Employee Evaluation: The Right Attitude

Now ladies and gentleman, please don’t be too fussy about the way we evaluate your personality and performances as Ma Chung staff. The method has been designed very well to generate an objective, valid, and reliable measurement.

The evaluation is called 3600 evaluation, which means that you will be evaluated by more than one person, and the evaluation will be done more than once (once in every three months, as I heard). In addition to your superior, other staff members will also evaluate you. This will cancel out any subjective evaluation from any one of them. In other words, this technique ensures that a particular employee is being evaluated as objectively as possible. Any subjective evaluation which may come from one or two colleagues wont matter much, since the other colleagues will very likely come up with a more objective evaluation. Coupled with multiple evaluation, that is, once in three month, this makes a very reliable assessment system.


This brings us to the importance of informing all Ma Chungers the criteria and the scoring technique that are used to evaluate them. This is what HCD has yet to do. Such information will promote fairness, openness, and trust from all Ma Chungers. They know what criteria they are evaluated against, along with the scores, the scoring technique and the weightings. More importantly, HCD has to provide at least a rough guideline about how each score (from 1 to 7) corresponds to a particular behavior. What kind of behavior should deserve a 1? Or 2? Or 7? If this guideline is at least communicated to all Ma Chungers, a ‘wild’ interpretation like “I only give 7 for a perfect person,”, “7 is only for God” won’t come up.


A man suggested that an employee who performs poorly in most of the 12 Ma Chung characteristics but excels in one of the characteristic be transferred to another unit which may fit his or her outstanding skill. No way. The instrument of 12 Ma Chung characteristics is about personality, not cognitive prowess or technical expertise. If you score low in this instrument, the message is simple: your personality has been widely perceived as bad. Despite your genius mind or excellent technical prowess, as a person you suck, period. Regardless of the unit you are transferred to, you will likely be a pain in the neck for others, because your personality is simply annoying.


Another question: will Ma Chungers be judged by their personality only? No, of course not. That’s why some other measures are being devised which encompass your personality, your professional skills, and, if you are a lecturer, your Tri Dharma achievements. So it’s a very elaborate, thorough, all-round evaluation. Each will be evaluated in almost all aspects. This means: you have a greater chance to prove that you are a kind person, a smart and hardworking staff, and, if you are a lecturer, a lovable teacher, and a potential scholar.


Then a rather silly question: who will evaluate HCD? Oh, puh-leazeee; only God is the only being not to be evaluated. I mean, look at Patrisius. He was subjected to the very instrument he designed, scoring only 69 in the last semester, but then racking up to 82, 89, and 92 this semester. So, (1) HCD must be evaluated, too; (2) Patrisius’ case is exactly what I call “positive washback effect” in testing: the more you realize you are being evaluated, the harder you push for better and better performances.


Having said that, I would like to underscore the importance of reviewing the instruments regularly. We at DPM routinely evaluate our own instruments on the basis of suggestions and even complaints from lecturers and students alike. Some items may have to be dropped because they are confusing; some items may have to be reworded so as to make them clearer; some may have to be added because the standard demands so, and on and on. Constant reviewing is vital.


If the evaluation system runs well, you can be sure that in the long run Ma Chung will employ high-quality, capable and amiable staff and lecturers who never stop improving their personality and professionalism from time to time.

Ma Chung rocks!