Volunteer performance evaluations

MaryJ · July 2002

I currently have a verrrrrry long annual performance evaluation form for those good people who volunteer at our hospital. I am looking for a much shorter one. Does anyone have any ideas or have one they can fax to me?

Margaret Morford · July 2002

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 07-30-02 AT 12:27PM (CST)[/font][p]I have a short, easy front and back one-pager that I created for clients with large, non-exempt work forces. It has a numerical scale overlayed on five performance categories so that you can show improvement without signifiantly changing the overall performance rating. It rates the individual in six categories:

Quality of Work
Quantity of Work
Interpersonal Skills
Job Knowledge
Iniative
Attendance and Punctuality

You can weight the importance of different skill categories to emphasize certain skills. I'm guessing that Attendance and Interpersonal skills would be the most important to you and would need to be weighted the heaviest. I'll fax it to you if you provide me your fax number.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]

MaryJ · August 2002

Thank you very much in advance for your evaluation form. My fax number is 337-462-7440.

Mary Jones

Don D · August 2002

MaryJ: I have a flip side just for the sake of discussion. My mother is a volunteer at a local hospital. She is 80. Her couple of days a week pushing people in wheelchairs and cheering folks up at the hospital with about 20 other 'old volunteers' is the highlight of her life, and their's. I would have a personal aversion to her or her peer volunteers being given a standard written performance review. There are other ways for them to be given feedback. I would think the typical volunteer is of a generation that did not grow up with written performance reviews and would find them a bit intimidating, if not frightening. These good people are already intimidated enough and uneasy enough in a worksetting full of young people without being presented with an evaluation form. If the form, however, is very toned down and elicits only comments that will result in uplifting the volunteer, that would be a good thing. However, our HR world today revolves too much around things like: Recommendations for improvement, Weaknesses, and items that are Quantified (i.e. reinforces to the volunteer that they are no comparison to the younger staff). I really think that the best way to give other than positive feedback to volunteers is in a very, very private setting and not in writing. I may be way off base and I know my opinion has a personally biased slant; but, its just a thought. I'll be interested to see what you guys out there in hospital settings have to say. Don

Don D · August 2002

I was really looking forward to more input on this one. C'mon, those of you in settings with volunteers!

njjel · August 2002

It would be an insult to our volunteers to present them with an evaluation form! If a volunteer isn't working out.....so be it let them go as gently as possible but to do evaluations???? I agree with Don.

Sally · August 2002

I also work for a not-for-profit. Most of our volunteers are older (have been retired a few years) and we rely on them a lot. When there is a problem with their "job performance," their supervisor either gently points out the problem, or if that doesn't work steers them to another project that might be easier. They save us a considerable amount of time and money, and we wouldn't want to insult them by telling them we were going to start conducting a performance evaluation. [Not to mention the fact our House Manager has an entirely volunteer usher corps of 75+ people. She'd have a devil of a time completing that many!]

HR Beginner · October 2002

Our state and federal regulations REQUIRE us to complete annual evaluations on our hospice volunteers. Therefore, we don't have a choice. They are considered "unpaid employees." They have also completed a 30-hour volunteer training course before they can begin to work with our patients and families.

Yes, I agree it is very hard to evaluate dedicated workers who are giving their time, but I can also see it as a valuable tool if handled correctly. Yes, we have had volunteers leave because they didn't like the "rules" but that's the minority. Most appreciate the feedback.

I don't know how "good" our evaluation form is -- I created it myself -- but I'd be glad to fax it to anyone that would like to see it.

Rodney · October 2002

To start, I am going to agree with Don.

Having been in the arena of performance reviews for a number of years (both internally and externally), I have in the last couple years come of the mind that performance reviews should be eliminated. Basically they just upset (to be mild) people and may cause you to get a lower level of performance from people. I do not believe that only 10% of the population is outstanding. I think the comment of provide "feedback" is key. Give both positive and negative at the time it is needed. If you need to ask someone to leave, to so without damaging their ego.

Actually, I think in the future they will cause more and more problems than resolve. This will need to be addressed. Those who are smart enough to begin now will be ahead.

I recognize that they are tradition and that is a very difficult thing to break. If you wish to read more about this, check out "Abolishing Performance Appraisals" by Cohen & Jenkins.

I am especially in agreement they should not be used on volunteers. If a form or rating is needed, write on a piece of paper that they are or not meeting expectations.

HR Beginner · October 2002

I am in agreement that evaluations do more harm than good -- for volunteers as well as employees. Everything that I have read teaches that these "tools" need to be done away with. How can we get the "powers that be" who REQUIRE them to understand this? I'm going to read the book previously mentioned here and begin my argument! Thanks! xclap

Volunteer performance evaluations

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