Re: performance evaluations Garry Church 02 Jun 2003 13:53 UTC
Evaluation is a double edged blade. You can have a very indepth evaluative process in an attempt to quantify the result, but it involves a lot of work for the evaluatee in addition to the long process of evolving the instrument and evaluation procedure. Having become in the past a state certified evaluator for public schools, I learned a lot about what was touted as a carefully calculated process by school districts - used by the evaluator to do what they wanted, since observation is for the most part quite subjective. Here in this community college, being on the committee for the evaluation process revision this year, they copied a the evaluation procedure of a community college in St Louis. This is a very top-down oriented administration. They wanted something they could use for their own purposes. It is in depth, covers many areas, has many layers, and to me it appears not to be in the evaluatee's best interests. In many ways it is too easy to be used in a punitive way, rather than a positive way. The again, many of the committee members seemed dot have the attitude of 'how can we get rid of someone we don't want?' I was at another university library where we had to do an extensive portfolio of our accomplishments every year, and also fill out a form, and had peer review as well. Despite the very intensive aspect of this preparation, the director basically responded however s/he felt - regardless of the portfolio. The director was quite subjective. It was an awkward experience and the amount of work didn't justify the outcome. I was at another university where they used a very short one page form. The evaluator came and observed each person, had a short conference in the evaluatee's office. Very straight-forward, fair, and to the point. Personally, I appreciate a short form, non-peer review, frank and to the point. IF you are in a big organization, one should make acheivements known, but if you have the proper environment, everyone will be achieving in similar ways, and their won't be the need to toot your own horn. If improvement needs to be made, it will be clear. If satisfactory, it will also be clear. The most important thing is to be in a communicative and caring environment, to have a good rapport with the person who hired and supervises you, and to have an administration that is more concerned with keeping and developing its employees than cutting out the 'dead wood' (why were they hired to start with?). It seems to me having been in different kinds of organizations, the expectations of admin need to be known, and admin needs to be supportive. The best place I have worked it was easy to see supervisors and supervisor's supervisors. Information was readily communicated up and down the chain. Job descriptions were clear and things were handled best at the informal stages. Good planning and good admin decreases the need of extensive hoops to jump through in the evaluative process. Garry Church Periodicals and Circulation Librarian Laredo Community College Laredo TX. -----Original Message----- From: Bolton, Karen [mailto:bolton@MSOE.EDU] Sent: Friday, May 30, 2003 10:41 AM To: SERIALST@LIST.UVM.EDU Subject: performance evaluations Hello, We are a small engineering library at a college, and we are looking at improving the performance evaluation process we have to use here. Administration has all departments use a one-size-fits-all two-page form with a lot of weaknesses, which we have to fill out ourselves, before having our director evaluate us. There must be a better way. I am hoping other academic libraries out there can supply us with a sample of what they use, or a URL to the website where they have their evaluation form. What would they change about the process or form if they could? Do YOU have to do a self-evaluation, and is this a worthwhile pursuit? Any advice on this is welcome, since it looks like we will be redesigning our form, if not the whole process. Karen Bolton Serials Librarian bolton@msoe.edu Milwaukee School of Engineering Walter Schroeder Library 1025 N. Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202-3109