Completing a self-evaluation is an opportunity for employees to “toot their own horns,” but it is important that employees learn how to prepare their own evaluations with a critical, realistic eye and avoid overrating themselves.
When employees overrate themselves, and particularly when they offer no justification for their high rating, disappointment and conflict is inevitable. Instead of the employee spending the time in his performance review meeting discussing with his manager any future goals and objectives, as well as personal development opportunities, the meeting is consumed with negotiation and discussion of the big gaps in ratings.
Big gaps in ratings may be an indication the employee has been unclear on the manager’s or company’s expectations. It could also be a sign the individual is hoping to negotiate a higher rating than he expects his manager will give him by starting at the high end, or it could be the individual has an unrealistically high opinion of his performance.
Managers can’t be expected to remember every accomplishment achieved or accolade given to their employees, so it is important for the employee to describe his accomplishments and tie them to the organizational, regional or department goals and objectives, his manager’s expectations and individual job performance standards.
If the employee did not accomplish a goal or performance expectation, the manager may not be aware of the obstacles or contributing factors the employee faced, so the employee needs to provide this information.
Managers Need to Take the Performance Appraisal Process More Seriously
My experience has been that managers dread the whole performance appraisal process because it is so time-consuming and mentally taxing. They don’t take the time to train their employees on how to prepare an effective self-evaluation because that requires even more time, and they may not understand that by training their employees a week or so prior to beginning the self evaluation process, they will save time in the long run.
Even if the manager attempts to provide training to their employees, it usually only entails the manager providing an explanation of the rating scale, the timelines that must be adhered to and providing a copy of the employee’s job description and performance standards.
Managers should either hold a 20- to 30-minute self-evaluation training session, using a PowerPoint presentation with their employees prior to commencement of the self-evaluation period, or if delivering the information through e-mail, attach a PowerPoint presentation.
An Example
A former colleague and I were asked by our manager to put together some tips for developing an effective self-evaluation. We prepared a PowerPoint presentation and presented it to our team and then shared it with other teams and clients. The training resulted in some employees doing a better job of preparing their own self-evaluations and describing achievements and accomplishments to support the rating they gave themselves.
Better-written self evaluations saved the managers’ time spent in preparing the evaluations of their employees’ performance, because the employees provided qualitative explanations of their accomplishments, less time was spent in the face-to-face meetings, and the meetings were collaborative, rather than combative.