Must Employees Be Evaluated Annually?

[NikkiQSM]

This may be a very silly question - but with my re-certification (ISO 9001:2008) coming up next week I wanted to ask to be safe...

Do employees HAVE to be evaluated annually?

I can not find that the standard says that - but I am almost positive one of my last auditors told me that we should be. I was under the impression that we were as well....

A little background - we are a medical plastics compounder. We have 9 extrusion lines - each extruder is different in its out-put, speed, technology, and size.

The way evaluations work for the operators of the extruders is:

When the Production Manager feels that the operator is proficient in operating an extruder - the employee is signed off. This bumps their pay level up. The more extruders a production employee masters, the higher pay they get.

But if an employee wants to stay on one extruder they will have the same pay until they learn another...

During this time, that employee will not be evaluated.... unless he wants to learn a new extruder...

Are we breaking any rules with this process?

Theoretically that employee could remain un-evaluated for years if he or she doesnt want to learn another line.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

 

[Ninja]

Only if your own company procedures require it.

Check out your HR and/or finance procedures relating to employee compensation...what have you required of yourself?

 

[insect warfare]

This may be a very silly question - but with my re-certification (ISO 9001:2008) coming up next week I wanted to ask to be safe...

Do employees HAVE to be evaluated annually? <snip>

Hi Nikki,
If your Production Manager is making these types of decisions (as you say) based on what they observe of the employees, then these employees are being evaluated, by definition - regardless of the decisions taken. The nice thing about ISO 9001 is that it does not specify a frequency for evaluations, which gives your organization flexibility to define your own requirements.

As far as your initial question goes, the best answer I can give you is "evaluation need only occur as often as it takes to ensure that adverse effects do not occur on the job". So no, this does not need to be done annually, just periodically. Explain this process to your CB at your next surveillance audit and (provided you can produce appropriate records to demonstrate effective evaluation and show that it is effective) you should be OK, IMHO.

Brian

 

[Stijloor]

This may be a very silly question - but with my re-certification (ISO 9001:2008) coming up next week I wanted to ask to be safe...

Do employees HAVE to be evaluated annually? <snip>

ISO 9001:2008, Clause 6.2.2 Competence, training and awareness, requires that your employees are competent. How you ensure competence is your company's decision. It does not require "yearly evaluation".

Your external auditor is making up rules. Tragically, when (often incompetent) auditors open their mouths, companies interpret that as something "we must do."

If your employees are competent to perform their assigned jobs safely, effectively and efficiently, you're good to go!!

 

[NikkiQSM]

Thanks Everyone!!!! That is good to hear

 

[J0anne]

I agree with everyone else.

Employees do not have to be evaluated annually, unless you have an internal procedure that stipulates an annual evaluation.

The next time an auditor says you should do something, if you're not sure why, then ask him/her to show you where the requirement is.

And no questions are silly.
People who don't ask questions are silly.

 

[Chennaiite]

A little background - we are a medical plastics compounder. We have 9 extrusion lines - each extruder is different in its out-put, speed, technology, and size.

The way evaluations work for the operators of the extruders is:

When the Production Manager feels that the operator is proficient in operating an extruder - the employee is signed off. This bumps their pay level up. The more extruders a production employee masters, the higher pay they get.

But if an employee wants to stay on one extruder they will have the same pay until they learn another...

During this time, that employee will not be evaluated.... unless he wants to learn a new extruder...

Are we breaking any rules with this process?

Theoretically that employee could remain un-evaluated for years if he or she doesnt want to learn another line.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Generally it's the Organizational needs that decide Competency needs and it's the Competency needs that decide training needs. In this case, it appears to me that individual needs i.e. pay hike decide the training needs. I am not saying it is inappropriate as yet, but I would suggest you to introspect the whole competency management system and ensure that it works for your Organizational needs and not just for the individual needs.

I wouldn't write off your auditor easily - the devil's in the details. I think in general an auditor has all the reasons in the world to make an observation or even a non-conformance if the system is perceived inadequate.

 

[Helmut Jilling]

This may be a very silly question - but with my re-certification (ISO 9001:2008) coming up next week I wanted to ask to be safe...

Do employees HAVE to be evaluated annually?

I can not find that the standard says that - but I am almost positive one of my last auditors told me that we should be. I was under the impression that we were as well....

A little background - we are a medical plastics compounder. We have 9 extrusion lines - each extruder is different in its out-put, speed, technology, and size.

The way evaluations work for the operators of the extruders is:

When the Production Manager feels that the operator is proficient in operating an extruder - the employee is signed off. This bumps their pay level up. The more extruders a production employee masters, the higher pay they get.

But if an employee wants to stay on one extruder they will have the same pay until they learn another...

During this time, that employee will not be evaluated.... unless he wants to learn a new extruder...

Are we breaking any rules with this process?

Theoretically that employee could remain un-evaluated for years if he or she doesnt want to learn another line.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

The annual Evals are not required by the standard, because, logically, if an operator is competent running his machine in 2013, why would we have to evaluate whether he is still competent in 2014?

But, I am concerned by two things in your post. How does the Production Manager "decide" a person is competent. That would be a good time to take a formal checklist and verify the person has met all the skills identified in a competent manner. It should not be a general approval. Secondly, I was uncomfortable with the impression they are not being monitored and mentored during the period they are learning the new machine? That would not be very beneficial.

 

[somashekar]

Must Employees Be Evaluated Annually?

Is the employee's competency good enough on a continual basis. Is there a need that the employee understands and performs certain additional things as he grows up in the organization by the years he has put. Is his learning and performance effective.
These need not be annual and these can support his pay hikes even though his work scope does not change. I am sure there is something more than just learning extruder or not learning a new extruder.

 

[Helmut Jilling]

Is the employee's competency good enough on a continual basis. Is there a need that the employee understands and performs certain additional things as he grows up in the organization by the years he has put. Is his learning and performance effective.
These need not be annual and these can support his pay hikes even though his work scope does not change. I am sure there is something more than just learning extruder or not learning a new extruder.

The requirement is that you identify the skills and competencies needed for each position. If you use that as a tool, you can determine which competencies should be verified (evaluated) periodically, and which are sufficient once they have been determined. And, your records should show that.

For example, you might evaluate whether I have basic language and shop math skills. There is no need to reverify that every year. But, other things may not get used much, and you might want to recheck. And some things must be retrained every few years to meet government and OSHA regulations.