Published in the June 21, 2017 edition
By MAUREEN DOHERTY
LYNNFIELD — The Board of Selectmen is advancing an initiative to develop a performance evaluation tool and process for department heads in town.
Selectmen Chairman Chris Barrett gave a first reading of his draft proposal on the subject at the board’s June 12 meeting for discussion and review by his fellow board members as well as Town Administrator Jim Boudreau.
Boudreau will be meeting with various department heads in town this week to discuss the proposal and gather their input. Boudreau commented at the board’s meeting that such a tool will only be effective if the department heads are given input into its development and implementation.
Boudreau added that not all performance areas proposed to be evaluated in the first draft would apply to all department heads. For instance, he noted that one part of the evaluation process discusses the department head’s success in reaching out to and engaging the public, but department head positions such as the Town Accountant do not require the employee to engage the public in order to be effective in their job and therefore, this should not be viewed in a negative light.
In areas that do not apply to a specific employee’s role, a field has been added enabling the supervisor to check it off as not applicable (N/A).
Barrett acknowledged that “the ultimate responsibility for evaluating department heads will fall upon Jim Boudreau.”
Self-evaluation is key
Barrett also noted that this tool is “goal-oriented” and starts with a self-evaluation process which he described as an “opportunity for them to look into their strengths and weaknesses and areas where they can grow, and out of that will come their goals and their objectives.”
Under the draft proposal, the self-assessment requests the department heads to describe their accomplishments and goals during the previous year that were both related to their planned goals and objectives and those that were not related to those goals and objectives. It asks: “What do you regard as your most significant strengths and how do they assist you in achieving these goals?”
The department head is asked to describe factors that “aided you in accomplishing your work” and factors that were “impediments” as well as any suggestions to “correct problem areas.”
The draft also requests the department head to “describe areas of your performance that you have determined are in need of development and growth” as well as listing goals and objectives in the coming year along with “priorities and timelines.”
The self-assessment portion concludes by asking: “What services, under your leadership, does your department provide that you may feel is undervalued or unseen by the larger organization?”
Under the Department Head Performance Review Form, a scale of 1 to 5 is utilized ranging from (1) unsatisfactory, (2) improvement needed, (3) meets expectations (4) exceeds expectations and (5) excellent/highly commendable.
This scale, along with an added selection for “not applicable” is suggested to be used in evaluating eight areas: personal characteristics, professionalism, public relations/communications, Town Administrator support/relations, community leadership, organizational leadership/personnel management, financial management, and planning and organization. Each area consists of a series of questions along with space for written comments.
The draft evaluation concludes with an overall rating and space for the evaluator to include “comments, recognized strengths and areas for improvement.”
“I think it’s a great start for what we said was one of our main objectives for this year,” commented Selectman Dick Dalton. He added, “It’s pretty detailed and any human resources professional looking at this would be impressed. As Jim (Boudreau) mentioned, the self-assessment portion is very important to have a meaningful dialogue between a supervisor and an employee.”
Selectman Phil Crawford agreed. “I think it is great to get into this process. We’ve talked about this for the past year of bringing in some evaluations of department heads.”
Crawford complimented Barrett on the amount of detail he included in the seven-page document and noted that having been involved in interviewing the town’s main department heads over the past four or five years, including the Town Administrator, this is a tool that could be adapted to assist in the hiring of new employees in the future.
Barrett pleased with support
Barrett told the Villager after the meeting, “I have been working with the Town Administrator to develop an effective performance evaluation tool for him to use when evaluating town department heads. I’m happy my fellow board members fully supported the performance evaluation tool proposal and excited that this was another important goal accomplished by the Board of Selectmen.”
He continued, “As I’ve said before, the Board of Selectmen will lead by example by demanding continuous improvement at all levels, starting with the selectmen. I intend to use suitable parts of this tool to evaluate myself as a chairman and a board when we reflect on the progress of our goals and objectives in the spring.”
“The board will use this reflection time to determine effective progress on our goals and then we will use input from the board and residents to develop our next set of goals and objectives for the following fiscal year,” Barrett said.
