Self Evaluations and Self Assessment For Your Annual Performance Appraisal

As many of you actually dread this process of undertaking personal self evaluations of your work performance, let me show you how approaching your annual appraisal with a constructive attitude is vital to an effective and rewarding result for you.

Try to think of self evaluations as a chance for you to rate your skills and put forward a strong case upon which a salary increase or promotion may depend. It's not always easy to compliment yourself on the work you do, but, it can be a very important time to make sure your boss knows what you've done and how aware you are of your own strengths AND weaknesses. Please make sure you know what your boss is expecting from you and what specific topics your boss needs you to cover.
It is not a good idea to leave this self appraisal until the very last moment. Instead, make yourself prepare it a few days before your annual performance review, then leave it for a day or two before you re-read it. Hopefully, these general tips for writing your self evaluations will help you showcase your strengths and help you get promoted or receive the salary increase you deserve.
Self appraisals or self evaluations are where you, get to give opinions - preferably backed up by accomplishments - about your performance. You need to critically analyse your performance, strengths and weaknesses, accomplishments, problems you have encountered and any training needs you feel you may have.
What To Include In Your Self Evaluations
In order to gather the right information for your self evaluations of your on-the-job performance, I recommend that you include statements about these key areas:

• Your current job responsibilities (use your job description as a reference point);
• Your achievements;
• Your goals for the coming year;
• Areas in which you may improve;
• Training requirements you need for your present job;
• Additional responsibilities you are ready to add to your remit;
• Any problems you have encountered and solutions you have come up with;
• Continuing professional development (CPD);
• Areas of the job you like or dislike.

On this last point you should also be ready to explain what it is you like or dislike and have some ideas about improving or managing the parts you dislike more effectively.
Most self evaluations should be based on your organisation's competency framework which will include a range of competencies such as:

• Communication Skills
• Interpersonal Skills
• Results Focus
• Working in Teams
• Customer Service
• Adaptability/Flexibility
• Initiative
• Decision Making
• Leadership
• Managing Self

It is a positively good idea to quote actual examples and situations to support your self assessment of performance - the STAR routine of situation, task, action and result, typically used in competence based interviews, is a good basis for your self evaluations.

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Get Your Performance Appraisal Discussions Off to a Good Start (Part 1)

But a lot of the awkwardness in performance appraisal meetings can be eliminated by following some simple suggestions. Here are a couple of tips that will help put both players at ease. (In Part 2 of this article, I'll provide some additional suggestions.)

Gather Your Appraisal Information and Materials in Advance
The most important item you need to have is a copy of the individual's performance appraisal. That's obvious. But that's not all.
At the beginning of the year you and the individual probably had a performance planning meeting. Ideally, the individual would have taken notes on a blank copy of the appraisal form and made a copy for you. That document should have all of the key items that you discussed during the meeting. Be sure you have a copy of that planning document in case a question about the original goals comes up.
You'll also need information about the individual's performance, particularly if there are some areas where the performance varied significantly from your expectations. Whether the variation was in a positive or negative direction, you'll need to be able to demonstrate why you assigned the rating that you did. If the assessment is that the individual's performance was less than you desired, then it's critically important that you have all of the evidence you used in order to come to that "Unsatisfactory" or "Need Improvement" performance appraisal rating. There's a magic phrase to use here. That phrase is, "For example . . ." Make sure you've got plenty of examples that support a less-than-satisfactory evaluation.
You may want to have a copy of the individual's development plan. You may want to have copies of weekly reports that the individual submitted that described progress against the goals that were set. You can't make a mistake by having too much support material. It will prevent the embarrassment of being unable to find anything of substance to justify the rating you gave.
Make a List
What are the key points that you want to cover during the discussion? In addition to having a copy of the performance appraisal, write down a list of the most important items you want to discuss. It's easy to refer to them during the meeting to make sure that everything that needs to be discussed gets covered.
Pick an Appropriate Place
Probably most performance appraisal discussions take place in the manager's office, with the manager behind the desk and the appraisee sitting directly in front of it.
Is that the best place to hold the discussion? It may well be, particularly if the performance appraisal is not very good and the manager wants to trot out all of the power and authority available to make the subordinate understand that immediate change is necessary. But too often the authoritarian, boss-behind-the-desk arrangement serves to emphasize the power relationship at a time when a more collegial approach might be more effective.
More important than the actual location where the discussion ends up taking place is the decision-making process the manager engages in to determine that location. Too often, managers conduct the performance appraisal discussion behind their desks by default -- they haven't given any thought to the matter and just let it happen in the place where they are most comfortable.
There are several other alternatives possible. The manager's office might not offer complete privacy, particularly if walls are thin or it's a cubicle arrangement. In this case a conference room or the temporarily vacant office of an out-of town senior manager might be pressed into service. If the performance appraisal contains good news and the two participants in the appraisal drama are old colleagues, it might best be conducted over a cup of coffee in the cafeteria. And if it is conducted in the manager's office, just a little furniture rearrangement might reduce the hierarchical nature of the discussion.
If the performance appraisal does indeed contain bad news, and particularly if the manager believes that it will take a dramatic gesture to bring home the message of "Change or else!", the appraiser's boss's office might be a good location. Having your boss give you your performance appraisal in her boss's office -- with her boss sitting in as an observer / reinforcer -- certainly communicates the seriousness of the message being delivered.
But beware the unusual location. The district sales manager who gives one of her sales reps his annual performance appraisal while the two of them are in the car, driving down the highway on route to a new prospect's office, is exercising bad judgment. So too is any manager who selects a location significantly away from a business setting, unless the necessity for conducting the performance review at that time, in that location, is obvious to both players.
These are some small suggestions that will help to reduce the awkwardness that always seems to surround the performance appraisal discussion. In Part 2, I'll provide a couple more tips that will help put both players at ease.

