Dear Liz,

I am creating our company's first performance appraisal process. Can you recommend some categories on which employees should be evaluated? I know that a lot of companies look at Attendance, Punctuality, Customer Service and such items. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Treena

Dear Treena,

Determining how to assess employee performance is a very company-specific (and even division- or department-specific) endeavor. Back in the day, companies looked at performance dimensions like Errors and Punctuality, but nowadways, they tend to look more at an employee's performance in terms of quantity and quality of output, teamwork, hewing to the values of the company and, where applicable, long-term or strategic thinking. You've got a great resource in the form of your WorldWIT colleagues, who can share their own experiences creating and using performance evaluation tools in their organizations. Here's my one piece of advice: when you create the new performance-appraisal form, test it! Try it out on a group of willing volunteers who are not actually undergoing performance reviews. Get their feedback on how the form's language could be improved, what elements might be added or changed, etc.

Good luck!
Liz