The management teams of business enterprises, both large and small, are continually monitoring employee performance to see how they do their work and also how they interact with and help one another. The task is augmented and supplemented by such tools as 360 degree feedback, in which different people provide assessment for the same employee simultaneously. However, as with all aspects of human behavior, there are those things that one cannot easily learn by simple observation because they are not immediately apparent to the senses, or at least to the eyes. For such things, it is necessary to take other approaches that will be discussed in the sections below.

One thing that young people learn in junior high school science is how to make a distinction between an observation and an inference. An observation is something that is made with the senses, whereas an inference is an interpretation of an observation; one arrives at an inference through the workings of the mind, such as logical deduction.

As an example, one may observe that an employee is constantly looking around himself or herself, widening his eyes and raising his eyebrows, but that behavior may mean any number of things: It could mean that he or she has done something wrong and is worried that others will find out about it, or maybe he is expecting the arrival of somebody overdue and is wondering if something bad has happened. Only by approaching that individual appropriately and asking the right questions can the true cause be determined, but if he or she does not want to answer, then there is little that can be done.

When it comes to trying to find out things about employee performance, there are certain performance indicators that might be hidden. For instance, an employee might not have the confidence to share his or her achievements with the rest of the team. That person may be worried about what others think about his work, for example, that they might not share his enthusiasm for what he did. Other employees, or somebody outside the work force, may be bullying or otherwise annoying an individual through personal emails.

Whatever the case, the backbone of any company is communication; without it, no matter how up to par everything else may be, things cannot get done. Every company, therefore, must have a certain level of transparency, and a worker performance system should be in force that will allow the workers to evaluate each other. Often, those who are on an equal level can learn things about each other that would be difficult for a superior. That is why there are things like the 360 degree feedback method mentioned earlier.

There is a program designed to analyze employee performance, of which managers can download a demo by going to Grapevine Evaluations and filling out the form that appears there.