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Performance Appraisal Survival Guide

It is the time of the year when your performance appraisal is just round the corner. Appraisal is primarily done to evaluate your past performance and chart out your future course in the organization. Appraisals are typically done once a year in most companies. In some companies half yearly appraisals are held.

An objective appraisal professionally done benefits both you and the organization you work for. You get feedback on your performance, suggestions for improvement, training needs and goals for the coming year which are aligned to the overall organization strategy/ objectives. Basis your past accomplishments you could also get compensation hike.
Before you go for your appraisal interview and during the course of it there are a few things you can do to make the process effective. Making a list of all that you have accomplished in the last evaluation period is the first step. When you keep a tab of your achievements and projects completed during the course of the year it will be easy to consolidate them at the end. Any appreciation mails or thank you mails/ communication can be taken as evidence too.
During the actual performance appraisal interview it is important to be participative. Give a brief about what you have done, your aspirations and training needs. Be open to listen objectively - you are likely to get positive as well as negative feedback. You can make your point of view clear but without being defensive or offensive. Remaining confident through out the performance evaluation process helps to build a professional image about you. Last but not the least it is crucial to perform all tasks assigned to you on time, every time.
Delivering high quality work, taking ownership of tasks, leadership and assuming extra responsibilities are traits that will get you noticed and pave the way for better roles.

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360 Degree Performance Appraisal - Major Controversies

One of the best techniques designed to improve effectiveness at work is the 360 degree performance appraisal technique. Generally, this method is considered a human resources device to analyze a company's human potential. Either easy or complicated, strategies are used to analyze employee's performance, competencies and skills. 360 degree feedback represent a confidential assessment any employee might receive based on the information his superiors or coworkers offer on a questionnaire starting point. 360 degree performance appraisal furthermore includes a technique which is called self-assessment. The answers are interpreted based on a scale and the result stands for the perception collaborators have on a certain member of staff. There are different opinions that support such assessment strategies or, on the opposite, underline the deficiencies they have. Check the following list and compare it with your opinion:

* strength and weakness analysis
As for this matter, 360 degree performance appraisal method is extremely helpful because it identifies the weak and strong points each member of staff has at his work place. So, each member of staff can see exactly what it has to improve in order to increase the effectiveness at work. The 360 degree performance appraisal technique also includes preparation.
* wide field of evaluation techniques
360 degree performance appraisal techniques are both usual and recent. The department who decides which technique must be implemented is the human resources one. In the traditional 360 degree performance appraisal, superiors are the ones who assess you. But this type of evaluation includes a high degree of subjectivity. One of recent strategies makes use of software applications particularly developed to help human resources department when they have to examine an extraordinary number of workers. When a company doesn't have a highly developed human resources department, they may outsource the service because there are enough qualified companies ready to be employed.
* benefits for big companies versus disadvantages for small ones
The 360 degree performance appraisal is rather effective for big firms which may set up their management politics based on the information such assessment strategies make. On the other hand, little firms might find this kind of evaluation methods too expensive or time consuming. The high degree of relevancy is exclusively for firms with an outstanding number of employees
* subjectivity versus objectivity
When we discuss on the 360 degree performance appraisal method we also talk about about subjectivity and objectivity. It is thought to have a high degree of subjectivity when superiors have to analyze their subordinates but the highest amount seems to be on the same level in the hierarchy. Rivalry between coworkers make this assessment not very objective. A good thing is the anonymity of these assessments.
The 360 degree performance appraisal is extremely important for firms and especially for managers.This method reflects how efficient are employees at work and how they are perceived by their colleagues. This is a very good method which is considered worthy of.

