Marysville City Council got a lesson on the importance and process of evaluating employees at Monday night’s work session.
Under city code, the council is charged with evaluating the city manager and the clerk of council each year. Human Resources Director Brian Dostanko called them “two of the most valuable people” who work for council.
Dostanko recommended council consider evaluating specific job tasks rather than generic factors.
“Those are a little more tangible,” Dostanko said.
He said that would allow the process to be more outcome-based and “more objective than subjective.”
He said using generic factors can sometimes be “putting a round peg in a square hole.”
Dostanko did tell council that city employees had different evaluation factors except one. He said every single employee is evaluated on whether that person “operates in accordance with core values.”
He told council the evaluation is a process that should begin long before the formal paperwork is completed.
He stressed the first step is knowing the job description and what is expected of the position. Dostanko said evaluators need to look at the standards and the performance plan for the position, not the specific person currently in the position.
He said the position expectations should be communicated to the employee at the beginning of each evaluation cycle.
“Bringing up expectations at the end of the year is very much putting the horse way behind the cart,” Dostanko said.
He said council members should create a diary or a log and record specific interactions and general observations with employees throughout the year. He said that way the evaluation “writes itself” at the end of the year and it avoids a common mistake of valuing things that happened recently over things that happened earlier in the evaluation cycle. He said that by creating a structured diary, it reminds the council members to be watching what employees do and increasing their interaction if they can.
“The key to this is observation,” Dostanko said. “The more you observe the better the process.”
Dostanko recommended the evaluation process also include an option for council members to opt out of scoring certain qualities if they haven’t had any experience observing that from the employee. He said without the ability to opt out, evaluators will default to guessing a certain score and that guess will negate more valid scores.
“What you put into it is what you will get out of it,” Dostanko said of the process.
He added, “you want to try, as much as possible, to look at the job tasking, the expectations you have presented hopefully early in the year, and the job performance as much as possible throughout the years and let the evaluation be based on that.”
Council member Aaron Carpenter said he thinks the group should adopt some job task evaluations in addition to considering the generic factors.
“I think both are important,” Carpenter said.
Dostanko called a hybrid approach “a good idea.”
He said he would send some ideas to council to work on a hybrid approach.
Council member J.R. Rausch said the council president is responsible for the evaluation whether or not any of the other council members contribute.
“It is tough for president of council to do the evaluation if he only has two or three of these,” Rausch said of the evaluation forms.
City Manager Terry Emery said he appreciates the evaluation process as well as the feedback from council members. He did offer some advice about the process. He asked the members to remember that he works for the entire body and has seven bosses, not one.
He said sometimes one council member will have a specific platform or concern that other members do not share.
“If we are not necessarily able to accomplish an item that is important to one of you, take in mind I am balancing seven of you and the needs and platforms and wishes of seven of you,” Emery said. “Please try to keep that in mind as you are trying to work through our evaluations and our strategic plans and our goals and objectives.”