Planning for Performance Reviews

The other day, I was just shooting breeze with a friend of mine and the topic veered towards Performance Appraisals. This friend of mine is a seasoned HR Manager and working with a large organization. They were into their half-yearly Annual review process. He started saying that employees were dissatisfied because they felt that they did not have sufficient time to fill up their Performance Review forms. The employees wanted more time to fill up their forms. And surprisingly, they had given employees more than 2 weeks. I was a bit surprised that the employees considered two weeks as not enough time to fill the PA forms.

For me personally, the Performance Review process is a very important process as after all this the process that determines an employees growth both in responsibilities and financially. All (well, almost all) employees look forward to their Performance Review meetings and the results thereafter. I checked with a few other friends and they too said that the pet grouse employees had was that they did not have enough time to fill these forms. The time they gave their employees was anywhere between 1 to 3 weeks on an average.

Again the thought that this interaction triggered was, how is it that employees planned for their Performance Appraisal process. If you check with employees, you will find that almost all will say that the Performance Appraisal is an important part of their corporate stay and quite a number of times they decide to stay or leave an organization because of the results of the process. If that is the case then one must assume that employees would carefully plan for their performance appraisal process. However, when an informal survey was conducted, most of the employees said that they did not do any planning for their performance appraisal process. Most of them said that they did not know how to plan for their process. One thing that almost all employees lack is the detailed data on what they did while employed, in a particular position.

Most of the times, employers and employees don't know what to expect from a Performance Appraisal. I have seen many an organization experiment with new concepts like 360 degrees etc without really understanding the process and without having a clear set of expectations/results from the PA Process. Quite a number of times it happens that the Performance Appraisal process was set with a specific plan and a viewpoint in an organization. Over a period of time these managers went away and the new managers were not aware of the background of the Performance Appraisal process thereby losing the sanctity and the meaning of the process.

I will talk about planning for your performance appraisal in a minute. However, I am surprised that the HR does not communicate enough with the employees about this at all. Isn't it the responsibility of the HR and the line/functional managers to communicate with their juniors about how a performance appraisal process is conducted and how they should go about preparing for it.

Coming to the planning part, when does the performance appraisal process begins? My short answer to this is, when the employee joins the organization and immediately after your performance appraisal process is completed. My tips for the planning of your Performance Appraisal:

First and foremost - understand the objectives of Performance Appraisal in your organization and the things that they ask you to note down. Probably, you can ask for a copy of the PA form at the beginning itself.

Create a separate diary/journal/log for your stay with the organizations. Employees tend to forget many critical things by the time the Performance Appraisal process starts. This will help you maintain a log of whatever positive things you have done.

Update this diary on a weekly basis (max fortnightly). It will also help you keep focused on your job and what you need to accomplish. For example, if you have revenue targets, then it will help you in figuring out where you have reached.

Note down all accomplishments for the week. Be objective here. If you are supposed to make a certain number of calls every week for example. Then note down all times when you reach or extend this target. You need to be objective here.

Note down all difficult situations/challenges faced and how you resolved them. Often your managers and/reviewers are not fully aware of what you face daily. Sometimes you face extremely challenging tasks and you don't get an opportunity to update your manager about the same. Also, it helps when your managers leave mid-way and there is a new manager reviewing your performance.

Note down all guidance and trainings (formal and informal) given to subordinates (and even seniors). Often, such trainings given are ignored by the others and considered a part of the job. The fact however, is that you take out considerable time from your regular schedule to prepare and deliver such trainings - unless you are a trainer :-) . Ask for and record feedback on all such trainings given.

If you have been called for doing something outside your normal work responsibilities make a note of the same. Many times we are asked to do stuff which is not in our normal KRA/KPA, if you have taken time to do it, it should be brought to the notice of the seniors. Also, it will help you record if you are being asked to do that too often. Probably your organization needs to hire someone for what you are doing.

If you have been asked to take charge of a colleagues work for a short / long duration - make a note of it. I remember, in a previous life, I was asked to take charge of a colleagues work in another office. Which meant that I was traveling to two offices daily and doing work. I just mentioned the fact in passing in my PA Form. In hindsight, it probably should have earned me an extra promotion :)

If you see any opportunities of doing stuff which you feel you would want to do in the future, make a note of the same. You may forget it at the time of the Performance Appraisal. Also, if you keep these notes, it will help you analyse over a period of time whether you really want to do that stuff. Similarly, if you see any areas/opportunities where you would enjoy and gain from a training, make a note of it.

If you are dealing (or asked to deal) with clients and vendors and the client/vendor says something positive about you, make a note of the same in the diary. If your relationship permits, you can ask your client / vendor to send you an email repeating the same - this you can share with your seniors / team members - corporate politics permitting. Be sensitive and careful with this one. If not handled with tact this can go the other way quickly.

I believe, you get the drift of my argument here. You need to log on all success and efforts that have made you successful in your current role. If there are areas which you feel constrained because of which you cannot perform, note that as well. This will help you prepare for your Performance Appraisal process. I am sure if you follow this, you will be able to fill the PA forms in less than an hour as you will have sufficient data with you. Also, it will help you in your conversation with your manager as your story will be well defined and to the point. This will enable your manager to assess your performance more objectively and plan for your growth and learning in the organization in a focused and better manner. Again, this will help you in performing better. And the cycle continues.

Another direct benefit of this process will be when you do decide to look for a change of employment. All the notes that you have made will help you in approaching the new employer and interviewing correctly.

I am sure there is much more than this that you can do for planning for your Performance Appraisal. But, this should be a good starting point and will help you go a long way in managing the Performance Appraisal process as an employee.

If my HR friend (who I mentioned in the beginning) is reading it, I will advise him to share this article with his employees. It will help him bring up the satisfaction levels in his employees about the Performance Appraisal process and help the organization have a smoother and more meaningful PA process.

You can share the article with anyone provided you give the due credits and the article is shared in it's entirety.

Client Login