Every Human Resources Department knows the importance of having an Annual Performance Review for all employees. A performance review can be done at any time of the year, and preferably is completed at least once every year.
Why is this important for a household employer?
A performance review with your nanny or household employee gives you a chance to review how your employee performs his or her job. This is a great opportunity to praise your employee for the tasks she excels at and provide constructive feedback for areas that still need improvement.
Families who employ a household worker in their homes are encouraged to act as the Human Resources Department and perform an annual review for each of their household employees.
How do you do this?
The following steps are suggested (let's assume you employ a nanny):
- Before meeting with your household employee, review his or her job description and and records such as a Nanny Log for the review period. Review your observations, notes, and the previous performance evaluation. Locate and have ready any supporting information.
- Give the nanny or other household employee advanced notice of the performance evaluation so that he or she has the chance to review and prepare.
- Hold a preliminary meeting with the employee in private. The first meeting should take place before you write or deliver the formal performance evaluation. At this meeting, explain or review what will happen during the evaluation process and review the Performance Evaluation Form. Do this even if you have evaluated the caregiver’s performance in the past. With the employee, review his or her work agreement. Discuss which essential functions will be evaluated for the period.
- Conclude the meeting by scheduling the actual performance evaluation. Invite the nanny to complete the written self-evaluation prior to the next meeting. A self-evaluation may be used as the basis of discussion during the formal evaluation process. The self-evaluation is a valuable tool through which to discover the nanny’s perspective on her performance, as well as to identify interests related to goals and career development.
- Deliver the performance appraisal according to your schedule in private – the kids absolutely should not be present for this conversation, whether the appraisal is good or bad. This quiet, uninterrupted setting allows you and your nanny to focus completely on the conversation at hand.
- Prepare and deliver your core message. This should be no more than two or three areas of strength or accomplishments, two or three areas to work on for improvement, including some brainstorming on how to get there, and one or two clear goals for the next period. Goals can be a simple as potty training, to as difficult as helping Susie become independent doing her homework.
- Remember, feedback matters. The only way for people to get better at what they do is for the people they work for to provide candid, timely performance evaluations. You should provide your nanny with an opportunity to provideyou candid feedback too. If you are chronically late and this aggravates the nanny, be receptive to her concerns.
The performance appraisal is a valuable conversation and exchange of feedback on how the relationship is going and planning for the future direction the relationship will take. It is not a wage review, which is a transaction that determines how much the family will pay the nanny.
Timely Feedback: Performance evaluation time should not be the point at which you begin to document performance discrepancies or deal with performance problems. Families and nannies need to practice good communication skills on a daily basis and provide timely, accurate and specific feedback on a real time basis, not waiting for the once a year performance appraisal process. Ordinarily, no problems should be raised with the nanny during the evaluation that you have not previously discussed with her during the review period.
Things to review:
- Improvements the employee has made since the last performance review
- How is the employee providing valuable impact in your child’s development
HomeWork Solutions has prepared these helpful tools for you and your employee to develop a performance review that works for you:
Vanessa Vidal, FPC
HomeWork Solutions, Inc.