Civil Rights Reporter, Number 2, January 2022 Page: 4
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EMPLOYMENT MATTERS
Fair, Consistent, and Objective
Erin Humphreys, EEO Compliance MonitorImagine a world where your business has
money to spare and employees to praise. Who
gets a bonus? Everyone? Now imagine that
one employee's work has been less than great
and is on track for more severe disciplinary
measures if their work doesn't improve. I Do
they still get a bonus? If so, what message
does that send to the employee? If you decide
to go ahead and grant the bonus to everyone,
regardless of performance, how will firing that
employee a month later look?
An accurate and honest performance reviews
is the easiest document to point to as
evidence of nondiscriminatory treatment of
each employee. It's also the most prevalent
and easily corrected issue area identified
during state EEO compliance reviews. Giving
employees a bonus is such a positive moment
that it can be hard to see the consequences
of making it rain. It's easy to feel that an
employee deserves something, but the trick is
knowing which employees justifiably deserve
what personnel action, whether that be
promotions, disciplinary actions, or anything
in between.
Making fair, consistent, and objective
personnel decisions requires that both
employers and employees have an accurate
understanding of: (a) what the performance
expectations are; (b) what defines success,
failure, and anything in between; and (c) how
the employee measures up against those
expectations. When done well, performance
evaluations are the best tool upon which to
base personnel decisions. The words fair,
consistent, objective, and accurate will appear
over and over again in this article - if you
can't describe your reviews (given to others
or evaluated yourself) with all four adjectives,
then process and procedure improvements
are necessary to retain quality personnel.
It's just good business to accurately document
every employee's performance. Employees
cannot hope to meet expectations that
have not been clearly communicated. When
clear and consistent expectations are set
for employees at the beginning of theiremployment, both supervisors and employees
are allowed the opportunity to understand
why their performance is exceeding or failing
to meet the requirements of their position.
Providing a realistic evaluation to each
employee gives that employee the feedback
they need to continue to better themselves,
provides an opportunity for a supervisor
and employee to discuss realistic goals and
concerns, and provides necessary information
to a business which will be used to meet or
amend overall business objectives and goals.
When every employee is reviewed on an
annual basis and everything that happened
throughout the course of the year is included
in the discussion (good and bad), each
employee can fairly and consistently receive
what they have earned. Understanding the
rules of the game (the expectations for both
the supervisors and the supervised) can
increase team cohesion and office morale and
reduce unnecessary and expensive turnover.I1
fair ,
Performance evaluations are not meant to be
a negative tool. The performance evaluation
process provides a structured environment
for communication; for supervisors to praise
or correct and for employees to discuss goals,
challenges, and setbacks. While they can and
should be used to justify disciplinary action,
they should primarily serve as a benchmark for
assessing whether an employee is qualified for
a promotion, whether they should receive a
bonus that is available, and as an improvement
plan for an employee who may be struggling.
And if, at the end of the day, one employee
feels that they've been treated unfairly or
been a victim of discriminatory employment
practices, accurately documenting every
employee's quality of work, good conduct,
and disciplinary measures will tell the true
and complete story of an organization's
employment practices.I .
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CIUl RIGHTS REPORTER
6
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Texas Workforce Commision. Civil Rights Division. Civil Rights Reporter, Number 2, January 2022, periodical, January 2022; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1659858/m1/4/: accessed May 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.