“The other people that work here don’t have the same level of commitment that I have.” These words were said to me while I was evaluating one of my employees at exactly 9:35 a.m. by a person who had just walked in the door 30 minutes late to work.

The truth of the whole matter is that this particular employee is probably correct in his statement. He routinely stays late when we’re busy, never complains, will do any task and is very interested in our success. He is probably in the top 5 percent of all people doing his same job and has only been late a couple of times since he started. This evaluation was supposed to be routine. After all, he’d been doing a great job, but after a few prodding questions, I realized that he wasn’t as happy with his co-workers as I thought.

Being a manager of 26 employees, I have many days that start off great and then go south very quickly. When I’m told of how committed somebody is after they just showed up 30 minutes late, I’m forced to have an uncomfortable conversation to make sure that the employee and I are on the same page. Having clear and open communication with your staff is one of the most important factors in having a healthy company.

The evaluation process involves talking with each employee on a regular basis. These meetings should take place in private and should start with your finding out as much as you can about how they see themselves and end by making sure that they clearly understand what you expect of them – sort of like a check-up.

Recently I had the opportunity to take our family dog, Jack, to the veterinarian for a check-up, which is now called a wellness evaluation. Jack is a five-year-old, 20-pound Lhasa Apso and is your run of the mill family pet. Jack and I don’t get along exceptionally well which dates back to his days of becoming house trained. As the head of household, I bear certain resentment to a creature who demands that I buy him food yet continually goes to the bathroom on my living-room floor. That’s all behind us now, but sometimes old wounds heal slowly.

Anyway, my wife decided that she was too busy to take Jack for his shots—which means she exercised her right as “pants wearer” to delegate to me any task that she doesn’t want to do. So, Jack and I, along with my oldest daughter, Meghan, took Jack to the pet paradise to get him his evaluation and schedule a haircut.

Jack seemed excited about this proposition as we walked him into the store. He was wagging his tail, smelling everything in sight and he had an extra little spring in his walk. Jack was having a good day—so far. We checked in, weighed him, and filled out way too many forms with questions that I couldn’t answer. (Do some dogs really have allergies? Do people really know the date of birth of their dogs?) The receptionist was very friendly and had obviously been trained to tell every person how cute their pets are and even talk directly to the pets which was quite impressive. Jack hadn’t been treated this good in years—so far.

The dog check-up turned out to be very thorough. They checked his heart rate and asked at least 100 questions about Jack’s medical history of which I could maybe answer two. The nurse (yes, she looked just like a regular nurse) pulled out a thermometer and told me to hold him tight because this was going to hurt. In case you are wondering, the thermometer was not heading under his tongue! Jack did not enjoy this at all (which was slightly encouraging to me); he growled and barked and even acted like he was going to bite the nurse. After a few more minutes, the doctor came in and after informing me that he prefers to be called Dr. Ryan and not by his first name, Kelly, he gave Jack his shots, a dog cookie and we were on our way.

In much the same way as Jack’s wellness evaluation, evaluating your employees should start with a few (or 100) questions about how they are doing right now. You might find something in their answers that can lead you to uncover what could be a potential problem even though everything seems fine at the moment. This type of prodding and poking can be as difficult for you as it is for them. It’s a rare person who enjoys criticism and if you ask enough questions, you’re going to uncover something that isn’t perfect in 90 percent of your people. To separate yourself from an average leader, you need to first be willing to have frank and honest discussions with your people and be committed to taking necessary steps and actions to correct what could become a problem.

Of course, before you start asking questions, you should be prepared for their answers. If you don’t care what they think, then you shouldn’t ask the questions. If you do sincerely care how they are doing, then you have to be prepared for both good and bad feedback and potential changes to your master system of which you are so fond. You also must be willing to take necessary actions to correct anything that could develop into a problem. This could involve letting people go or it might be something as simple as changing some of your favorite systems.

By successfully completing evaluations of your staff, you can build a team of employees who are happy, healthy, committed and symptom free. To thoroughly evaluate your people though, you also must be willing to pull out the thermometer every so often. Be prepared, though, they might growl and bark a little.