Controlling costs is a set of activities aimed at identifying and reducing business expenses to increase a company’s profits.
Exceptional/Superior:
- Rachel always makes everything she can to minimize business costs.
- Peter has developed a number of effective cost-cutting plans.
- Marta has successfully negotiated lower prices for products with suppliers of the company.
- Arthur does not waste the company’s money on useless things.
- Gloria never exceeds the budgets of her projects.
- Helen uses energy-saving measures to reduce the climate control system workload.
- Julia hires freelancers and independent contractors for less important tasks.
- Robert prefers to buy slightly used equipment for his department to save some money.
- Bruce always completes expenditure reports on time.
- Nigel uses both sides of the paper when printing documents to reduce costs.
Exceeds Requirements/More than Satisfactory:
- Valerie uses free software instead of paid products.
- Trevor allows his employees to work from home.
- Philipp prefers video conferences to travel or arranging meetings.
- George always powers down his personal computer and lights before going home.
- Donald has developed a cost reduction strategy that saved a lot of money for the company.
- Harry often comes up with cost-effective solutions.
- Jack prefers to send e-mails to colleagues instead of printing documents.
- Frank is constantly looking for ways to reduce costs.
- Laura prints documents only when it is necessary. She uses document-sharing applications instead.
- James manages to keep most of his projects under budget.
Meets Expectations/Satisfactory:
- Bruce pays invoices on time to prevent late payment penalties.
- Jennifer has insisted on installing motion sensor lighting to reduce energy costs.
- Nigel uses reusable packaging instead of one-time-use alternatives.
- Emma uses hibernation mode on her personal computer.
- Bruce is a good orator who has managed to negotiate lower prices with some of the company’s partners.
- Arnold uses only energy efficient light bulbs in his department.
- Rachel improves automation and simplifies work processes to reduce production costs.
- Samantha has purchased an energy-efficient climate system for her office.
- Monica keeps windows and doors closed when the climate system is working.
- Quentin is good at managing his department’s budget.
Provisional/Needs Improvement:
- George purchases expensive equipment without looking for alternatives. He needs to become more frugal.
- Elaine often pays invoices late, which leads to payment penalties.
- Sometimes Michael makes purchases impulsively.
- Jerry makes many mistakes in his expenditure reports.
- Robert does not want to turn off his computer at the end of the day.
- Aaron makes many unnecessary purchases for the department.
- Albert prints most of documents he is working with.
- Edward does not register some operations, which makes it hard to control costs.
- Brian never puts his personal computer on sleep mode.
- Rebecca fails to motivate her team to cost reduction.
Unsatisfactory:
- Cindy wastes the company’s money on useless things.
- Yvonne fails to keep her projects under the budget.
- Ronald thinks that videoconferences are useless and prefers to arrange standard meetings instead.
- Thomas buys expensive software even if it is not necessary.
- Oliver does not allow his employees to work remotely.
- Abigail often misuses allocated money.
- Rachel does not keep track of the company’s cash flow.
- Quentin is not able to write proper expenditure reports.
- David refuses to upgrade old computing hardware, which is slow and energy inefficient.
- Rachel does not want to outsource tasks even when it can reduce production costs.
Self Evaluation Questions:
- How do you keep track of your team’s monthly costs?
- Have you ever used the company’s money for personal expenses?
- What do you do in order to reduce production costs?
- Do you find managing expenses difficult?
- Do you use professional expense tracking software to optimize budgets?
- What software do you use to manage business expenses data?
- Do you scan and track business expense receipts and statements?
- How often do you negotiate contracts with the company’s partners?
- Have you ever developed successful cost reduction plans?
- Do you have a strategy for minimizing the company’s losses?
The sample of performance review phrases for controlling costs is a great/helpful tool for periodical/annual job performance appraisal. Note that, controlling costs review phrases can be positive or negative and your performance review can be effective or bad/poor activities for your staffs.
If no matching phrase is found, you can also see a general list of performance review phrases and choose a more appropriate skill.