Writing my performance review

You may be intimidated by the challenge of writing your own employee performance reviews, but there’s no reason to panic. Employee evaluations provide the perfect opportunity to showcase your contributions while requesting changes that will improve your job satisfaction and ability to excel. Follow these simple tips for writing employee reviews, and you’ll have that self-evaluation done in no time.

Review Your Year Carefully Before Writing Your Review

It’s easy to forget about all the many projects and efforts to which you have contributed in a year. Take the time to go back through records (electronic and paper) and jot down (on scratch paper, not the actual review) significant efforts for each month. Convert these notes into concise, but specific bullet points, detailing the ways you have added value to the company. Now write your employee review, using these notes to guide you.

Emphasize Your Contributions

This is the time to toot your own horn. Document your accomplishments, explaining how your efforts made a difference for the company and other employees. While you don’t want to exaggerate, you will want to detail what your goals were, how you met or exceeded those goals, and how you contributed above and beyond expectations. This is especially important if your job responsibilities changed during the last session, since the goals set for you at the start of the year may not accurately reflect your real-life responsibilities. This is the time to show exactly how you’ve earned your dollar-and why you are worth even more than you were at the time of the last evaluation.

Quantify Your Value in Measurable Terms

Be on the lookout for ways you saved the company money, facilitated project success, increased sales, bettered the corporate image and exceeded goals. If you can link numeric value or a rating scale to your achievements, do so: Numbers speak to most decision makers. If asking for a bonus or raise, make it a point to showcase how you have earned back your value in a way that is delineated in concrete monetary value, such as in number of sales or reduced employee hours.

Ask Yourself What You Would Change If You Could

Consider what you’ve been hoping would change, and bring it up to your manager in a diplomatic way. Perhaps you’d like to see more funding for further training, a new computer system, a better work environment or additional workers added to your team. Link your desired changes (for example, more training) to improved output and significant contributions. This is your chance to make a strong case for those desired changes; put effort into explaining why these changes are good for the company, not just for you.

Share this post

Post Comment