It is that time of year when employees across America receive their annual performance reviews or evaluations from their bosses. For many, the outcome of their review is directly correlated with their annual salary raise. After an economically bleak 2008 and an uncertain 2009 forecast, most employees desire raises that may be harder to come by. To ensure you get the raise you deserve, you want your boss to be aware of all the determined contributions you have made to your organization during the year. Self evaluation is a great tool to highlight all your finer points, after all, you cannot always seek information from your boss to remember your entire year's worth of good deeds. Even if your organization does not do self evaluations, it is satisfactory to go through the exercise so that you have the necessary information at your finger tips during your performance review.
Keep the following 5 points in mind as you write your self evaluation to spot you on the path to a positive performance review.
1. Take credit for your contributions
Often we are too busy fighting fires and meeting deadlines that we do not halt to reflect on what our real contributions have been. Awareness of your contributions is key to a positive performance review. You may have worked furiously like a dog from January to May on a project that later got canceled. By the time your performance review rolls around, everyone has forgotten what you spent five months working on. It is your job to remind your boss that even though the project went nowhere, you worked like a dog and can be counted on to do so for future projects. Take time out from your busy schedule to list all you achieved in the past year. Documentation such as status reports, meeting minutes, emails or a personal recount of achievements you updated through the year can assist to develop a comprehensive list. If these do not exist, you may have to rely on your memory.
2. Focus on outcomes
As you list your contributions, focus on the outcomes, not actions. For example, do not just site that you attended your department's safety meeting every week. Focus on what you contributed to the meeting. Did you offer suggestions that led to an improved safety record? Did you identify trends that led to better decisions? Or were you impartial warming a seat, punctually, every week? Avoid making a statement like "Took 1000 customer calls" but location what the result of those calls were. Did you leave customers largely satisfied? Were you able to calm down irate customers? Did you save some of the company's account?
3. Be specific
Avoid speaking in generalities when itemizing your contributions. General statements tend to peer like status fillers on your self evaluation form rather than true contributions. If you saved an account that was going to cancel, be specific and name the client. If you saved many accounts, listing a gazillion clients may appear ridiculous and even capture up the space to itemize other accomplishments. A few examples would do.
4. Be honest
It goes without saying that you should be honest in your self evaluation. Be prepared to defend any of the statements you acquire in case your boss disagrees with your version of the truth. And remember that a single untruth may cast doubt on all your other claims.
5. Give credit
If you are being honest, you may have to admit that you had help reaching your goals. Be gracious and credit all the colleagues that lent their expertise. Do not to go overboard with credits, after all, this is your performance evaluation. A few well placed credits will remind your boss that you are a good team player.
Even if your organization is not paying out any raises this year, you want a history a positive performance reviews on your recount so that when the time for raises do come, your records will do the speaking for you.
