Ace Your Performance Evaluation With These 8 Top Tips

Dreading your upcoming performance evaluation? Don’t worry, you’re not the only one. Many employees and managers have a hard time conducting this tedious but necessary process as part of their work lives.

While it’s never easy to give an honest assessment of one’s strengths and weaknesses, it’s always good to take a step back and see what you can do to improve. Let JobStreet guide you with performance review examples and tips to ace your performance review.

What is a Performance Review?

Also called a performance evaluation or performance appraisal, a performance review is a periodic process that is part of career development and conducted regularly by an organization’s HR personnel.

In the Philippines, performance evaluations are conducted regularly, usually every six months in government agencies, and quarterly, semestrally, or annually in private companies. It’s important to do this at regular intervals in order to make sure that employees are on the right track in terms of their job performance, and to give them feedback for course correction or kudos as the case may be.

Conducting regular performance reviews contributes to a company’s bottom line because it ensures that employees are performing their tasks correctly and in line with company policies to meet its objectives and goals.

Performance evaluations also benefit employees because it gives them proper guidance on how to do their job, fixes erroneous practices before they turn into bad habits, and provides feedback that will help the employee improve their performance and perhaps be put on track for leadership roles.Also read: These 10 Work-From-Home Essentials Will Help You Boost Productivity

Performance evaluations are done by a manager, but they usually start with an employee’s self-evaluation, which is then discussed with their supervisor or manager. These discussions are usually short, around 15 minutes or less.

How to Do a Performance Evaluation

Evaluate yourself first.

For most types of performance review, you will need to first conduct a self-assessment. Refer to your organization’s evaluation form to find out the specific aspects of your performance that will be evaluated.

In general, self-assessment means thinking about your work and accomplishments over the last review period and, as objectively as you can, analyze and critique them. Be honest about your performance and ask yourself:

• Did you meet your goals and targets?
• What accomplishments were you most proud of?
• What were your struggles?
• Did you make any significant contributions to your team or company?

Asking yourself these questions will give you an accurate representation of how you performed and help you understand where you did well and where you can do better. It will also guide you in compiling evidence of your work that you can show your evaluator.

Prepare supporting documentation.

After assessing yourself, give your narrative a stronger case by attaching supporting documents that give proof of your accomplishments. In some companies, online documents will do, while others will require hard copies.

Present your portfolio in such a way that it highlights your best work during the evaluation period. Quantify your accomplishments as much as possible – list the number of tasks completed, percentage of targets met, etc.

Put yourself in the right mindset.

There is a lot at stake during a performance review, and it’s normal to feel nervous about it. However, it’s best to approach this situation in a calm, professional manner. Reviews happen for a reason – among other things, they are meant to help you become a better team player and member of the organization. Keep an open mind and maintain a positive attitude throughout the process.

Take notes during the review.

Before the review starts, bring a list of your talking points so that you don’t forget to mention what’s important. During the review, take notes. The things discussed during a review will provide you with helpful insights into your progress, so it’s best that you have a record of it. Use whatever’s discussed during the evaluation as your guide for the next quarter or period. Doing so also shows your commitment to your role – a move that will leave a good impression on your evaluator.

Be ready to set your long- and short-term goals.

For some companies, part of the performance review process involves setting personal work goals. Be prepared to explain where these fit with your division or department’s strategies. It’s also possible that you will be asked to strategize future plans for the company based around your job roles and responsibilities. Don’t be shy about sharing your ideas, goals, and objectives, and inquiring about where it fits in with the company’s plans for the future.

Offer solutions, not excuses.

The review process may include the discussion of problems and challenges that you’ve encountered while working. It’s best to approach this by owning up to your shortcomings while offering solutions to remedy the problem. Be upfront about what keeps you from doing your best work, and avoid blaming others or bringing up past mistakes to excuse your behavior. Be professional enough to accept your faults, and move on by focusing on improving your ways.

Ask questions.

Your evaluator may say things that may seem unclear or vague to you. To prevent misunderstandings, ask for clarifications. Make sure you know what is expected of you going forward, so ask questions to avoid confusion.

Make sure you and your boss are on the same page.

End the review on a good note by making an agreement with your evaluator or manager about what the two of you hope to accomplish from this meeting. Leave no room for uncertainty by making and committing to a shared goal. You’ll find that you’ll have a much more pleasant working experience if you and your manager know and understand each other’s role in the process.

Performance Review Examples

Still need more pointers on how to do the self-assessment part of the performance review? These usually involve certain dimensions of personal performance that the organization considers important, such as strengths and weaknesses, communication skills, teamwork, or leadership initiatives, in addition to accomplishments and goals.

Here are some examples to guide you.

Quantitative assessments

• I hit 35% of the entire team’s sales target for the period after exceeding my individual sales quota in Calabarzon.
• I accomplished 100% of the daily tasks assigned by my manager.
• By the 3rd quarter, I completed digitizing 80% of documents slated for archiving over the entire year.
• The slide deck I created for the client pitch was key to getting their approval of our proposal; this translates into a Php5 million job contract for our company.

Qualitative assessments

• Strengths: I am a team player who finds ways to energize my colleagues for collaborative efforts such as the annual team building held last month.
• Weaknesses: I am sometimes tardy to work but I have resolved to do better in the next period.
• Accomplishments: I created the slide deck for the client pitch that helped catch their attention and later on their approval of our proposal.
• Professional goals: I aspire to enter a managerial role because I have shown that I can come up with winning strategies and motivate my teammates to work toward a common goal.
• Feedback: The cascading of company strategy to all employees is helpful because it helps me align my performance with organizational goals. I suggest that at the next corporate strategy session employees at my level be included so that we can give inputs about operations in the field.

You’ve Got This!

There’s no need to get stressed when you get news of a coming job performance review. Remember, you got this! Opportunities to#SEEKBetterways of working are always at your disposal.

So approach the performance professionally and with an open mind about its value in your career. Look at it as a chance to expand your skills and develop yourself into a better and brighter worker, and a much more valuable member of your company.

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