Why Not HR?

njjel · October 2005

Our organization is doing evaluations of managers for the first time in years. HR had no input into the format or for that matter the set up at all. The employees are being asked to fill out an evaluation form for their own manager. We have about 68 employees who will be asked to fill out these evaluation forms. In your organization, who would be the person that these filled out evaluation forms would be sent to have appointments set up for review with upper management?

Now that i have asked the question I will go further and let you know that in my organization they are going to an administrative assistant in Administration becasue they say she is "neutral".

Your thoughts please.

Java HR · October 2005

An outside source would be helpful and impartial. There are consulting companies that can help.

This would help your employees evaluate their managers more honestly.

You need to make sure there is no retribution for the comments an employee makes about their manager.

I have always seen HR departments handle this, not an admin. You should have a trained eye.

AJ SPHR · October 2005

Absolutely agree with Java - an external third party should compile and collate the data. I believe it's the only way you'll get honest feedback from employees, when they know the responses won't be individualized and seen by internal folk as coming directly from them.

SMace · October 2005

My suggestion would be to look at the project- process, paperwork, follow-up, etc. Find areas where you can help the process and offer whoever is in charge your assistance.

When they decline, sit back and watch it blow up in their face. Hopefully they will remember your suggestions and offer of help and they may ask you to sit at the table next time.

These type of things are very delicate and IMHO, they regularly fail because they are not set up properly and followed through. It's similar to the boss walking in and announcing that everyone is now on a team. Then they walk away and everyone is standing around wondering what to do.

Are your managers ready to receive this feedback? How do you think they will react? If you have any immature managers, it's going to be anger and denial. If they've never had it before, you are going to have some BIG issues to deal with.

crawfod · October 2005

I'm not a fan of subordinates evaluating supervisor's performance. Waaayyy too many issues. At this point, however, I'd at least ask my boss why HR was not consulted on this project.

It's not real clear to me what this Admin Asst is supposed to be doing. If she is simply compiling all the questionnaires' data into one summary sheet, that's probably okay. Or, if she's simply setting up review sessions for somebody to sit down with each manager and go over the results, that's probably okay. Anything beyond clerical duties should be handled by someone else, and that's what I'd tell my boss, plus warning him/her that this project has employee/manager relations trouble written all over it.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Gillian3 · October 2005

I agree with third party administration, especially because of the potential for problems. Be thankful you are out of the picture - you don't want more reasons for managers to avoid HR. Having an administrative assistant work on this is silly - it downgrades the importance of the process - not because of the person but the position, but because he/she may end up being a target.

CindyG · October 2005

Due to confidentiality issues, I would not have the administrative assistant compile the reviews. I would have the review forms go directly to the manager (whether it's the Company President, CEO, Operations Manager, etc.)in charge of the managers/supervisors who are being evaluated, or to HR. Hopefully if the employees know that upper management will be seeing their reviews, they'll feel that their views will be valued and be honest and forthcoming in their responses.

I would think it might get expensive to use a 3rd party every time you need to perform this type of 360 review.

2445428 · October 2005

An Administrative Assistant really should not be handling this matter. This is a delicate matter, to put it mildly, and may cause someone (probably HR) a lot of grief in the long run. I believe a supervisor should do a formal evaluation once a year on every employee they supervise. Then I believe the supervisor should meet with each employee and review the evaluation. But don't stop here! Instead have the President, Owner, speak to each employee about their evaluation and about other matters the employee feels is of concern. Believe me, if you have a supervisor who is not performing up to par, it will come out.

njjel · October 2005

Thanks for the input. I share your views. I did ask my supervisor why they were not coming to HR after i wrote the forum and was told that some of the managers (who apparently had input on how this process would work) felt that HR would be able to give "punitive" input to upper management if I saw them first, but that the administrative assistant would be neutral. She is collecting the resumes and setting up the evaluation interviews. I too feel these are confidential issues here and that to add another layer to the process is not wise. It is disappointing to me that upper management didn't have enough confidence in me as their HR director to advise the managers that they value the input of HR! To me this reinforces my feelings that upper management does not support this position and that is quite sad.

Craig D · October 2005

It is
>disappointing to me that upper management didn't
>have enough confidence in me as their HR
>director to advise the managers that they value
>the input of HR! To me this reinforces my
>feelings that upper management does not support
>this position and that is quite sad.

I would agree with you about the disappointment. Has upper management felt this way about previous HR people or is it new? If has always been this way i would start to look for new employment. If it is since you have been in the position I would ask them why they feel the way they do and than make a decsion about my future.

Why Not HR?

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