You sifted through applications and resumes, interviewed a number of people, and, finally, you made the decision to hire a particular applicant. With all of the effort you put into hiring and training a new employee, it’s important to establish several employee evaluation metrics with which to measure your employees’ performance as they grow in their position.
But where to start? Sure, attendance is important and so is hygiene, but once the basics are out of the way, how else should you evaluate employee growth? We have a few metrics that we find helpful.Efficiency
This is a pretty self-explanatory metric. It’s important that employees meet deadlines and ensure that tasks are completed the quickest way possible without sacrificing quality (see below). Of course, once an employee has established themselves, it’s easy to see whether they are consistently in their work or not. But how can you judge efficiency at the beginning when a new hire is still in training?
If you’re using a digital training platform, the answer is simple: track their training progress. Whether you track training video views, documents completion, or tests passed, you can keep track of how well employees are meeting the time limits to complete certain training courses and how quickly they’re completing the programs.
Quality
Naturally you want a fast worker, but you also want to see evidence that they’re a good worker. Does their work meet or exceed company standards? Do they get it right the first time or, more importantly, do they learn and grow from their mistakes? (Nobody’s perfect, right?)
You can gauge this performance metric through inspection, customer feedback, and success with online testing, if your company uses them as part of the training program.
Initiative
Now we’re past the basic metrics for judging employee success and it’s time to get into more intrinsic qualities that are not necessarily “make it or break it” for employees, but will help to determine whether one employee is suited for advancement over another.
We find that initiative is a good indicator for employee success and it’s helpful during performance reviews. Does your staff member go out of his or her way to complete tasks before they are asked directly to do so? Do they offer to take on projects above and beyond what is asked of them? These are the types of qualities that you want to seek out in workers.
Innovation
Another metric to consider when evaluating employees is their eagerness to innovate within the company. It’s important to note that innovation does not have to be something grandiose in order for it to be important. An employee may notice a small change in a process reduces the time it takes to complete the task. Whether they share that information with the rest of the company or not is what to focus on. A staff member’s willingness to share innovation indicates more than just a keen mind. It demonstrates their engagement with the day-to-day operations as well as their understanding of the greater purpose of tasks. It also shows their degree of involvement with the organization.
Look for innovative employees on all levels and embrace their attitude.
