As a business owner/manager, it is important to be able to clearly and objectively communicate your expectations and evaluations of people’s performance and development. You also need to justly determine if your individual staff members are living up to job expectations, and equitably reward people commensurate with both performance results and capability development.

In today’s more rapidly changing and demanding organizations, it is even more important to determine quickly and effectively whether individuals are meeting, exceeding or falling below performance standards or expectations. Holding on to a "bad apple" for too long, or not noticing a "diamond in the rough" can quickly and negatively impact a company’s overall performance.

Here are four job categories, and a rating scale you can use to perform this often perplexing task of setting, evaluating and developing your managers and staff’s professional performance.

On a rating scale of 1-5 (5 being the best), to what extent is each staff member:

A. PARTICIPATION — showing up, doing what they are supposed to do with whom they are supposed to do it, and in the ways that they should be doing it?

• HIGH participation (a score of 4-5) means the person is well covering all aspects of their defined position, i.e., not neglecting any job role or function.
• MEDIUM participation (a score of 3) means the individual performs some aspects of their position, but may be neglecting other aspects (e.g., they may be doing the technical or informational part of their job, but neglecting the relationship part).
• LOW participation (a score of 1-2) is for those whose minds and effort are really not focused on the relevant job functions they need to be performing.

B. CONTRIBUTION — not only showing up, but also adding value in their position through continual goal accomplishment?

• HIGH contribution is for the person who always meets or exceeds all their declared job goals (or may miss some for reasons clearly not in their control).
• MEDIUM contribution is for someone who meets or exceeds some goals, yet misses others for reasons within their control.
• LOW contribution is reserved for those who constantly miss their goals, or do not set any.

C. CAPABILITY — developing the work management, people management and self-management skills that the person needs in order to be successful in their position?

• HIGH capability means the person is fully capable at all relevant skills for their management position.
• MEDIUM capability means there is capable in some areas, but may be lacking in others.
• LOW capability is for those who continuously lack critical job-related skills.

D. CHARACTER — showing integrity, initiative and positive intentions in what the person does?

• HIGH character is for the individual who displays impeccable integrity, initiative and commitment towards their work and all the people around them (customers, suppliers, employees, owners, and other stakeholders).
• MEDIUM character is for someone who may have days of high initiative & commitment, mixed in with days of poor attitude & spirit; or someone shows good intentions and commitment towards some people but not others.
• LOW character is reserved for those whose integrity is uncertain, and their initiative & commitment is continually floundering.]

When you add up the points for a particular staff member, you can then determine (and better communicate to them) where they fit overall in the following performance levels:

• OUTSTANDING (or "A") performer: rating "HIGH" in all areas (score of 16-20 points),
• GOOD (or "B") performer: rating "MEDIUM" to "HIGH" across all areas (13-15 points),
• MINIMALLY SATISFACTORY (or "C") performer: rating barely "MEDIUM" across all areas (10-12 points),
• UNSATISFACTORY (or "D") performer: rating LOW or borderline MEDIUM across all areas (below 10 points).

You can also ask individual staff to rate themselves across all the above levels. This way, staff members will be thinking about their own performance and what they need to do to get good or outstanding ratings. This will be especially true if your company’s reward system is tied to these ratings, with better performance levels being allocated higher individual merit increases and organizational bonus incentives. Also, by having both you and individual staff independently rate their performance, and then sharing your respective perceptions, you can have more productive conversations with your staff about performance expectations and results.

In setting performance goals, and developing each staff member for improved performance, ask both yourself and each staff member how he or she can obtain an outstanding rating (4 or 5) for each of the performance categories. Conversely, you can ask each person what stands in the way of him or her achieving an outstanding rating in each category.*

By getting staff members to reflect on the performance categories of Participation, Contribution, Capability and Character, then tying their individual rewards to attained or improved levels of performance, and continually asking and telling them what is needed in order to achieve outstanding performance levels, you can generate the right kind of thinking in the person’s mind and more easily work with them to attain individual and company success. 

*After doing the above ratings of all your staff, you also may want to consider what percentage of your workforce ranks at each level of A through D. Having any "D" performers, or more than a small percentage of "C" performers, can drain your organization’s energy, taking attention away from more important organizational work. As rules of thumb, consider 1) continually investing in your rising star "A" performers with continued development, job enhancement and meaningful rewards; 2) seeing your "B" performers as good corporate citizens, making sure they are well taken care of and kept interested in their work and your company (also consider, and even ask them, what it would take to get them to the "A" level, yet accept that some people are satisfied with getting a "B"); 3) constructively confronting your marginal "C" performers, giving them an opportunity and any necessary assistance to improve, yet making sure there is a clear time limit to "shape up or ship out;" and 4) weeding out your energy draining "D" performers in the fairest and least disruptive way you can.


Harvy Simkovits, CMC, President of Business Wisdom, works with owner managed companies to help them grow, prosper and continue on by offering innovative approaches to business development, company management, organization leadership and learning, and management education. He can be reached at 781-862-3983 or .