Our most recent article was about how to implement an employee accountability program. Accountability programs are important because without them, important tasks can easily be overlooked or perpetually delayed. We recommended to develop job standards, set individual and team goals, track employee progress, hold employee reviews, and follow through on disciplinary action. We also talked about how to use the Doctors CFO Salary and Raise Calculator to motivate your best employees to stay with you. It is an easy way to strategically implement raises or bonuses. The poll asked “When Doing Employee Raises, Do You Use a Strategic Approach, or Wing It?” Most owners are using a strategic approach, are you?
Now we would like to discuss how to do a performance appraisal on your employees. Too often, these reviews are complicated and there is confusion about how to properly evaluate employees. Since you should be evaluating each employee at least once a year if not quarterly, these performance reviews should be concise and objective. In other words, the employee should be able to use the form to evaluate themselves. If the form is objective, there will be fewer arguments about how well they think they are doing their job opposed to how well you think they are doing their job.
Below are our recommendations for a performance appraisal form:
Use Quarterly Objectives
- We recommend having a maximum of three (3) objectives (but only 1 or 2 is preferred) on where the employee can improve.
- Limiting to 1 or 2 will focus the owner and employee to immerse themselves into developing the most important skills that the practice needs.
- These objectives should aim to get the employee a higher score on their next appraisal and increase the practice results.
Use Three Categories to Describe Where They Are with Your Expectations
- The categories should be simple “Above Expectations”, “Meets Expectations”, and “Below Expectations.
- If there are more categories than this, it makes things too gray and there will be confusion on where to rate the employee.
- If someone is doing the job as you expected, then they should be assigned “Meets Expectations”. If they are going above and beyond, that is “Above Expectations”. Only award, “Above Expectations” if it is truly exceeds what is expected.
Have Written Descriptions of What Expectations Are
- Explain what depicts “Above Expectations”, “Meets Expectations”, and “Below Expectations” for each point of discussion.
- Being concise here will save you from misunderstandings and arguments.
- Having a written description of what the expectation was will help you answer the question “Did this employee do this?”
Have Ten or Less Items on Your Appraisal List
- Choose the important things to rate your employees on.
- Some examples include : Attendance, Patient Experience, Quality, Teamwork, Marketing, Certification, Communication, and Organization.
- Lengthy appraisals will distract away from what is really important.
Use a Point System
- Assign points to the three categories so that they can get a comprehensive score.
- If the scored above expectations, they get 2 points. If they met expectations, they get 1 point, and if they were below expectations, they get 0.
We have found that many owners over complicate their performance appraisals, making it difficult and timely to rate the employee accurately. Employees will be more receptive if the appraisal is simple and objective. The appraisal should guide you to answer questions on where the employee is at with your expectations. There should be no argument on the score they received because this appraisal will be unbiased.
Below is a link to the Doctors CFO “Employee Appraisal”.
https://zfrmz.com/OyO9UYrm96lfjgxsDMTe
To participate in our poll this week, please subscribe to our mailing list and follow us on Instagram. “Who Fills Out Employee Performance Appraisals in Your Practice?”
The reason we are publishing these articles is so that your office can increase its success. We appreciate your feedback on how we can help you more and love it when you pass these articles along to other practice owners and office managers.
Developing a management report is not easy and Doctors CFO currently has a robust model for most practice types that is customized for our monthly and bi-monthly clients. If you have questions on how this model applies to your practice or you are interested in applying the Doctors CFO model in your practice, via one of our annual, bi-monthly or monthly assessments, please contact us.
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