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Performance Appraisal Form

This paper will guide you the process of evaluating employee's performance at work.

1. General Requirements
· Appraisal time: The appraisal shall be carried out on weekly basis at weekends. At the month end, the result will be summarized to give ranks to each employee.
· Appraisal method: The appraisal shall be carried out as form described herein and performed by the head of responsible department.
2. Employee's Details
· Name of Employee:
· Position:
· Department:
· Appraiser:
· Title:
3. Appraisal Rank
· A: 1 - 3 points: Poor
· B: 3 - 5 points: Weak
· C: 5 - 6.5 points: Average
· D: 6.5 - 8: Fair
· E: 8 - 10: Good
4. Appraisal Criteria
4.1. Quality of Work
· A: Not ensure the work quality as required for 3 times a month or more, or 1 - 2 times a month but cause serious loss to the company.
· B: Not ensure the work quality for 1- 2 times a month.
· C: Ensure the quality as required.
· D: Ensure a good quality and receive good feedback from customers and colleagues.
· E: Ensure the good quality of work that brings back high value to the company.
4.2. Completion time
· A: Overdue for 3 times a month or more, or 1 - 2 times a month but cause serious loss to the company.
· B: Overdue for 1 - 2 times a month
· C: Complete the work in due time.
· D: Complete the work before due date
· E: Complete the work before due which brings back high value to the company.
4.3. Innovation
· A: (Not assessed)
· B: (Not assessed)
· C: 5 points for minor innovation
· D: For innovation that can be valued of 1 million or more.
· E: For Innovation that can be value of 5 million or more.
4.4. Regulation Conformity
· A: 2 serious violations in a month
· B: 1 serious violation in a month. Or more than 2 non-serious violations in a month
· C: 1 non-serious violation in a month
· D: No violation
· E: No violation + Discover violation
5. Appraisal Form Design
The Appraisal Form includes the following basic columns:
· Number
· Appraisal Criteria
· Point
· Sum-up
· Coefficient (If any)
In addition to the basic columns, the evaluator can design more contents if appropriate.

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Is This Any Way to Do Performance Appraisals?

In the August issue of HR Magazine, an article written by Paul Falcone was published entitled, "Big-Picture Performance Appraisal."

Mr. Falcone is an author specializing in human resource topics...
...but, I was taken aback by what he was proposing in this article about how to look at deciding on an individual's overall rating. He suggests that you go back to the old-school bell-curve concept.
He argues that each unit in the business should first rate itself on a 1 to 5 scale, with a 1 representing significantly under performing, a 3 performing at a 100% level, and a 5 representing significantly over performing. Let's say a given unit like sales rates its overall performance a 4.2, Falcone says that the overall average total score of all employees in the unit should also equal 4.2. That means if you rate some people over 4.2, you need to make sure others are rated below that number.
I guess the logic is that these two numbers only make sense if they are equal. This is bass ackwards to me--you're supposed to get overall performance from the bottom up not from the top down when it comes to rating an individual. In my mind, this doesn't reflect the actual performance of the individual.
If an individual's overall score is artificially restricted to their business unit's overall score, how is this fair to the individual? More importantly, how can management look at people in the same position across the company and do an accurate comparative analysis?
Another strange point in this article is that Falcone suggests every business unit and everyone should be striving to be rated a 5 overall! If a 3 is considered a 100% performance level, it would seem to me that most people would be striving to be that "A" employee or "A" business unit. Sure, it is possible that some employees sometimes perform above expectations, but rarely should the performance standards be set so that the employee consistently exceeds expectations for all performance measures.
If employees are rated 4's and 5's then they are not being challenged enough. I coach my clients to set the performance standards for each performance measure in a way that asks the employee to stretch even to be rated a 3. If an employee is consistently rated 4's and 5's, how to they get challenged to get to their next level?
Falcone also fixates on the overall score as the number to focus on when filling out the appraisal. Here's another area where I disagree with his thinking. Best practices says you look at each performance measure on its own and score it based on the performance standards for that measure.
At the end of the process an overall score is calculated using the weighted scores of each measure. I suggest you take that one step further...
...instead of showing the overall number on the 1 to 5 scale, you convert it to a %. Why do this?
Well, it's natural for everyone to want to be rated a 5 instead of a 3 since a 3 is half-way down the scale giving it a connotation of an "average" rating when in fact a 3 represents a 100%, or "A", performer.
By setting the right performance measures for each position and for each employee and rating them on these measures, you will be aligning your human capital to maximize your organization's performance. Don't back in to numbers set at the top. That's the only way you are really going to know how your employees are performing so you can use those results for organizational development, succession planning, and other human-capital related actions.

