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When Your Employee Disagrees With Their Performance Evaluation

Hands pulling rope to opposite sides

Performance evaluations serve a clear purpose – to measure performance, set goals and expectations, and ensure both employee and manager are on the same page.

It’s not rocket science.

But what happens when an employee disagrees with your evaluation? Not just a little bit, but all or most of it?

As one of the leading staffing service firms in Phoenix, PrideStaff understands it can certainly be an awkward situation. But as a manager, there will be times when you have employees who aren’t living in reality. It’s your job to bring them back down to earth. Here’s how:

Try to reach a common view, but also be firm about your authority.

If your employee doesn’t agree with you, then it’s important to find out why. Ask questions and truly listen to their issues and concerns. Make an effort to hear your employee out and strive to reach a common view of the situation – to a point. It’s also important to make sure your employee understands that you are the final decision-maker.

Don’t try to convince your employee that you’re right.

If you do, you’ll spend hours going back and forth. For every example of a performance issue you bring up, your employee will to try to explain it away and you’ll get absolutely nowhere.

Instead, communicate what the issue is and why – and then move the conversation onto what needs to happen going forward. Get specific about actions and behaviors you’ve seen – and what you’d like to see instead.

Be prepared to diffuse tense talks.

When you’re giving an employee constructive feedback – and they don’t agree with it, things can get tense, fast. That’s why it’s important to be prepared to diffuse the situation with phrases like: “I hear what you’re saying and I understand why you see things differently. But ultimately I really need you to improve X, Y and Z.”

One final point – if an employee won’t sign off on their performance evaluation, give them an option. Ask them to write a response to the appraisal and why they disagree. This way, even if you don’t have their signature on the actual evaluation, you do have a paper trail in the event the employee is let go in the future.

Do you need help finding top performing employees for your team?

Call the staffing experts at PrideStaff. As one of the leading staffing service firms in Phoenix, we can assist you with every aspect of hiring – so you find exceptional people who can deliver the results you’re after. Contact PrideStaff today to learn more about how we can help you.

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