Once again this year as part of our performance reviews at work we are required to fill out a self-evaluation. Basically it is your own assesment of how well you did your job over the last year. It will be used by my supervisor to help write my performance review, and become part of my HR file.
I have two viewpoints of this exercise:
Non cynical viewpoint: It is a good way to make sure that the higher ups know what you have been doing for the last year, and is only going to be used to give you a fair review.
Cynical viewpoint: They are hoping that if they give you enough rope you will hang yourself, and actually put in writing that you didn’t perform your job perfectly over the last year.
Seriously, my former supervisor would read the first draft I submitted to him and return it to me, making me take out anything that could be remotely construed as self-critical. His strongly held viewpoint was that once you signed the self-appraisal it became a legal document and you would be crazy to give them anything they could use against you later. A risk that was brought home when we had layoffs earlier this year (he and I both survived, although he later left the company on his own).
Interestingly, this former supervisor is Russian, and came of age under the former Soviet system, which might explain his caution about anything that one signed!
So how, broadly speaking, should one fill out a self appraisal? Aside from listing one’s accomplishments should one also admit that, yes, maybe there were things that could have gone better over the last year? Or should one just proclaim oneself the perfect employee, never making mistakes and performing all the work that was asked of them over the past year, and then some? What do you do?
If there are any human resource or management professionals that have experience with the other side of this coin please feel free to join in.
Wise advise (its not my invention but is better than my ideas)
Always try to be positive. Try to mention things you did rather than things you did not do. I know this sounds overly general, but what I mean is concnetrate on the portions of projects which were completed rather than on the fact that a project was expected to do X, Y, and Z but only succeeded in X. In such a case simply talk about the value of X.
My ideas (follow at your own risk. Seriously don’t cry to me or anyone else if this gets you in trouble.)
I try and be brutally honest in these sorts of things. I look on it as an opportunity to improve myself. I try and write the review primarily as if I was the only one going to look at it. I do keep an eye on the advise I learned and shared above, but I try and put down things that I would want to remember next year. I tend to keep copies of these things in my hard drive.
One year I turned the tables on my management (we were not happy with one another at the time) So I put a lot of “I was unable to convince management to devote sufficient resources to project Z” kinds of things in there. It felt good at the time, but was ultimately just childish and silly.
Finally, you should look at the Dilbert Performance Review Generator. It generates performance reviews which seem godd on first reading, but have a definate negative conotation. I once used a paragraph from here as a joke review.
It has been my experience that the whole reason for job evals is to document your mediocre and poor performance, and thus establish a paper trail for your tiny raise.
So on self-evals, I lie like a bastard. I am the second coming of Corporate Man. I leap tall paperwork in a single bound, I’m faster than an IBM selectric and a secretary on crack, and the company doesn’t really NEED any other employees as long as it has ME.
Do I believe it? No. But it doesn’t hurt, and no doubt it amuses someone somewhere.
And where it says “areas in which you think you could improve your own performance” I always just say “to continue honing away at my own inexorable brilliance.”
No one has ever known what to tell me about that one.
The phrase “pervert has given you good advice” does not roll trippingly from the tongue.
Nevertheless, that’s about what I’d say.
A few other points. Keep records all year long with an eye that these appraisals are coming around. They seem to take many people by surprise year after year.
Quantify whatever you can (good stuff, obviously).
If there are any negatives that you want help with, see if your manager is open to discussing them without having them reflected on the appraisal. As a manager, that’s not his brightest move, but some will do that to be nice, make their own area look good, etc.
A couple months before the appraisal is due, review what you’re being measured on and see if there’s any low-hanging fruit you should catch up on.
You are aware of the recent study which suggests that one of the big differences between competent and incompetant people is that incompetent people are incapable (or at least not very good) at evaluating their own performance.
We had to fill out employee self-evaluations last week, and under “My learning goals for the coming year, to become part of my Development Plan,” I wrote, “‘Development’ is not part of any plan for me here. I will continue to do the best job I can because I’m a professional, but I have no illusions that my experience or abilities will ever be utilized.”