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What Are the Benefits of a Truthful Well Delivered Performance Appraisal?

Over ten years into my career in management, my boss gave me an appraisal that rocked my world. The benefits were many! Stronger business results, greater team efficiency, higher associate satisfaction, more collaborative peer relationships and greater opportunities for advancement, reward and recognition for all, to name a few!
 
In large part, his reasons for the lower rating were two-fold. I was viewed as a micro-manager by him and others and not as a team player by my peers. Hearing this was shocking, disappointing and alarming. I recall telling my boss that it was clear to me that I needed to leave the organization, if this is how I was viewed. He smiled and said he did not think so. I certainly had my doubts! I recall telling him I was afraid to change because "my current ways were what had brought me to the dance!"
 
So, why did my boss do this? He did it simply because it was the right thing to do, especially at a critical point in my career. Too often managers do not tell their people the truth for fear of hurting them or fear of losing them. I have learned this is selfish. It is always right to tell people what is in their best interest, for their good and for the good of the organization. My boss helped me to see that while my teams were producing very good results, my way of getting results was not going to take me far in the organization. Thankfully, he conveyed these important messages gracefully! 
 
Over time, following the appraisal meeting, I began to see more clearly the root cause of these two issues. It lay in simple but profound truths - I was afraid of making mistakes and their potential negative consequences. I was also competitive and very uncomfortable with peer interactions. I was not comfortable around my peers. I avoided them except when it was necessary to interact. This kept them from getting to know me. I was more concerned with avoiding mistakes in my operation, avoiding being influenced by my peers to try a "different way" than I was in establishing good peer relations. I clearly did not see the many benefits of good peer relations.

Through mentoring and coaching I began to see these perspectives and attitudes more clearly and began the long and steady process of taking steps to change and grow. Over time, my changes and growth were confirmed by my boss, by peers, my associates and others that had known me for a long time. I remember telling my boss a few years later how much I appreciated what he had done and how he had done it. He had tears of joy in his eyes.
 
Some of the specific changes included delegating more, trusting others more, accepting less than perfection, making the effort to reach out to peers and others and joining a group of like-minded individuals engaged in a similar journey for accountability.
 
What were some of the specific benefits of the changes?
 

• The results of my business units continued to be strong. I learned to delegate well and was pleasantly surprised and encouraged to observe that others have very good skills, potential and ideas, often better than mine! It was nice to stop doing my people's jobs, something my boss had pointed out in our review meeting.
• I learned that mistakes did not increase and when they did occur, it was not the end of the world! I also learned that much of the time I had been spending making a report or something else perfect was wasted as it became clear that most of what we were producing was getting the job done well at it was!
• Associate satisfaction increased as their skills, confidence, and opportunities for advancement increased.
• Peers began to comment that to their surprise I was a nice guy after all! Interactions with them became easier, friendlier, and more often than not, win-win oriented, and not what I had feared.
• I continued to be promoted and grow in responsibilities my total compensation continued to grow. The changes accelerated my effectiveness in new roles delivering results faster helping avoid the pitfalls that can derail leaders in transition.
• The changes also helped me increase the speed of integration into a new leadership team with a new company cutting my learning curve, building early loyalty and longevity and ensuring critical business success factors were addressed early on.
• The changes equipped me to help others including high performers learn similar new behaviors and be assimilated in order to achieve the personal and professional rewards they are seeking.

So, change is possible and worth it! Try it and you will be please you did!
 
Are you in the middle of a similar need for change? Does one of your leaders have a similar need? You can help yourself or your leader change successfully. You and your associate can experience the same benefits of changing! You will increase results, create more opportunities for professional advancement and experience a higher quality of life!

If you would like a free Executive Management Assessment with me to discuss how I can help you achieve the greatest success possible, please call me or email me and we'll get clear about the best immediate next steps for the success of you and your team.

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