How to evaluate your healthcare employees

You don’t have to be an expert in HR (that’s what we’re here for), but if you’re trying to run a successful practice, you need to empower your employees and help them succeed. Part of that process includes routine HR evaluations.

An HR evaluation form is essentially a performance management tool used for assessing, celebrating, and sometimes course-correcting the performance of your team. Admittedly, these kinds of evaluations can lead to some uncomfortable conversations, but they can also reveal some great opportunities for both you and your employees. After shaking off that initial awkwardness, a good HR evaluation can take your practice to the next level.

If you haven’t gotten your copy of our free HR evaluation form template yet, grab it right here so you can follow along.

How to fill out your HR evaluation form template

• Employee information. This part’s pretty straightforward: name, position, department, etc. Consider adding tenure, salary details, or other essentials if you’d like to look at the biggest picture possible.
• Evaluation period. Define the timeframe for the review. Is it annual, semi-annual, or quarterly? Clear timelines make for effective evaluations and help you compare apples to apples.
• Performance criteria. Here, you can measure performance as it pertains to your practice or focus on patient care. Use consistent criteria, but leave a little wiggle room for assessing specific roles – the performance criteria for a triage nurse isn’t going to look the same as that of a receptionist.
  • Work quality. This can refer to patient care, of course, but may also be used to measure how well admin tasks and other duties are performed. For the sake of clarity, use a simple scale of 1-5 before diving into the details.
  • Productivity. Measuring productivity can be subjective, objective, or a mix of both. Refer to your employee productivity report template so you can accurately measure how much is really getting done.
  • Professional development. Making progress towards goals is more than marking off checkboxes. Consider how your employee has worked toward building their career and supported your practice.
• Feedback. Your feedback should be honest and thorough, but constructive so employees can take the kind of action that moves your practice forward. Treat this evaluation as a conversation to keep your employees motivated and focused on success.
• Goal setting. Everyone has room for improvement, and here’s where you can strategize these goals. Discuss and document the employee’s aspirations and how you plan to get them there. Set goals using the tried-and-true SMART technique for targeted growth.
• Acknowledgment and planning. At the end of your evaluation, you and your employee should sign off to confirm that the review was completed in a fair, compliant, and constructive manner.

HR evaluation best practices

As in all things HR, compliance must come first. This means keeping feedback private, unbiased, and relevant to job-related criteria. It’s also best practice to review the latest labor laws and regulations to make sure you stay in the right lane.

Keep it all constructive, too. When you speak with your employee about their evaluation, leave plenty of opportunity for questions and self-reflection. This is about growth, so it’s always a good idea to provide resources like training opportunities, professional development plans, and your employee handbook.

After reviewing everything, create an action plan to follow up on achieving new goals. You may wish to schedule regular follow-ups to make sure progress stays on track.

Throughout this entire process, you’ll want to find the balance between identifying actionable specifics and using language that’s broad enough to be interpretable by you, your employee, and HR or compliance team.

Making the most of your HR evaluation form template

Our template provides a good jumping-off point, but the real value lies in tweaking it to fit your practice and your employees’ specific roles. You can adjust the performance criteria, make your own definition of success, and move timelines to best fit the situation.

Approach evaluations as a two-way street. Remember, this isn’t about ticking off boxes or fault-finding – it’s about exploring ways to better your employees and your practice.

This form may be a bit of a blank slate, but you can use this as an opportunity to really get in there. Showcase the ways in which your employees are excellent and help fill in the gaps in their skills. This is not the time to be vague.

End the evaluation with clear, actionable steps using those SMART goals. This is about setting up your team for success, so plan another review to make sure those targets are getting hit.

HR for Health is here to help streamline performance management

We’re not going to sugarcoat it – performance evaluations can be stressful. That goes for both you and your employees. We’ll make it easier for both of you with a performance management system that’s meant for human beings. Get your demo to see how we do it while keeping you compliant and headache-free.