Performance Appraisal Interview

For my interview, I interviewed a sales director, Jim, for a computer software company.  The following questions are the ones that my team came up with to ask for our interviews: 

1. How often are performance appraisals done?

 He stated that in his line of work, they are officially done monthly with each employee and also more regularly as needed.  The unofficial and more frequent times are more for the 1s and 2s than the 4s and 5s.

2. What questions do you usually ask?

 As they meet very regularly, these meetings are very brief and to the point.  They go over current sales in the pipeline.  They discuss prospects to getting more into the pipeline.  They look at the sales that were prospects but didn’t pan out and discuss the reasons it didn’t happen.  He said that he also asks what he could do to be a better manager and in what ways he can assist them to make the sales and the money they would like to make.

3. Have you ever had someone become angry during a performance review?

 Jim said that he has been doing this for so many years that there have been some angry employees, but most of the time they are upset with themselves.  He has said that he has only had to have one employee escorted out by security.  Because they meet so frequently, and he said that he makes himself so available to his team, the performance reviews are usually not a shock to anyone. 

4. What do you think is the most valuable takeaway from performing performance reviews?

 The takeaway is that he wants employees to know where they stand.  He doesn’t want anyone to feel blindsided by a decision that is made.  He wants to make sure that everyone knows where they stand with him and the rest of this managers. 

5. How many strikes does an employee get before they are terminated for repeat offenses?

 This is more dependent on the success of the employee, how often the offenses are taking place and what the offenses are.  In sales, things can often be overlooked due to exceptional performance.  So something such as tardiness may be a bigger deal for a new employee or one that is not performing than one that has been a proven salesman month after month.  Leniencies are granted to high performers as an additional incentive for performing.  For most employees, they use a 3 strike system. 

6. Is there an incentive program for reaching the company's highest level of appraisal?

 As all of these employees are in sales positions, the incentive program is essentially their pay structure.  The better they do at work, the higher their paychecks and commissions will be.  They don’t necessarily get anything extra for getting all 5s on their appraisals, but if they are continually receiving 5s and then have a bad month or two, this can and will often times be looked over due to previous high appraisals.  They also do several monthly daily and a few hourly competitions on a regular basis to incentivize the employees. 

7. Is the appraisal same for each employee? Or specific for each person/role?

 The appraisals are similar for each employee, but they are most definitely not the same.  Each employee is different, therefore, each appraisal will go a little bit different.  He does spend more time with his managers than he does with other employees, but that is just “the nature of the beast,” according to Jim. 

8.  Is the employee able to make any suggestions or set goals for the next appraisal?

 Goals are based on set of base standards as well as things such as the employee’s prior month’s sales performance, year-to –date sales analysis, and the prior year’s performance with a given set of accounts.  All of these things get evaluated to determine the desired goals for a given employee, but the employee definitely has input in this process. 

9. Do you believe appraisals are a helpful tool?

 As he stated before, Jim feels like appraisals are a great way to let the employees know where they stand.  It helps them to know where they can improve and the things that they do which are valued and appreciated. 

10. How do you positively reprimand or motivate employees who have poor work ethics or attitudes?

 As this is a very close team and there are constant meetings between team members and management, there would be a discussion about the behavior to work on a game plan to correct the behavior.  There would then be a 3 strike system put in place to help this get resolved.  As this is a sales team, things are not “fair.”  He actually hates the word “fair.”  The plan for one employee is not necessarily the same plan that would be used for another employee.

11. What is the factors that influence if the employee deserves a pay raise and do you discuss this during performance appraisals?

Every employee has their own pay and commission structure based on tenure with the company, base salary and other factors that are determined in regards to the products sold and other factors.  All of the commissions are unlimited, meaning that the amount that an employee earns is 100% dependent on the employee. 

12. What scale do you use for performance appraisals?

 He use a fairly basic 1-5 system to rate the employees on a number of different categories, and then gives an overall score to each employee.  5 is exceptional, 4 is exceeds all standards, 3 is for meeting the standards, 2 is needs improvement, and 1 is for unacceptable. 

13. Do you have employees do a self-evaluation and compare?

 He doesn’t do this every month, but about once a quarter or two times a year, Jim will ask the employees to rate themselves on certain things to get a sense of what they think of themselves.  This is a way to see if he is being clear with his appraisals and to see if they are on the same page as the employees. 

14. Do you do the evaluation by yourself or do you have someone in with you?

 This varies from time to time.  Because he meets monthly with his employees, he doesn’t always meet with another individual, but usually he does.  It depends on what they are going to be talking about and what position the employee holds in the company. 

15. How do you make performance appraisals a positive experience for those involved?

 He likes to keep it short and to the point.  He says that is the most positive experience he can provide.  Also, he is to the point.  He does bring up the things he appreciates about the employee and that they are doing well, but he also lets them know what needs to be improved upon. 

  

After having this interview, I realized that there is a lot that goes into an employee evaluation and the type of team or company will dictate the type or evaluation that is performed.  I think that I always assumed that there were just yearly evaluations and it was mostly to determine if there would be a raise or not.  The type of evaluation scale is similar to what I am used to seeing and what was discussed in our work this week, but obviously different companies look for different things from different employees.  I think that it is good to have a second employee involved in any sort of problem needing to be discussed with an employee.  Also, it nice to see that all employees have the possibility to reach the highest expectations as set forth by the company.  I like that there is a game plan and constant contact and connection made so the employee feels like the company wants them to succeed.  According to this sales director, “it is easier to keep an employee, than deal with the headache of letting them go and then looking for and hiring a replacement.”  Overall, I had a good time interviewing someone involved in the evaluation process at a company and learning more about it.  It is very interesting to see how different companies do them.