If you’ve ever wished you could fill out an employee evaluation form on your supervisor, read on. What may seem like a novel idea in North America is an established practice in Europe: that of holding management, not co-workers, accountable for everything from bottom-line results to employee satisfaction and team well-being. It’s the difference between IKEA and Wal-Mart: both are wildly successful, but we all know which one takes the employee-centric approach.

Lately, the employee evaluation paradigm is shifting to a more holistic approach whereby every employee is evaluated from multiple angles: their own self-assessment, plus evaluations by peers, customers, vendors, support staff, other departments, and management. This 360-degree feedback can be a much more accurate performance measure than traditional top-down evaluations.

A chain is only as strong as the weakest link. But in hierarchical structures, the success of the entire team often hinges on the direct supervisor. We often assume that this person is ‘in charge’, so they must know what to do, but the only way to truly judge a supervisor’s competence is through a formal performance assessment. Assessing the direct supervisor can pay many dividends:

As an HR manager, it may be challenging to oversee the assessment of supervisors; after all, these people may be your friends. One of the most important concerns is choosing the appropriate mix of management and subordinates to rate the supervisor’s performance. Ideally, the supervisor will have some involvement in identifying who they think ought to fill out the employee evaluation forms; credible raters result in greater buy-in when it comes time to adopt feedback. The questionnaire should attempt to capture at least the following:

These questions will help determine whether your supervisors need further training in management techniques, whether they can handle more responsibility, and whether their subordinates are happy – all of which can make or break your department.