Developing Job Performance Expectations

1. Why bother spending the time developing performance expectations?

The 5 point rating scale is defined in terms of expectations.

On what basis can an evaluator tell if employee performance is below, has met, or has
exceeded expectations?

The first step is work together with the employee to define expectations.

While employees are supposed to take the lead in defining “tasks, deadlines, or products”
(column B) on the evaluation form, supervisors have an important role in reviewing and
modifying them to ensure the needed work gets done.

If the employee has not developed a complete and concrete set of expectations, the supervisor
should work with the employee to do so.

Research has shown that many employees in all sorts of organizations do not know what is
expected of them. Lots of unexpressed assumptions lead to conflict in performance evaluation.

Clear expectations developed and communicated near the beginning of the performance period
help to:

• make evaluation fair to employees

• keep evaluation job-relevant & defensible
• make the evaluator’s job easier and less stressful

2. What are performance expectations?

• Derived from job duties or responsibilities

• Can cover competencies/skills, behavior, results

• The more specific the expectation, and ‘objective’ the measure of its achievement, the easier
it is to assess and the more likely evaluator-employee agreement

3. What are the characteristics of good expectations?

• SMART: specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timebound

• Describe what conditions exist when performance meets expectations
• It’s a matter of “metrics”

4. Setting specific expectations is also a form of goal setting

Goal setting is a well-supported theory of performance improvement

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5. The three basic types of ‘metrics’ for expectations:

Timeliness

Turnaround time
Deadlines
Planning milestones
Deliverable dates

Quantity

Proportion completed in timeframe

Dollars involved
People or organizations served or affected
Products produced (How many reports/articles? How many interviews?)

Quality

To specification or standard (e.g. APA format, University procedures, grantor requirements)

Key characteristics of expected products
‘Customer’, student, client satisfaction/acceptance/relationships
Course/seminar/conference evaluations
Peer perceptions/peer relationships
Quality of publication outlet (e.g., peer reviewed or not)
Effective use of resources
Within budget
Manner of behavior
Consistency

Discussion of expected results in terms of these metrics also provide ‘evidence’ substantiating
evaluation ratings.

6. Look at examples & suggest specific expectations