Are You Apprised of Your Company’s Performance Appraisal Process?

If you’re not familiar with your company’s performance appraisal process, make it your number 1 priority for today. At most major companies, a significant investment has been made (and continues to be made) in the methodology and implementation of a performance review system. It is inevitable that you will participate in the process and be appraised by those who work with you. And further, the results will be taken seriously when your employer considers their future investment in you. The time your Firm has spent optimising their approach to the process is a good indication of the value they place in their people. A high quality company is likely to have a high quality appraisal program. Educating yourself on how it works is the best way to ensure you get the most from it. In my early career, learning how I was perceived as a communicator, team-player and leader allowed me to modify my behaviour positively in each competency. And of equal importance, my first appraisals were a time when I could get direct feedback on how others perceived my grasp of my business and my all-important level of productivity.

If you’re lucky, you’ll participate in a 360 degree review which will seek feedback on your performance from internal (and maybe even external) clients, peers and senior members of your team (and in the case that you have supervisory responsibilities, even your juniors). Feedback will often come in the form of ratings, usually on competencies that your employer values highly (for example, business knowledge, productivity, teamwork, leadership, etc) and then a qualitative component where your reviewers can provide examples that support their ratings assessment, suggested areas for improvement and, if they’re truly vindictive details on how you suggested that January’s revised statements should be shredded so you could get out for your Valentine date on time!

So given the impact such information can have on your credibility as a future CEO, educating yourself on the process is essential. Firstly, understand the competencies that your company judges you on. If your company values individual contribution over teamwork, then you’ve no reason to keep offering assistance to your struggling co-worker when you should be focused on achieving better results for yourself. However, if your contribution to the whole is more important than your individual output, then perhaps you might forgo being first out the door every night and rather take time to assist those holding the Fort! Just imagine the good judgement you’ll be demonstrating just by asking your boss for an hour of her time to discuss how the performance review system works? It’s easy and it will have impact. And frankly, who cares if your human resources manager told you about the process at orientation and you’ve forgotten everything he said? You need to hear it from your manager and you need for her to know that you care.

Now that you’ve spoken to your manager, you know how the process works. You have learnt that you need to choose 3 people to review you. 1 must be an internal client, 1 must be a peer from your team and 1 must be from another department. At the end of the year, these people will be asked to rate you on teamwork, initiative and business knowledge. So what are you waiting for? Are you going to wait ‘til the end of the year to make your choice of reviewer? Are you crazy? Think ahead! It’s not cheating. It’s simply thinking sensibly about your career and ensuring you get feedback that is useful to you. Identify the people today and hope that they don’t leave within the next year or tell you to get lost when you ask them (by the way, most people who are asked do give feedback). If sensible, ask your manager who she’d recommend and get the names of people whose opinion is credible with her. Remember, she’s more likely to actually believe everything people she has recommended to you are saying. Once you’ve selected who you are going to ask, now set about doing your utmost to impress them through the year. How about that for guaranteeing that you get a good review? By ensuring that you prioritise Bob the Salesman’s client requests first, how do you think he’s going to review your competency for client service? What about you always ask Martin, the slow methodical geek in your team who sits next to you, if you can help him complete his widget stacking each night before you go home and then ask for his feedback on your competency as a team player? And what about if you ask Arthur, the twenty-year invoice processor to teach you all he knows about invoice processing and then prove to him that you’ve learnt all that he’s taught you and then ask him to review your business knowledge. Imagine if Arthur tells your boss that actually you’re pretty good or at least that you’re dedicated to understanding the details of the business you’re in? That’s praise indeed!

And so we reach the end of the year and you sit down to discuss your review with your manager. As expected, Arthur reports that you’re diligent and interested. Martin sings your praises for Teamwork and Bob is reveling in your care and attention. However, from left-field, somebody has written that you don’t demonstrate strong leadership skills. You are horrified. In fact you’re incensed, so much so that you’re thinking of quitting…yes, that’ll teach them, you’ll find a company that appreciates your talents. Stop! In every appraisal discussion, you’ll learn something about yourself that you didn’t know. Criticism is not something to fear but rather to embrace. Every single person in the world has to take some criticism of where they could develop or better demonstrate their skills. If nobody tells you, then you’ll never know. And it’s only the things you don’t know you need to change that you can’t focus on changing. Take every criticism as a piece of advice and make a conscious decision upon whether you’re going to focus on improving it or not. It is rare that one person excels in every professional competency. If you learn that one particular area of your performance is weaker than others, you can either improve upon it or make sure you hide it.

And so you conclude your review with your manager by thanking her for the positive feedback and her assistance in helping you develop over the past year and you ask to meet her again the following week to discuss how you can address those areas of your performance raised as areas you should improve upon. It’s not rocket science it’s simple proactive career management. Understand the process, learn how to get the most from it, work tirelessly to exploit all it can offer and then reap the reward of positive recognition for your achievements and knowledge of where your development needs are. The performance review process is there for your benefit as much as your company’s and so like any other perk on offer get everything you can from it!