My only advice is to be as objective as you can with good things you’ve done, and use cause and effect and much as possible:
“I completed project X which saved the company Y dollars”
“Following my completion of project Z0, the customer was so satisfied, they gave us projects Z1 and Z2”
With areas of improvement, which I always list, it’s better to be a little more subjective and make management involved in it:
“I plan to rapidly expand projet X with the approval of additional funding and resources from management”
That way (as if often the case), if you fail, management can see they had a hand in that.
For what it’s worth, when I evaluate someone’s review, I expect them to have something in the “needs improvement” category because everyone does, including me. Besides, I view this as the employee’s way of telling me “Hey, I really want training in X” or “I want to be moving towards Y job position rather than just being a worker bee my whole life”. There are people who really only aspire to be worker bees their whole life, which is fine, but they should be able to see there are better ways to do even that.
If you shovel shit for a living, you can still tell me you want to research better shovels with better ergonomics and a wider blade to do your job better/ faster/ cheaper. If I don’t buy you that shovel, it’s MY fault, and I will take responsibility for that.
I would talk very positively about the things you’ve done. When discussing ways you could improve, your goal is to make it look like you’re constantly trying to take on new challenges and learn new things, e.g. “I hope to continue to learn new skills such as X, Y, and Z”, not improve on what you’re already doing “I will get more done by not looking at porn so much”.
Back in school one teacher played that silly game of “self evaluation”. I flat out told him that it is his job to evaluate my work. He countered that he still wanted my opinion.
Well, the thing is that everybody else is most likely not going to be modest, so this whole exercise is self-defeating. I´d simply not participate in such mind games and I think it´d be best to listen to your cynical side and your russian boss.
You have to consider the management where you work.
Some places, they’re looking for ammunition to use against their employees. In which case say ONLY the positive.
However, most places that I have worked have had some idea of actually using a self-evaluation as a tool. I try, again, to emphasize the positive with a brief mention of concrete items (i.e. though better planning and efficiency reduced shipping costs 20%)
When it comes to the “self-improvement” section - hey, we once had a girl say with a perfectly straight face that she didn’t need any improvement, she already did her job perfectly. There was LAUGHING in the evaluation group. They just flat-out didn’t believe her and it cast a bad light on her entire self-eval.
I usually approach it as “I’m good but I could be better”. One year I said “I’d like a class on writing in the business environment to improve my written communications. Although my writing skills are good, I think a focused class of this nature would make my written communications more effective.” I got the class with no questions asked (and yes, it really did help). It’s not uncommon for managers to be required to prove they did some sort of job-related development or training for their subordinates, and giving them ideas is frequently welcomed. Unless you have a Pointy Haired Boss, but that gets back to considering your environment.
A quick calculation tells me that in the 14 years I’ve worked at this company (I am a biotech researcher) my raises have averaged over 8% annually, with several promotions along the way.
Many words have been used to describe my job performance over the years but I assure you “incompetent” has not been one of them. Thanks for your input though.
I’m sorry. I did not mean to suggest that you were incompetent. The quote was merely a toung in cheek remark. I should have used a smiley. I appologize profusely for any discomfort you felt. Seriously. My bad.
Your question in the OP bely the suggestion you yourself made that you are not good at self examination. The point of the study is that people who are chronically incompetent do not know that they are. That is, that if you suspect you are lacking in some area, this is evidence that you have the ability to improve in that area. I was actually trying in some perverse way to suggest that perhaps you are not as bad as you might think in this area.
Again. I appologize. After re reading my post it certainly does seem insulting. I did not mean it to come out that way. I certainly not think you are incompetent. My bad.
Broomstick raises the point of the management. That is good advice, but a little tricky in this case. When the layoffs happened in March we had a major reorganization all the way to the top, so the company is being run by completely new people for the first time since I started working here. There was a certain amount of paranoia prevalent under the old regime and I would like to think things are different now.
I think I will play it conservatively this year and see how many people quit/are fired after the reviews happen…that usually tells me something.
Giraffe, Yarster and Optihut have all given me things to think about as well.
Eve I had no idea you were so unhappy in your job. I hope things improve for you in that area.