PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

Tricky tricky.....

In the field of HR, performance evaluation or performance appraisal is a necessary and beneficial process to provide feedback and career guidance to employees. It is a yearly avoided more than held process. Some called it development discussion.

A lot argue that the process is conducted mainly to help with employees learning curve. The problem is employees are learning or are suppose to be learning everyday at work. Regular discussion about work performance should be conducted whenever issues are identified. Evaluating employees once a year? what value does it have?

I recently had to go through a performance evaluation with my boss. I am being evaluated of course. It is said to discuss/improve my performance and hopefully provide me with a clearer career direction. Ironically, i felt more discourage and disappointed than ever. I felt that my good work are not being appreciated and my small mistakes are being magnified. I love my job and it did not show. I take initiative and it did not show. I follow up on my work and it did not show, certainly not to my boss, who come visit me once a month.

The thing is i do make mistakes, and i am learning. I take criticism and try to improve my myself. This is the start of my career and my lack of experience shows. This once a year evaluation is tricky. How does the good work out weight the bad ones and vice verse to score a higher ratings on the scale? It takes a skillful experience manager to do it right and do it well.

So is this really a necessary process or is this a chore? What is the real value?

Job Analysis

I am all geared up to visit our crew at one of Shell's largest construction site near Edmonton. What better way to conduct a job analysis than to personally visit the job site?

It was a guided tour by Andy, one of our project manager. Nice guy, very experienced and knowledgeable but a bit cynical when it comes to life in general. We bonded during the tour and he is now one of my closet "support system" at the workplace.

Honestly I have never really been to a construction site. I was excited.

There I met two of our best field supervisor, Tinus, a temporary foreign workers from South Africa and Mark. Both very skillful workers. I have learned so much just by observing.

The physical requirements of this job is almost the core of the job description. I was feeling slightly under the weather just by walking around and sitting under the freakishly hot sun for 4 hours. These guys work under all extreme weather all year round. The work requires them to be on their knees for a long period of time. The liner installation process requires them to work in awkward positions.

The informal interview sessions with some of the workers was most interesting. (beside not so elegant language) When i say: I would like to know what you guys like and don't like about the job so i know who qualities to look for when i am interviewing someone. I got all kind of responses, some of them include:

• we are here for the money, money is the motivation,
• hey you got to have passion for liners,
• f*** who has passion for liners?
• hire someone who works in the kitchen because they can work under extreme heat,
• someone who is flexible
• someone who can handle extreme stress and pressure
  
• you can never tell if someone is suitable for the job, I have seen people who i thought will not make it turns out to be a good worker.

Despite the random responses i got from several questions, I have gained a better understanding not just the job specification, but the employees' needs and motivation.

Although i have not given a chance to recruit a field worker (due tough economic times) I believe the job analysis has made me a better recruiter.