Job Evaluation, the Responsibilities of the Job

¶ … job evaluation, the responsibilities of the job must be understood. A friend works as a tour guide at a museum. There are a number of different responsibilities for this job. The first is to guide guests around the museum, so there are elements of this task including having good customer service, being knowledgeable about the museum, answering questions and providing a good visitor experience. My friend also gives tours in American Sign Language, so should also be evaluated on her ability in that form of communication.

The performance plan includes a number of metrics, both qualitative and quantitative. The number of tours given without complaint and the total number of complaints are two of the quantitative metrics, along with attendance statistics. There is also a qualitative evaluation that is done where the supervisor goes along on one of the tours in order to evaluate performance. This includes a checklist of items such as key talking points, directing the group to the gift shop, answering questions and general demeanor.

The design of the performance evaluation is as follows. The evaluation is conducted in a face-to-face meeting. This is conducted at the end of the summer season, as the work is seasonal for most employees. For full-time guides the evaluation is done once every six months. The supervisor first covers off the quantitative measures, and these account for 25% of the evaluation. The supervisor then covers off the qualitative measures. These derive from the tour the supervisor took, from customer feedback and from general observation. This component of the evaluation is worth 75%.

For my friend, the attendance record was considered to be perfect. There was one day missed, for illness, but it was called in and therefore is not considered to be a day missed. There were no lates during the evaluation period. There were no customer complaints recorded. There were three compliments that were officially noted, which is around average. Two of these were from hearing impaired customers, who noted their pleasure that a hearing person would have such proficiency with ASL. This is important because the supervisor cannot evaluate the content of the guide's tour when it is conducted in ASL, so this feedback allows the supervisor to get a sense of the guide's abilities with that customer group.

The qualitative evaluation is generally positive. The guide's demeanor has been recorded as excellent. According to checklist measures, the guide was generally informative, had a moderately high level of knowledge about the exhibits, smiled frequently, demonstrated a high level of patience, and was noted to have remembered all key talking points. The guide directed visitors to the gift shop on all observed occasions.