I'm featuring a question from a reader today, which I do when I believe the question will be interesting for other readers. Your thoughts for this reader are welcome.
Reader Question:
"Here's a question on how to handle a situation I am in.
"I am 7 months overdue on my annual job performance evaluation. I work in healthcare. I have gone to HR which promised me a month ago that something would be done asap. Well, nothing has come forward from my director. What do I do next? Am I also due additional compensation for waiting so long?
"Money that would have come to me and my family, if on time, could have gone to many good uses: college education, payment of bills, a dinner out, a small vacation, etc."
Answer:
Sounds as if you work in an organization where the performance evaluation process is linked to raises. That's unfortunate because thousands of employees experience exactly what you are experiencing nationally every year.
Your boss does not have to give you a raise at all unless you have a contract that requires one. (If you are a union represented employee, talk with your union rep.) Making the raise retroactive will also be up to your organization. You can ask that it be made retroactive to the original appraisal due date, but whether and when you get raises is not up to the employee.
I'd go to your boss and say that you had hoped to have an increase in wages this year and it appears that can't happen without a performance evaluation. Offer to write or help write the performance evaluation to save her/him the time, energy, and work. You may also go back to HR for an update.
Supervisors avoid performance evaluation for a variety of reasons, including that they are "too busy" but the fundamental issue is that most really dislike doing them in the traditional way.
They are not employee or boss friendly: Performance Appraisals Don't Work.
More About Performance Evaluation
- Performance Management Is Not an Annual Appraisal.
- Quick Start Learning Guide to Performance Management.
- Powerful Performance Management: Email Class.
Image Copyright Dieter Spears
I work at a company where HR is running 6 to 8 months behind on everybody’s performance reviews, and all of our reviews are tied to bonuses and wage increases. Frankly, most of us don’t see the point, after a certain time, of getting feedback in 2013 on events that took place in 2011, but more to the point, even though we get a check containing the lump sum of the retroactive pay raise, that is money that many of us had in some way included In our annual budgets for this year, and we have no idea why performance reviews are running so late and so far behind, but it has definitely caused financial hardship for a number of the lower paid staffers. Management seems completely indifferent to both the situation itself, which means that unless they finally get caught up, performance reviews are always going to be 6 to 8 months late until the cycle is broken or they stop doing them altogether, and they are also unaware of the hideous effect that this is having on employee morale.