---
title: "The Basic Sequence for Distributors to Assess Employees"
description: "During normal work, companies must assess employees' actual work status and results to determine performance pay and promotions. Assessment is divided into two levels: behavior and attitude, and work quality and results. This article focuses on the work level. Traditional assessment methods often set targets from the start, but this can lead to negative cycles. The proposed sequence is: first assess technical skill mastery, then standardized execution, then work results, and finally innovation."
author: "潘文富"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2018-01-05"
language: "en"
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# The Basic Sequence for Distributors to Assess Employees

> During normal work, companies must assess employees' actual work status and results to determine performance pay and promotions. Assessment is divided into two levels: behavior and attitude, and work quality and results. This article focuses on the work level. Traditional assessment methods often set targets from the start, but this can lead to negative cycles. The proposed sequence is: first assess technical skill mastery, then standardized execution, then work results, and finally innovation.

During normal work, companies must assess employees' actual work status and results to determine performance pay and promotions. **Assessment is basically divided into two levels: one is behavior and attitude; the other is work quality and results themselves.** Here we focus on analyzing the assessment at the work level.
In traditional assessment methods, from the moment an employee joins, tasks are assigned and assessment targets are set, especially in business roles, and then corresponding assessment bonuses are calculated based on actual completion.
Objectively speaking, if employees have a high completion rate and high performance results, their assessment scores will naturally be high, and their personal salary will rise accordingly, sustaining their work enthusiasm, thus forming a positive cycle. Conversely, if the quality of work is poor, assessment scores are low, and income is naturally low. Low income puts employees in a depressed and negative state, making them less confident and passionate about future work, thus falling into a vicious cycle.
Bosses naturally hope employees enter a positive cycle, but in actual work, most employees often fall into the vortex of a negative cycle: low income, no enthusiasm for work, and just muddling through. Why does this happen? Often, the problem lies in the design of the assessment method.
**Current assessment methods are mostly led and formulated by the boss, naturally based on the boss's ideology.** In the boss's view, setting a work result standard for employees, as long as they meet it, they get the corresponding salary. If they exceed it, they get even higher pay—more work, more pay, isn't that fair? Furthermore, bosses tend to assume that employees, upon receiving high income, will definitely find ways to complete tasks. Then, by setting up a few examples of high-income employees, they further stimulate all employees—problem solved!
From the employees' perspective, it's not that simple. The boss demands assessment based on work results in one step, but work results are the outcome; before that, a lot of process is needed. Only with process can there be results. These processes include confidence in work, familiarity with work, and learning and application of relevant skills. However, these are not considered now; **directly demanding results in one step is too strenuous for employees and easily dampens their work enthusiasm.**
Assessment mechanisms, like other management mechanisms, should integrate the wishes and actual conditions of both bosses and employees. Some things cannot be one-size-fits-all or achieved in one step; they should be advanced gradually. After all, employees are not machines; they need guidance, cultivation, and training.
Simply put, we can consider setting an assessment sequence, adopting different assessment focuses at different stages of an employee's tenure. The structure is as follows:
1. **Stage 1: Assess employees' mastery of professional skills**
After new employees join, there must be a learning process, whether it's establishing a centralized training mechanism for new employees or simply having senior employees mentor them. It's important to emphasize that we cannot assume new employees' professional skills are already in place and that they can start working immediately—that's impossible! At least, each company's operational and management characteristics need to be relearned. Therefore, bosses must establish the concept that after new employees join, their initial task is to learn, familiarize themselves, and master relevant professional skills, without expecting performance results during the learning phase. This learning period can be one month (at least) or three months. During this time, new employees are not responsible for performance results, and any work they handle is for practice and familiarization.
Since the task assigned to employees is learning, the assessment should also be about learning, such as familiarity with various situations, and the learning and practical application of professional skills. This can be assessed through exams, practical drills, etc. The purpose is to ensure employees are familiar with relevant situations and have mastered the corresponding professional skills.
