Effective employee evaluations are a crucial part of maintaining a successful business, but if not conducted carefully they can expose an employer to discrimination claims.
“Employers certainly need to have a way to evaluate employees, train them and give them an opportunity to improve,” said McCarter & English LLP partner Hugh F. Murray III. “They need to be able to retain the best employees, and move employees who aren’t going to work out out the door in a way that is legal and…is ultimately good for the employee.”
Keep a Record
Although there are certain aspects of employee performance that a manager can assess quantitatively, such as the amount of money a worker brings in from sales, there are other qualities, such as writing ability or the quality of a presentation, that are inherently more subjective, Murray said.
“The fact that it’s a little difficult to measure I don’t think is a good justification to ignore it,” he said.