can be reached at swbauld@purchasingci.com. Some of his columns may contain excerpts from The Municipal Procurement Handbook published by Butterworths.
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