From a sequence design perspective, new employees should first master professional skills, which is a necessary prerequisite for later performance output.
2. **Stage 2: Assess employees' standardized execution ability**
Strictly speaking, every task in work should have a standard process, such as how to make phone calls to customers, how to establish customer files, how to arrange terminal shelf displays, and what preparatory work is needed for promotional activities. Without clear standards, employees will interpret and execute according to their own intentions, using their own standards, leading to chaos and inefficiency, and causing significant internal friction. Therefore, companies must establish standard processes, and unified ones at that.
After establishing standard processes, the next step is to guide employees to execute work according to these established standards. In fact, doing these execution tasks well means doing the process work that leads to results.
Whether employees follow the company's established standard processes in actual work can be the focus of the second-stage assessment. At this stage, the focus is on assessing standardized execution ability (process), with a small proportion of results-based assessment points, or no consideration of results at all. The assessment period can be controlled at 2-3 months, mainly considering that it takes time for employees to go from receiving standards to forming execution habits.
In fact, as long as the standards set by the company are reasonable and employees can do the process well according to standards, how bad can the results be?
3. **Stage 3: Assess employees' work results**
Under the premise that employees can execute work according to the company's established standard processes, then assess their actual output results. This assessment point is much simpler: performance, payment collection, achievement rate, etc.
In fact, ultimately, it all comes back to the actual work results, which is the fundamental purpose of hiring employees. The first two stages of assessment may seem like extra detours, but they are normal and necessary processes. Some bosses like to go directly to the final step, but haste makes waste. Without employees mastering relevant professional skills, being fully familiar with relevant situations, and forming standardized execution actions, how can they produce good performance from the start?
Of course, to consolidate employees' work habits, even in the results-based assessment stage, a certain proportion of standardized execution action assessment should still be included, and the assessment of engineering should not be relaxed.
4. **Stage 4: Assess employees' innovation**
Efficiency can be infinitely improved, costs can be infinitely saved, and employees' potential is infinitely exploitable. Under the premise that employees meet established standards, we must also find ways to tap into their potential.
At this stage, innovation assessment can be introduced. If employees, based on their existing work, can research and innovate in various aspects of company operations, producing value in work efficiency, cost control, customer stability, standardized management, etc., there should be corresponding rewards. **That is, first meet standards, then innovate.**
Of course, this assessment is independent and not included in regular process and results assessments. No innovation actions mean no deduction; achieving innovation brings rewards. After all, innovation requires a relaxed environment and employees' voluntary initiative. At the same time, this innovation assessment can be combined with job promotion, as employees who actively research work and continuously improve themselves are the ones who can take on more important positions.
**In summary, don't assess employees with a one-size-fits-all approach, and don't demand results in one step.** Instead, fully consider that after employees join, there must be a process of familiarization and learning, a process of cultivating standardized execution actions, and only then can results be produced. On top of that, tap into employees' potential, motivate them to innovate actively, and improve themselves.
After all, in the early stages of employment, because employees are unfamiliar with the situation, have not yet mastered professional skills, have not established standardized execution actions, and have not done the relevant process work in advance, it is unlikely they can effectively complete work. Poor results and meager assessment bonuses will also cause employees to feel pressure and lose confidence, leading them to doubt whether they are suitable for this position and this company, thereby increasing the likelihood of resignation. Or, under pressure, employees may take shortcuts, such as overdrawing resources or muddling through, to cope with the current results-based assessment. Is such an assessment outcome really what the boss wants?
The author is a private business owner, having managed a family-owned distribution company for many years, during which he also served as a business manager and trainer in several production enterprises. His research focuses on internal management of small and medium-sized private enterprises, with main topics including personnel management, cost control, management backend construction, and the integration of retired military personnel into private enterprises. He continuously breaks down over 400 topics related to internal management of private enterprises and keeps updating material collection and solution updates.
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