Great Ideas for your Small Business: Ask Your Employees to Evaluate You
Good managers are trained to evaluate their employees carefully at least once a year. These formal, written evaluations are used for giving raises and promotions or documenting problems prior to termination. But great managers should be confident and open enough to reverse roles and let their employees evaluate them once a year.
Asking your employees to rate your performance is not as scary as you’d think, and you will gain valuable insight. In addition, human resources experts say that most unhappy employees quit rather than complain about their manager to their manager, so soliciting honest input from your staff may prevent a valuable employee from leaving. Providing an open forum for comment will benefit you and the company in the long run.
The simplest way to collect honest feedback is to create a short evaluation form and ask employees to submit it anonymously.
Here are some suggested questions for your staff’s evaluation:
1. How would you describe my management style:
- tyrannical
- open to new ideas
- rigid and uncompromising
2. Do I bring out the best in my employees?
- yes
- no
- sometimes
- please elaborate ………..
3. What can I do to improve the way I manage the company?
Please comment and provide specific suggestions: ………..
4. Would you recommend that friends apply for jobs here if their skills fit our needs?
- If yes, why? ………..
- If no, why not? ………..
5. Do I praise people publicly for their good work?
6. Do I criticize people for poor performance in front of colleagues?
7. What is the best decision I’ve made this year?
8. What is the worst decision I’ve made this year?
9. How would you have handled the problem with ……….. differently than the way I did?
On the form, request that responses are returned to you by a specified date and remind employees that there is no need to sign their names. After you review the comments, schedule a staff meeting to discuss their suggestions for improvement and how you plan to respond.