Introduction:

Some of the questions that I ask when I did employee evaluations are a little bit different than questions that you’ve probably asked in the past. I think they’re far more effective and get better answers. More importantly they’re gonna give you the information that you need to truly improve your restaurant, operations and your relationship with this particular employee.

The 10 Evaluation Questions:

1. List your 5 to 10 favorite things about this job.
2. List 5 to 10 things that you are absolutely awesome at.
3. What are a few things that you’re awesome at that you’re not being asked to do?
4. Do you feel you’re being compensated fairly (if not, what does that look like)?
5. Are there any tools or resources that you need to make your job easier to do?
6. How happy are you with your job on a scale of 1 to 10?
7. What are a few things we can do differently that would make your x become a y (one point happier)?
8. Do you feel respected?
9. Are there any areas for improvement in the way we work or the way I provide your work?
10. Are there any areas for improvement that will allow us to better exceed our guest’s expectations?

Final Thoughts:

I hope you enjoyed these ten questions, they’re more evocative and thought-provoking than the standard employee evaluation questions. You can put these in written form, verbally or both. These work best if you have a form in front of you, ask verbally and fill it out as you’re talking.