Employee Work Performance Evaluations

Do you conduct employee work performance evaluations (WPEs)? If you don't, you should. For those of you who do conduct WPEs, when do you conduct these evaluations; on the employees hire date anniversary, or do you conduct WPEs for all of your employees at the same time each year?

Conducting employee WPEs is a crucial component to staff management, AND, serves as a building block for overall practice performance enhancement. In short, if your employees are not evaluated, they tend to perform at "meets expectation" levels or below. If they are evaluated as compared to their job description, and as compared to other employees, you create the sense of urgency for them to create and maintain the level of performance your patients expect.

Conducting employee reviews at the employee's hire date anniversary is used by many medical offices. While this represents a better option as compared to not doing one at all, most medical practices would benefit from conducting WPEs for all employees at the same point in time. The

rational is both practical and has sound financial considerations.

From a practical perspective, conducting annual WPEs for all employees a the same time insures no employee is overlooked in the process. It also ensures all employees are evaluated over the same time frame. Lastly, as the evaluation date should be publicized, your employees are never caught off guard and can participate in the overall evaluation process.

From a financial perspective, the physician-owner can avoid "wage creep." Wage creep occurs when the employee receives a merit increase where no basis exists, and, the percentage or dollar increase decision is made in a vacuum. Conducting annual evaluations for all employees at the same point in time each year provides comparisons to other employee performance. Further, I always recommend the medical practice conduct these reviews in February, or early March. Why? Well, first, early in the year sets the stage for employee performance improvement. Secondly, you should have your prior year's financial results to help you determine what percentage increase in wages is reasonable as compared to the practice's financial performance.

Conducting WPEs is an owner's opportunity to reward an employee's performance. It is also a time that you can help your struggling employees with their development. It is a key management responsibility and one that should not be taken lightly.

As a reminder, Primoro, Inc. offers clients comprehensive management consultation, including job descriptions and employee work performance evaluations strategies.