Working at several different companies, and visiting uncountable others, I have already seen a lot of methods for evaluating people at work. Using spreadsheets or sophisticated softwares, these companies try to measure the achievements and behavior of the employee.
Measure the employee behavior is nonsense! Try to give a score to someone, to evaluate communication, attitude, commitment, or responsibility. I did not know any person that liked to receive less than the maximum score. Which means that evaluating people using score for behavioral competences is just a way to depress people at work. Unfortunately, several Human Resources Department, from small to big companies, force the managers to use this kind of unreasonable method. In some cases, you have to have a previous dossier to be able to dismiss someone of the team that is not playing well.
What to do? In my experience, people used to be afraid of the evaluation day, because they don’t like to have a behavior scanner pointing out their deficiencies in a dashboard. So, the system I like to use is very simple, and effective. Choose two competences where the person is really good, and say to the employee that he (or she) is good, and how important is to keep the good job.
Take the biggest issue related to the employee, like human relationship, communication, sense of urgency, or whatever the issue is, and illustrate with examples telling that is a competence with room for improvement. Get an agreement about that, and ask for a plan on how he (or she) will work for getting better. This is much more productive than just giving a score to people, because you focus on what is really important and, instead of stress, creates a start for a significant change.
The Best Way to Evaluate People at Work Ever! Even though I agree that the moment of formal evaluation can be useful, in an annual (or semestral) basis, there is something unbeatable and irreplaceable, the daily “face to face” relationship between you and the member of your team. You, as a manager, looking everyday at the employee’s eyes are able to know who is doing well, who is committed, who is working hard, and who is really playing in your team. So, nothing better than the day by day relationship for you to get to know who is who.