Employee Evaluations

Recognizing that an organization's employees are the key to its global success, many organizations are re-evaluating their methods of appraising and motivating employees. Employee evaluations are essential to ensuring that each employee understands his or her role within the organization and is acting in accordance with the organization's overall strategies and objectives.

Evaluations also play an important role: properly performed evaluations are an invaluable resource for defending employment decisions. The employee evaluation process can be used to ensure that each employee understands his or her individual role in the strategic plan as well as ensure that each individual's work is moving the organization towards its overall objectives.

Career stages are different points of work responsibility and achievement through which people pass during the course of their work lives. Entry and establishment involve on-the-job development of relevant skills and abilities. Individuals also undergo the organizational and professional socialization. At the same time, progressive organizations actively engage in mentoring new employees. In the advancement stage, the individual seeks growth and increased responsibility. During the maintenance, withdrawal, and retirement stage of second adulthood, individuals may experience continued growth of accomplishments or may encounter career stability. At some point during the maintenance career stage, individual consider withdrawal and ultimate retirement.

Employee assessments have been emphasized as part of organizational needs analyses. Employee assessments that focus on employee values and opinions are an important information source for helping organizations to make significant adjustments. Employees are key actors in determining training, self-improvement and career development needs as they affect succession planning. Thus, a primary function of a personnel office should be to provide employee assessments that also serve as sources of data for future workforce projections.

According to several published reports, four reasons for conducting employee assessments with succession planning management in mind are a) determining the extent of an organization's pending leadership shortage; b) identifying needed leadership competencies based on services or program needs, values and organizational strategies; c) assessing employee strengths, skill gaps, developmental needs, and