Performance Evaluation: Competency Proficiency

Performance Evaluation: Competency Proficiency

There are countless ways of evaluating employees on their proficiency in a competency. We’ve identified three options with varying degrees of complexity that will all provide workable results. In each of the options we use a five-level scale:

§ Greatly Exceeds Expectations

§ Exceeds Expectations

§ Meets Expectations

§ Occasionally Meets Expectations

§ Unsatisfactory

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Competency Evaluation Options

Option / Advantages / Disadvantages
Option 1 / § Requires relatively little effort to implement / § Doesn’t permit specific assessment of the key elements within the broad competency definition.
§ Rating Scales don’t permit the specific assessment of the key elements within the broad competency definition. Consequently, inter-rater reliability cannot be expected to be high.
Option 2 / § Relatively easy to implement but does require that you identify the key elements of the competency. / § Assessing each key element requires supervisors to spend a bit more time on the evaluation process since they are expected to give thoughtful consideration to the ranking of each key element separately.
§ The rating scales offer little guidance to the rating supervisor on how the rating levels differ from one another.
Option 3 / § Utilizes Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) which minimize the subjectivity of evaluating employees on competencies.
§ Provides both employees and supervisors with the common yardstick to use in evaluating performance. / § Developing good BARS can be time intensive and difficult work.
§ Evaluators find the evaluation process very tedious. Even when the statements are concise, reading through the BARS for four to six key elements for seven or eight competencies is tedious.
§ Evaluators may become frustrated by the fact that concisely-worded BARS still do not accurately describe observed performance.

Evaluating Competencies – Option 1

The simplest evaluation plan involves rating competency proficiency in very broad terms. The sample evaluation form below requires an assessment against the broad definition of the competency.

Option 1 Sample Competency Evaluation Form

Evaluating Competencies – Option 2

Option 2 involves rating proficiency on each of the key elements of the competency. The evaluation form is designed to require the supervisor to assess each key element on the five-level rating scale as shown below.

Option 2 Sample Competency Evaluation Form

Evaluating Competencies – Option 3

Option 3 also involves rating proficiency on each of the key elements of the competency. In order to minimize subjectivity, you can use Behaviorally Anchored Rating Scales (BARS) to describe the range of performance levels for the key elements of a competency, as illustrated in the sample form below.

Developing good BARS can be time intensive and difficult work. A focus group of employees and supervisors familiar with the job begins by describing the range of behaviors observed within each of the key elements of the competency. Those examples are aligned with the rating scales, and rewritten into concise statements.

Option 3 Sample Competency Evaluation Form

Communication: Clearly conveys and receives information and ideas through a variety of media to individuals or groups in a manner that engages the listener, helps them understand and retain the message and invites response and feedback. Keeps others informed as appropriate. Demonstrates good written, oral, and listening skills.
Key Element / Greatly Exceeds Expectations / Exceeds Expectations / Meets Expectations / Needs Development / Unsatisfactory
Organization and Clarity / Conveys thoughts and ideas so as to avoid misunderstandings. Communicates with needs and expectations of audience in mind. / Conveys thoughts clearly and concisely / Has difficulty expressing thoughts.
Listening Skills / Listens with demonstrated understanding and empathy. Thoughtfully explores topic as appropriate / Listens actively and attentively and asks appropriate questions / Fails to listen and share feedback
Keeping Others Informed / Continuously fulfills all knowledge requirements of supervisors, co-workers and others. / Keeps supervisors, co-workers, and others well informed / Fails to share important information or passes on trivia
Written Communica-tion / Communications are error free, have positive tone, and seem professionally written. / Communicates well in writing / Written communications are unclear, disorganized, lack substance; contain grammatical and/or spelling errors
Sensitivity to Others / Continuously tailors communications to match the listener/s; uses appropriate style, level of detail, grammar and organization of thoughts to actively engage the listener/s. / Consistently sensitive to cultural, gender, educational and other individual characteristics when communicating with others / Insensitive to cultural, gender, educational and other individual characteristics when communicating with others
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