This document discusses best practices for monitoring employee work performance. It recommends that supervisors conduct periodic checks to evaluate performance against standards in order to provide feedback and opportunities for improvement. Ideally, employees should have input into developing their own monitoring plans so they feel ownership over the process. Monitoring can take various forms depending on the job, such as reviewing work samples, observing activities, or getting feedback from others. The goal of monitoring is improvement, not catching employees doing something wrong, so supervisors should communicate its purpose and focus feedback on strengthening performance.

1. Work performance review
Monitoring involves conducting periodic checks to determine an employee's level of
performance in relation to established performance standards. Monitoring provides
the data by which performance is ultimately evaluated. It is important for the
supervisor to monitor the employee's performance, not only to be able to conduct the
performance evaluation itself, but also to be able to reinforce good performance or
attempt to improve unsatisfactory performance soon after it occurs.
Ideally, the nature and frequency of monitoring should be proposed by the employee.
In this case, the employee will have ownership of the process. It makes a big
difference to the supervisor-employee relationship if the employee proposes that the
supervisor simply show up to observe performance (say, in a customer service
setting). Then when the supervisor appears, the employee will understand and accept
the supervisor's presence.
However, if the supervisor unilaterally decides to observe the employee's performance
without any preliminary discussion, there is a strong possibility that the employee
could perceive the supervisor's presence as harassment.
As a result, if there is some reason why the employee should not be involved in
determining the monitoring plan, it is still imperative that the supervisor advise the
employee.
Monitoring can take several forms, depending upon the nature of the performance that
is being appraised. Wherever possible, it makes sense to use existing systems that will
not add work steps for either the employee or the supervisor. Some monitoring
approaches include:
(1) Reviewing work, either total output or samples.
(2) Observing employee work activities.
(3) Reading reports, charts, time sheets, work records, or logs, etc.
(4) Self-reporting on progress by the employee.
(5) Surveying other units, the public, or clients of the services.
(6) Noting and investigating complaints and commendations.
Some monitoring will be ongoing, designed to detect performance problems in the
early stages. This might involve, for example, checking work samples or observing
employee activities several times a day or several times a week. Other monitoring
may be at more widely spaced intervals, either regular monthly or quarterly reviews,
or on an occasional random basis.

2. Generally, new job or task performance requires more frequent monitoring than
recurring work done by an experienced worker, as does follow-up monitoring of less
than satisfactory performance.
To allow the supervisor to effectively counsel and appraise the employee, monitoring
should be exact and the results should be recorded. However, this monitoring should
focus on the performance of the key responsibilities for which performance standards
have been established.
Monitoring should be conducted throughout the evaluation period, with the supervisor
noting observed employee performance that meets, exceeds, or falls short of the
established level for acceptable performance. The supervisor can then review these
notations at the end of the evaluation period to make an evaluation of the employee's
general performance of each of the key responsibilities.
Supervisors should communicate the purpose and intended frequency of planned
monitoring activities to the employees. The emphasis of the monitoring should be on
the improvement of an employee's performance, not on trying to "trip up" the
employee to show the employee in a bad light. If poor performance is the issue, and
counseling and remedial training have not been effective, then the supervisor should
initiate progressive discipline rather than maintaining a frequent monitoring review
that could be construed as harassment.
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