5 cornerstones for an evaluation system that works

If we value the maxim “Get what you measure” we must agree on the need to equip every company –of any size, and in any sector, it operates – with an appropriate measurement system to achieve the objectives set.
So, if you want to gain competence from yourself and your people in the company, an evaluation system is the measurement tool that must accompany you in achieving competence.

What is the purpose of a skills assessment system?
To look at what a person does, their actions, there are three drivers to consider:

1. what enables its actions in structural and organizational terms, tools and structures that the company provides the resource to allow the work to be carried out
2. what the person knows and/or is skilled at doing
3. motivational energy that supports behaviors.

That is, the synergy between the notions we possess, the structural enablers to their existence, and the drive to translate all of this into a practice aligned with business objectives.

Why measure them?
Today, the competitive factor is represented precisely by human resources and the behaviors they act daily. And if knowing and knowing how to do it are two fundamental prerequisites of action, a periodic and structured assessment of the skills we have constitutes a valuable growth tool for the company.

If the applied method is solidly structured and with a precise focus on a single, clear result, little changes the place of application of the methodology: whether it is a process industry –with thousands of employees– or a small/medium-sized enterprise with a few dozen resources, up to the service company.

And the differences in organizational context don’t stop at the size and type of business: there are companies that need to implement a new skills assessment process, and companies where a skills assessment system is present and consolidated, with its benefits and challenges.

Different companies and profoundly different need that, however, have a point of contact in the need to achieve the same result: to grow people, thanks to a clear focus on the actions, behaviors, and habits that guide actions within the company.

An evaluation system is installed to achieve the advancement of resource skills in the company. If this purpose is clear and shared, in each company, the method can be the same – albeit customized according to size and other distinctive factors.

1. Focus on resource growth

This must necessarily be the only reason to set up an evaluation system.
We must not fall into the error of believing that the system serves to “reward” or “punish” people – which, if anything, is one of the consequences of its installation; the difference is subtle but greatly guides the development effort of the new process and the characteristics it will assume.

2. High facade validity

The instrument that will be created must be valid for the person who will use it, adequately to measure what it is intended to measure, but above all in the context in which it will have emerged, in this case, in the department in which that competence will be measured. How to do it in the company? The main methodology for making a system valid in the eyes of the people who will use it is to involve them directly in its creation. This avoids the effect of a system “lowered from above”.

3. Measurement-oriented scale

Measuring means obtaining a score that is as objective and relevant to what I observe. This avoids judgment, the label associated with performance which, often unfortunately, has a negative characteristic: being highly subjective. It’s easy, in fact, for rating scales to be interpreted differently by the evaluator and the recipient; to avoid this risk, rating scales must be created that come as close as possible to truly quantifying competence. This is the intent to pursue to avoid some methodological flaws (e.g. a star scale to assess people’s competence or medals ranging from bronze to gold).

4. Award unrelated to evaluation

Combining evaluation aspects with pecuniary reward – which will always maintain a subjective, albeit minimal, character – is very dangerous. If I give out rewards by anchoring them to something discretionary, there are many unwanted behaviors that can be evoked. Therefore, the reward part is not eliminated – because the award is useful for motivating and incentivizing people – but it is necessary to avoid what is subjective in the evaluation and instead use objective and parametric data that capture the performance of the resources: results and objectives.
The skills assessment system often goes hand in hand with the performance assessment system, and there an economic advantage can also be linked to the results obtained.
This way, we can be much more objective in measuring and delivering rewards based on the results.

5. Measure everything you want to achieve

The combination of technical and transversal skills (also called hard and soft) is well known, an important driver available to guide the growth of organizational culture. Culture, that is, that set of seemingly intangible rules that we try to materialize through corporate vision and values.
How can we make people experience the values and corporate vision that too often resolutions hanging on the walls? How did we try to spread them outside of passive corporate communication and visual campaigns?
Discussing this during evaluation interviews, when the manager shares what they expect from the resource in terms of the values experienced within the company, adds strength and effectiveness to the value set that defines and distinguishes a company.

The implementation of an evaluation process in line with these cornerstones lays the foundation for achieving the following benefits:

• Clear and valid skills for the role and not for the individual (front validity is a cornerstone of the system to make people perceive extreme objectivity in the assessment of skills)
• High perceived objectivity
• Data-driven rewards
• Less fear of evaluation (for both the evaluator and the evaluated)
• Simplicity of communication between evaluator and evaluated
• Greater impact on hot topics (for example, the value structure)