Your Performance Evaluation: Striving for Excellence

So many employees are passive when it comes to the employee evaluation process.  If you are passive, you are missing the opportunity to sell your manager on your unique value to the company.  Your evaluation is like a job interview.  You are convincing your manager that you are an exceptional employee deserving of advancement based on your merits. No more average evaluations!  It starts with a plan. Here are the steps to an excellent performance evaluation.

Building Your Case

Think in terms of your manager’s expectations.  Outline specific examples of your achievements linked to those expectations.  Use the STAR (Situation, Task, Action, and Result) method to describe the achievement.   Quantify the results with dollar amounts, headcounts, and percentages whenever possible.  Talk about improvements to quality, productivity, efficiency, savings, and revenue. 

Showing Your Resiliency & Adaptability

Highlight the challenges you faced during the year.  What happened, what did you do, and what was the outcome?  Explain other opportunities that you identified to improve processes while you addressed the challenges.  Talk about what you learned from challenges.

 Responding to Your Manager’s Feedback

Pay careful attention to your manager’s feedback.  Ask questions about any discrepancy, disagreement, or things that you do not understand.  After your manager has spoken, read the review carefully before signing it.  It is perfectly fine to take the evaluation back to your desk to read it more carefully and return it later.

Raising the Issue of a Pay Raise

Needing the money is not a good foundation for a raise in pay.  Demonstrate the value you have delivered for the company by way of example. This is where your list of accomplishments, including measured results that impact the bottom line will be useful.

Open for Improvement

Quite simply, ask how you can improve.  Be ready to offer areas of development that you have identified.  Ask for quarterly follow-ups to ensure you are on track.

Wrapping It Up

Thank your manager for his/her time, reiterate what you love about your job, and your aspirations for your career and your role in the company.  Don’t let five or eleven months pass before the next performance review. Be proactive about setting a timeframe for follow-up meetings to review your progress and add new responsibilities. Keep the lines of communication open to facilitate excellent results on your next review.

Be proactive about your performance evaluation.  Start compiling your notes today.  If your formal evaluation was months ago, you don’t have to wait. Ask your manager for a meeting to review your progress to date and get a jump on things.  Wishing you all the best!