Evaluate the Performance Appraisal Training

 To evaluate the effectiveness of a performance appraisal training program, Ben Dattner, Ph.D., president of Dattner Consulting in New York City, recommends that HR professionalsreview the comments on employee performance appraisals before and after training. “How prescriptive or descriptive are they?” he asks.

HR professionals may also select particular metrics to monitor before and after training, such as employee engagement or retention, since employee engagement is heavily dependent on employees’ relationships with their supervisors. For example, at Orkin, a pest control subsidiary of Rollins Inc., four strategic business metrics are tracked: employee retention, customer retention, sales revenue and profitability.

Orkin also conducts an annual employee satisfaction survey. “Survey results tell us how our employees feel about the performance of the company’s managers, supervisors and home office departments, and give us insight into the success of our performance management execution,” says Craig Goodwin, senior director of Rollins University, the company’s corporate university, in Atlanta.

The author, a former HR generalist and trainer, is a freelance writer in Wixom, Mich.