‘Don’t leave them in dark’
after working at the bank for fi ve or six years, the english management decided that it was time for me to manage one of the bank’s branches. i was given the fahd al-salem branch, the biggest and most important at that time. the challenge was big and scary. after almost a week or so, i received a big packet from the head offi ce, marked in red ‘private and confi dential’. when i opened the packet i found inside the performance assessment forms which had to be fi lled and returned for the management to determine the salary increments and promotions. since i was new at the branch, i requested the higher management to give me some time to know each employee better. i read the form and i was annoyed at the idea because during my entire career i did not know what the management wanted from me and i did not want to subject the staff at the branch to face the same dark atmosphere or ignorance which i had experienced. i summoned the staff and showed them the annual performance form which i had to fi ll and return to the management for assessment. i also told them that i have a one-month deadline to complete the task. the news soon reached the head offi ce and the management blamed me for disclosing one of the secrets of concerning the ‘personnel affairs’, but i defended my position and the management i had to convince them of what i had said. there is no doubt the requirements of any department or organization vary from job to job, and there is no model of an assessment form that can be adopted. at the bank, for example, it is important that the employee has to be elegantly dressed, has good behavior when dealing with colleagues and clients, have to be creative in his work and accurate in performance. however, all these things may not be required of an employee handling different types of jobs such as a laboratory worker, a technician, pharmacist, site engineer, doctor, etc. but all share a single assessment factor related to the need of each of them whose performance has to be monitored and followed up by their respective superiors. the monitoring is needed, the more effi cient the employees are, they become more praiseworthy and deserving. if we look at the employees in many institutions, including the government, of course, we will fi nd a few of them know how to evaluate their performance, and what is required of them in order to gain the satisfaction of their superiors. here we are not talking about the fl attery or use of mediation. this cannot be left at the mercy of each institution because this job falls within the scope of the civil service commission which has to design detailed performance assessment reports for each party commensurate with the nature of the work. it should also allow the employees to read these reports to be aware of the criteria of assessment and not leave them in the dark.
