10 Easy Ways to Evaluate an Employee’s Performance

If your employees are not “salespeople,” it can be a lot harder to track their work performance.

To find out how others do it, we asked 10 entrepreneurs from the YEC to share what they feel are the most important points to consider when evaluating a team member.

1. Level of execution

”At the end of the day, nothing is more important than execution.”

At the end of the day, nothing is more important than execution. Once you’ve committed to doing something, do you get it done on time and at a high level?

That’s what people on the “A Team” do, and a startup needs A players! There is always a way to prioritize your tasks, be creative, and execute like crazy until you get it done. People who love what they do also tend to execute well.

– Mitch Gordon, Go Overseas

2. Quality of work

”Our most important data point is the quality of work that our employees create.”

In the world of web and hosting, our most important data point is the quality of work that our employees create.

This is measured through regular review of our client deliverables, their role in client efforts, stability of the production changes/platform, best practices, and feedback from the client.

– Michael Spinosa, Unleashed Technologies

3. Level of creativity

”Creativity is one of the most important points in evaluating employee performance.”

Creativity is one of the most important points in evaluating employee performance.

How often did the employee question basic assumptions about a problem and come up with a new solution? Did they think outside of the box and successfully take risks on their own?

By keeping track of the incidents of creative, well-informed risk-taking, we can identify and reward high performers in a meaningful way.

– Dave Nevogt, Hubstaff.com

4. Amount of consistent improvement

”The desire and effort to become better is the most rewardable quality in my eyes.”

Consistent improvement across the board is the most important factor in performance evaluation for me at Marbaloo Marketing.

No employee has the capacity to be truly excellent at every evaluation point on our quarterly review form; however, every employee has the opportunity to improve each day, month, quarter, and year.

The desire and effort to become better is the most rewardable quality in my eyes.

– Faithe Parker, Marbaloo Marketing

5. Customer and peer feedback

”An employee with good customer feedback, even one who is not making sales, can improve.”

An employee with good customer feedback, even one who is not making sales, can improve.

One who has negative feedback will most likely go down in sales over time. Remember that the customer can also be any internal peer who works with, for, or alongside this employee.

– Kevin Henrikson, Acompli (now Outlook iOS/Android @ Microsoft)

6. Sales revenue generated

”The revenue that each employee brings in on a monthly basis reflects overall performance.”

The revenue that each employee brings in on a monthly basis reflects on that individual’s overall performance.

The majority of our company is made up of sales representatives, and they are measured by the total number of venues they sign up to be listed on our site, which translates into how much revenue is made from those venues.

– Jayna Cooke, EVENTup

7. Responsiveness to feedback

”My ideal worker would take feedback and really think critically.”

If an employee is doing something incorrectly, I don’t want to hear excuses or justifications.

However, I also don’t want my staff member to blindly and soullessly adjust to my comments. My ideal worker would take feedback and really think critically, such that he understands why he is being asked to change. Or he has a two-way conversation with me about what is working and what is not.

– Firas Kittaneh, AstraBeds

8. Ability to take ownership

”An employee who takes ownership of tasks and can figure out how to get things done is an asset.”

An employee who takes ownership of assigned tasks and can figure out how to get things done is a great asset.

This is very important for early stage companies, as people who take ownership can help you move a lot faster as they can overcome challenges and remove roadblocks.

– Randy Rayess, VenturePact

9. Percentage of tasks completed on time

”When evaluating the employee’s performance, check their rate of completion.”

Each team member must maintain an up-to-date task list that they can use to monitor their deliverables and measure their progress.

When evaluating the employee’s performance, check their rate of completion and evaluate the quality of their tasks to ensure they are working on things that are in line with the growth of the company.

– Rahim Charania, American Fueling Systems

10. Being on time and on budget

”We track every project and deliverable and determine whether it is on time and on budget.”

We go by delivering on time/on budget. So we track every project and deliverable and determine whether it is on time and on budget. We consider the person responsible’s time as part of the budget.

As long as it’s both, we are good. When it’s not, we discuss.

– Brandon Dempsey, goBRANDgo!