Rather than worry about an upcoming performance review, consider these ways both employers and employees can prepare to ensure a smooth process.

Even if your company doesn’t conduct self-evaluations, they can be a useful way for employees to assess their work and prepare for a larger evaluation. By identifying areas for potential growth, as well as realms where you consistently surpass expectations, you’re better situated to receive criticism and praise. In a performance review, knowing what’s coming can better prepare you to set new goals, ask for a raise, or continue to make necessary improvements.

A self-evaluation also serves to remind your boss of your past and present contributions. “Self-evaluation is a great tool to highlight all your finer points, after all, you cannot always expect your boss to remember your entire year’s worth of good deeds,” Associated Content explains.

When completing a self-evaluation, there are several factors to keep in mind. First, don’t be afraid to discuss your accomplishments, but be prepared to be specific. Details can help illustrate the extent of your involvement in a project, and serve as concrete examples of what you’ve contributed. While it’s important to take credit for your accomplishments, be honest with yourself in the process. Did you have a lot of help? If so, give credit to those who supported you.

If a self-evaluation form isn’t available at your company, it’s still helpful to take the time to ask yourself a few questions. “The act of self evaluation and the concurrent introspection causes an employee to review goals, assess progress, and thoughtfully consider areas for job and career growth,” HR expert Susan M. Heathfield explains at About.com: Human Resources. Asking yourself the hard questions before meeting with your boss can ultimately work in your favor.

Employers, too, can improve the process by examining the performance review system in place at their company, and identifying ways to make the process more effective. Instead of viewing the performance review simply as an annual event, managers can take steps to improve the quantity and quality of their interactions with employees.

“In the same way that a doctor makes rounds to check on patients, a leader makes rounds to check on employees,” Quint Studer, founder of the consultancy Studer Group, writes at News Blaze. “The technique allows you and your managers to regularly touch base with employees, make personal connections, recognize success, find out what’s going well, and determine where improvements are needed.”

This approach to performance reviews means that the big review becomes “the culmination of lots of little meetings.” As a result, neither party is surprised by any one issue — usually, the majority of issues have all been brought to light in previous conversations. Studer also recommends holding reviews quarterly in order to avoid conducting a review that only reflects the past few months of work.

Another key aspect of conducting a successful performance review is laying out a clear, objective system for measuring performance.

While terms like “communication” can often be difficult to assign a numeric value (one person may rank an employee as a three, another person may rank the employee higher), developing a more concrete system of evaluation based on objective metrics can be useful for both employer and employee. By setting deadlines based on a tangible metric, such as how many calls an employee makes in a week or how many accounts the employee is actively managing, it is easier to give data-based feedback that is an accurate reflection of an employee’s work, Studer argues.

In addition to establishing objective criteria, holding quarterly reviews and maintaining an ongoing conversation with employees, it’s also essential to ensure that all managers and leaders are on the same page, especially if the performance review system is new or has changed.

“Make sure all leaders are singing from the same choir book,” Studer explains. “Leaders aren’t born knowing how to hold effective performance reviews. They need to be trained.”

With these key components in place, a performance review can serve as an effective platform for meaningful praise, encouragement or performance-related rewards. But these components also function as a way to move under-performing employees out of the company, an important part of maintaining a strong and successful business.

“All employees need to know if goals are being met — but how can the leaders make the right decisions unless employee performance is being actively managed and measured?” Burton Goldfield, president and chief executive officer of HR outsourcing firm TriNet, writes at Entrepreneur.com. “Keep performance management part of your company’s DNA and it will help your organization stay focused even in the midst of shifting priorities and course corrections.”

Resources

Perform Self Evaluation for a Positive Performance Review
by Omie Akinyo
Associated Content, Jan. 19, 2009

You Can’t Afford to Skip Reviews
by Burton Goldfield
Entrepreneur.com, Sept. 10, 2009

Use an Employee Self Evaluation
by Susan M. Heathfield
About.com: Human Resources

8 Ways to Make Your Company’s Performance Review Process More Effective
by Quint Studer
News Blaze, Jan. 20, 2010