Setting Staff Goals and Evaluation Standards
Sue Seiter, CFRE, Senior Consultant
July 2010

Hiring and keeping good people is the most important task of any manager – TRUE.

Most managers are quite successful at hiring and keeping good people – FALSE.

Why is this so? S&W has found that most managers fail to set expectations early, do not involve employees in setting goals, and neglect to use goals effectively in annual performance evaluations. There are simple ways to change this scenario.

Start with the job description. Be specific in stating your expectations, and carry them into the review of résumés and job interviews. Look for specific indicators that applicants have worked in accountable environments, and select interviewees who can articulate their measurable performance goals and how well they achieved them. It’s easier to hire someone who understands accountability than to teach someone what it means.

It all starts with a plan. In order to make employees accountable, you need to have a work plan that states the goals, the timelines for achieving them and who is responsible. This could be your organization’s operating plan, your marketing plan, your fundraising plan. Revisit the plan at least quarterly with your staff to see how you’re doing. Solicit employee input for revisions and new directions each year.

Build goals together – as a team. Build individual employee goals off the team goals. The more ownership employees have of the plan and the goals, the more likely they will achieve them. Involve employees in the budget-building process for their specific work area – for both revenue and expense. Provide a template for budget-building, but let employees “own” the dollars as well as the plan. This process is time-consuming but the payoff is huge. When employees begin to speak of “my” goal, you have succeeded.

Consider these two goals in employee evaluation of development staff:

• Monetary goals: setting and reaching fund development goals using a well-thought-out plan
• Contact goals: meeting with prospective donors and asking for gifts

Make sure you conduct annual performance evaluation meetings, even if they are not required in your organization. They are good for you and the employee. Thirty days before a scheduled interview, give the employee a blank copy of the performance evaluation form and ask him/her to complete it and bring it to the meeting. Complete your own advance version in pencil in order to make the annual evaluation a conversation, not a fait accompli.

In the meeting, ask the employee to first share his/her thoughts on performance against goals. Share your thoughts next, emphasizing strengths first, then areas for improvement, then suggested remedies. Once again, this process takes time, but it continues to build employee ownership of success on the job.

Should employee compensation be tied to performance? S&W believes it should. There are many ways to achieve this: incremental pay increases based on individual performance, team increases based on achieving team goals, individual bonuses for reaching specific goals.

For fundraisers, the Association of Fund Raising Professionals has a code of ethics that states clearly that ethical fundraising professionals are not compensated on a commission basis for funds raised.

If the culture of an organization is to award bonuses, then all employees should be eligible. Criteria for awarding bonuses should be articulated clearly at the beginning of each fiscal year – bonuses should not be an unpredictable reward system.

Employees who are hired with clear expectations of performance and then evaluated according to goals they have helped to determine are more invested and satisfied staff members. It is well worth the time and effort.

Schultz & Williams is a national consulting firm based in Philadelphia; providing management, fundraising and marketing consulting for nonprofit organizations, along with full-service direct marketing, database and creative/production services.