12 Apr Self-Appraisal
Nobody knows where you excel and where you’ve gone wrong better than yourself. Self-Appraisal is effectively a self-performance review, which can then be used as an integral part of performance appraisal.
There are both important benefits and consequences that result from using Self-Appraisal.
Such approach is useful for organisations to use as a precursor to the Annual performance review meetings with their ‘people’. It gives employees a better understanding and insight to their own performance and at the same time, empowers them to take responsibility of their own career development. Additionally, it significantly reduces reliance on the opinions of the manager/supervisor and therefore making it more of a two-way discussion and shared evaluation. This way of assessment identifies where they may be discrepancies between you and your managers’ view on performance. At the same time, it reminds your manager of your achievements over the past year – Don’t expect them to remember everything about every single one of their employees. On the other hand, there can be consequences if this process is not used effectively or if used in isolation. This process is most effective and successful if used in conjunction with other performance assessment methods such as ‘The performance Review Meeting’, ‘Peer Appraisal’ and ‘The 360 Feedback Report’ as they provide little insight to team involvement for example. Furthermore, over reliance on Self Appraisal can result in senior positions not pulling their weight.
Self-Appraisals are normally carried out by employees individually evaluating their performance by filling out a form template or set of questions, based on their performance. It may result quite challenging to remember specific details over the past twelve months in your career. One way to make this easier is to keep an updated log or diary at work where you can jot proceedings down throughout the year. Keep records of important assignments and projects, success and challenges, changes in responsibilities and roles and any significant change when they are fresh in your mind. Collecting this evidence will give you something to look back on, making you more prepared and putting you in a better place to analyse.
Self-evaluation covers all individual areas such as
- Your main strengths and weaknesses
- Major problems and challenges encountered
- Key accomplishments and drawbacks
- Future career plans (Long/Short goals)
- Required training and development areas
Having said this, be sure to emphasize the impact of your work and not just state your achievements. Provide bottom line examples in order to show exactly how valuable you are to the business. Be proud of your achievements – don’t overrate and don’t underestimate.
Shift the main focus away from the negative aspects as much as possible, however have the ability to recognise where there is room for improvement. Dedicate enough time and effort in completing this process, as your outlook on your performance could be completely different to how your supervisor has evaluated it. This will help manager understand weather or not you have an accurate understanding of your role and objectives.
Finally, keep in professional. Proof read it for mistakes, accuracy and figures used.
In summary, Self-Assessment makes meetings more effective if they share ownership on evaluating performance and Self-Appraisal encourages this to happen. It encourages self-reflection and allows compassion of individuals’ views on their performance, becoming a joint responsibility to critique. However, for Self-Appraisal to be completed successfully, the employee needs to have an in depth understanding of how it is done and their role and responsibilities. Self-Appraisal actively engages with employees individually if used in their Performance Review Meeting. This involvement encourages employees to strive even higher and therefore beneficial for all parties.