Yearly evaluations create barriers for employees and leaders, with employees experiencing fear of judgment and apprehension towards the process and employers feeling the task is tedious and time-consuming. Incorporating routine feedback and quality checks creates valuable partnerships with employees and opportunities for professional development and enhances the yearly evaluation process.
Education is built on regular assessment opportunities so that instructors can confirm lessons are connected, identify needed areas for growth among their students, and demonstrate to the students and the institution that learning has occurred. Assessment is often viewed as limited to major projects and examinations but should be a regular part of the class rhythm to ensure learning throughout the school year. These best practice examples of assessments are not about judgment or just the numerical grade at the end; that focus limits the student to just surface-level learning. Instead, assessment should be observable, measurable, and appropriate for the grade level. Based on this starting point, why do so many staff and faculty members use evaluations that judge quality rather than assessment to develop quality? Why do higher education practitioners not use best practices with one another?
There are several barriers that can be part of the yearly evaluation process, beginning, really, with the name itself invoking judgment and isolation within the academic year. If student grades were based solely on their final exam, they might experience months of apathy followed by a few weeks of terror. On the other hand, the faculty member has to ensure that everything in the term is somehow encapsulated in one document. An impossible task on all sides. And then, for employees, there can be the added pressure of evaluations being tied to potential salary increases, or even loss of employment. The potential for an honest conversation is lost to fear and pressure on one day of the year.
Within the Academic Success Center, we have developed a different model that brings together best practices from student assessment to create a feedback loop for coaches throughout the year. Through weekly quality checks and monthly one-on-ones, coaches and leaders are in consistent communication about areas of strength and opportunities for growth. The routine connections minimize the pressure on both sides to fix everything or cover everything. Our regular monitoring creates and establishes expectations for the entire team. And our model is adaptable and applicable enough for any context to implement into their team rhythms.