How to Gather and Use Input from Others in Performance Evaluations

Last updated: August 18, 2021
Estimated reading time: 5 min

Performance evaluations should first and foremost be grounded in what a staff member achieved (their results), as well as how they did it (their approach, skills, and mindset).

Getting input from others who work closely with your staff member can help you flesh out your understanding of their work. Seeking other perspectives is a great way to get a fuller picture of the role your staff member plays in your organizational ecosystem.

Check out some frequently asked questions and our answers below!

1. Whom should I reach out to for input?

你不需要听取每个人的意见，但要争取一个与员工工作最密切的人的代表性样本。这可能包括他们的团队成员、在特定项目上合作过的同事，以及组织之外的人。如果你正在评估的人是一位经理，你绝对应该和他们的直接下属谈谈，以获得对他们管理的反馈。在种族、性别、年龄、任期和其他方面的差异方面，你的团队越多样化，你的投入就越平衡。

虽然您应该知道应该向谁求助，但我们建议在创建列表时向您的工作人员询问意见。

2. What’s the best way to gather input from others?

Be transparent with both the person being evaluated and the people whose input you’re seeking. Tell them what you’re doing and how you’ll use the insights gained.

Sample scripts:

To the people you’re seeking input from:“As part of X’s annual evaluation, I’m checking in with some people about their experiences working with them. I’ll be presenting general takeaways and broad themes based on the input gathered, but nothing will be attributed to specific people (unless that’s what you want).”
To your staff person, if this is your first time seeking input from others for an evaluation:“As part of your annual evaluation this year, I’ll be checking in with some of the people you’ve worked with this year to get a better understanding of your work. When we discuss your evaluation, I’ll present general takeaways and broad themes based on the input gathered.”
Here’s an example of how to present the input:“我和和你一起工作的其他部门的几个人谈过。一般的观点是，当他们有时间和你在一起时，你会非常乐于助人，但有时你可能会反应迟钝。他们提到，你的指导很有用，所以值得跟进，但他们希望自己不必如此追求你。”

3. What if someone’s input is very different from my own experience with the staff member?

With any input you receive, consider two things:

The source:How is their vantage point similar to or different from yours? What are the lines of difference and power between them and the person being evaluated? How are they different from yours and your staff member’s?
How it fits into the bigger picture (including your own observations):Is this feedback part of a pattern? Is it an outlier?

Ultimately, your goal is to use the input to assess the team member’s effectiveness fairly (and accurately) and to support their growth. Keep this goal in mind as you choose how and if to share input.

If you want to pass something along but not weight it heavily, you could say: “I heard a bit of feedback about X. I’m passing it on in case it strikes a chord, but it didn’t come up a lot. What I’d really emphasize as an area of improvement is Y.”

4. What if someone raises something that I feel is important to address but I can’t include it in the evaluation without compromising the source’s anonymity?

If you get feedback that you feel is important but that is outside of your own experience with the staff person, you should try to see the behavior live (such as by shadowing or taking more slices of the work). If it’s not something you can personally observe or if the feedback will be hard to raise without naming the source, try to get their permission to share. Explain that you can’t realistically share the feedback anonymously. Usually, when someone wants to share information in confidence, what they really want is to avoid any fall-out as a result of having talked with you. Figure out what you can (and can’t) do to ensure that they won’t face negative consequences for having spoken with you, and let them know. You can also encourage them to share that feedback directly. Ultimately, you’ll need to decide how important this feedback is for your staff member’s success in their role.

5. What about using 360s?

In our experience, 360s require an enormous amount of energy, particularly if you’re doing them across the board or for a broad set of people. While we don’t recommend them to everyone, there are certainly advantages to 360 reviews. They provide a confidential avenue for staff to provide feedback on their manager or their manager’s manager. The breadth of perspectives can also help the manager spot patterns and trends particularly across lines of difference. There are some cases where 360s could be incredibly valuable:

To inform an important decision, such as whether to elevate a state director to a key national role
To provide input about a senior staff member, such as a director who works with many constituents in the organization, or for a board to get input about their ED

可以考虑的一种选择是，只在获得广泛反馈特别重要的情况下才进行测试，而不是全面地进行测试。

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