The evaluation conversation is an important part of the HR cycle. Therefore, to conduct these conversations successfully, it is important that you discuss the right topics with employees. Read everything you need to know about conducting modern evaluation interviews here.
Looking for sample questions? 👉 25+ questions to ask for a modern evaluation interview
What is an evaluation interview?
In an evaluation interview, you discuss an employee’s performance, goals and development over a period of time. Together, you look back at someone’s performance and evaluate accordingly.
In doing so, it is not the idea that it is a one-sided conversation in which only the manager gives feedback. For that reason, in recent years it has often been seen as a “judgment call.
But fortunately, there is also an option to conduct the evaluation interview in a modern way.
The purpose of conducting evaluation interviews
Modernizing your evaluation interview goes beyond adding a self-assessment. The goal is to create a open conversation have an open conversation that is focused on development, contributing to the growth of an individual team member as well as the entire team.
You do that by recurring these components:
1. Feedback
An evaluation interview is not only about assessing performance, but also about giving and receiving feedback from both sides.
Therefore, employees also provide feedback to their supervisor and the team through the 360-degree feedback method. In addition, using that method, you gather feedback from colleagues, partners and others in the organization, gathering a broader perspective and making the conversation stronger and more valuable in terms of content.
2. Broad talking points.
Moreover, you discuss not only a person’s performance, in the form of measurable achievements and goal attainment, but also topics such as job happiness, professional growth and career opportunities.
💬 Examples of questions to ask in an evaluation interview can be found here
3. Focused on development
In an evaluation interview, you not only evaluate someone’s performance and each other, but also discuss development.
You discuss:
- Goals for the upcoming period
- Competencies or professional skills that a person can further develop, such as communication skills or knowledge of a software system
Other opportunities for growth and development, as well as obstacles
4. Continuous dialogue
Ideally, you should not plan evaluation interviews just once a year, but make them part of an continuous conversation cycle. In other words, from an ongoing dialogue in which you exchange feedback several times a year.
- 2 times a year a (formal) performance or evaluation interview
- Every month a (informal) 1-on-1 conversation In which manager and employee check in with each other
- In each conversation you discuss skills, competencies and KPIs, but you also leave room for the broader conversation topics from point 2
Tip 💡It helps to already include the skills, competencies and KPIs you want to discuss in your feedback and development conversations in job profiles (Learned also allows you to automate this using AI).
Difference from a progress or assessment interview
The difference between a development interview, an evaluation interview and a performance interview can sometimes be subtle, as the terms differ in different organizations and contexts.
In general, you can distinguish them this way:
Performance or evaluation interview
During an evaluation interview, you assess someone’s overall performance. You usually do this over a period of time, such as a year or six months.
We use the terms performance review and evaluation review interchangeably; as synonyms for the same thing. The manager and employee look back on performance achieved, and discuss future goals, KPIs or targets, skills someone wants to improve, and what behaviors a team member can specifically improve for that purpose.
The goal is to give each other 360-degree feedback and based on that evaluation, discuss any rewards or development plans based on the assessment.
🌟 Looking for examples of a modern evaluation interview? Check out these 10 questions for an open, developmental evaluation conversation
Development Interview
The purpose of a development conversation is to create a plan to improve team members’ skills and abilities, and support their career development.
As the name makes clear, it is a conversation focused on professional development. Managers and employees discuss:
- Strengths
- Development needs
- Career goals and advancement opportunities
- Education or training needs
Assessment interview
In a assessment interview evaluate a colleague’s performance and progress. Usually a supervisor gives feedback on the concrete results or targets someone has achieved, and shares areas for improvement.
You also set new goals for the coming period in a typical appraisal interview.
The difference with a performance appraisal or evaluation interview is that an appraisal interview is more one-way is: traditionally, 360-degree feedback and ongoing dialogue is not reflected in it.
Tips for conducting modern evaluation interviews
Do you want to get started with modernizing your HR interview cycle, then it may be smart to start with a new format for evaluation interviews.
You do it like this:
1. Include feedback from the employee himself (and from colleagues)
One of the most significant changes is the addition of 360-degree feedback. This includes not only the opinion of the supervisor, but also that of colleagues and other stakeholders.
This provides a complete picture of your employees’ performance. This allows the manager to make a more informed and measured evaluation. Moreover, the input from other colleagues creates new insights for both the employee and the manager.
2. Expand the topics of conversation
Furthermore, you can expand the conversation with various talking points.The difference with the traditional evaluation conversation, is that in a modern conversation you not only evaluate someone’s performance or functioning, but also discuss other topics together.
At Learned, we use 5 themes to guide a modern, transparent evaluation conversation:
- job satisfaction
- performance
- development
- learning objectives
- feedback about the organization
👉 Curious about the best questions to ask by topic? Download our template of 25+ sample evaluation interview questions
3. Make the conversation forward-looking
The conversation topics “development” and “learning goals” above make it clear: in a modern evaluation conversation you not only evaluate past results, but also look ahead.
A second development is the addition of questions focused on the future. That way, you make the conversation more actionable and more motivating for employees to work on their development: after all, you still have control over your behavior and performance in the future.
4. Evaluate objectively based on skills and competencies
If you want to measure the development and progress of employees over time, it is important to keep returning to the same talking points in evaluation interviews.
If you then also want to focus on evaluate as objectively as possible, you measure someone’s development by:
- competencies (or soft skills)
- hard skills (or technical skills)
These are the same competencies and skills found in the skills-based job profile because by evaluating on them you create a clear picture of what is expected in a particular job (level) – for both employees and their managers.
Bonus tip 💡 An evaluation conversation should not be the only conversation between managers and employees, but part of several – including informal – conversations in an continuous HR interview cycle.
How do you measure the outcome of an evaluation interview?
You can choose to measure an evaluation interview purely qualitatively.
But if your goal is to make evaluations objectively measurable, you can also assign a score to each of the points you evaluate in the conversation.
There are 3 steps you can take to make evaluations objectively measurable:
Step 1. Score mastery of skills and competencies
In a modern evaluation interview, you also discuss someone’s development – in the form of their mastery of the skills and competencies needed in a job (see point 4 above).
Mastery of skills or competencies is measured by different levels.
And you can easily express your feedback on someone’s skill or competency level in a score, for example qualitatively (insufficient, moderate, adequate, good, very good) or with a grade (from 0-5).
This allows you to give an overall rating at the end of the conversation – giving you a good look at how an employee is performing against the goals and requirements in their job profile.
Tip 💡 To make your evaluation of skills and competencies as objective as possible, it helps to work with a system in which the levels are written out in concrete behaviors.
Step 2. Keep score over multiple calls
By keeping score across multiple interviews, you get a clear picture of employee development over time.
Thus, evaluation interviews offer not only qualitative feedback, but also many quantitative insights that you can evaluate at the end of the year.
Step 3. Use data from evaluations to inform action
Once you hang a measurable score on the points you discuss in evaluation interviews, you collect a lot of data that you can use very well in HR.
The most important action to take based on the data from evaluations is to use the measurements of one’s performance and development as the rationale for fair pay.
In addition, you can use data from evaluation interviews for:
- comparing performance of different team members, e.g., in a 9-grid
- determining development plans
- decisions on promotions and internal advancement
- designating future executives: succession planning
🌟 Want to know more? Read more about the benefits of objective evaluation
Sample form
Want to get started right away on modernizing the evaluation interview?
💪 Start having valuable and forward-looking performance reviews, too! Download our template for a modern evaluation interview here
