Make The Most Of Your Performance Review

Performance reviews give you a chance to understand whether your work is as good as you expected it to be, or not. You might have thought that you did an excellent job on a monthly report, when in fact, your supervisor thought it needed much improvement before they can call it satisfactory.

It’s normal for you to be stressed out about your performance review. After all, your employer might take a big decision about raising your salary or giving you a promotion based on the results of your performance review. Performance reviews are sometimes known as employee evaluations or performance appraisals.

Some employers use performance reviews to decide whether or not to fire a worker. Although you might consider performance reviews to be an unsavory topic, they allow you to learn about what the manager thinks of your work.

However, performance reviews have a major drawback. The outcome of a performance review report makes the worker entirely helpless because all the power is with the person who authors the review. Whoever writes the review will draft it based on their opinion of what you have performed in the previous year. Hence, the performance review might not be entirely unbiased.

You may not have control over what goes in your performance review, but you can formulate a strategy for yourself to face the review without extreme stress.

Before everything else, you must familiarize yourself with the process

Learn what you can about the performance review process of your company. Not knowing the process will add even more stress to you. If you haven’t had a performance review before, ask your coworkers about the process of the employer. Your employer isn’t doing this performance review out of spite. Most employers use performance assessments to evaluate the work of their employees. In a way, they are looking to give feedback about your work through this evaluation.

Do a self-review of your work

You don’t have to wait until your supervisor does it for you. Do a performance review for yourself, as impartially as you can. Make a list of all your professional accomplishments during the last year. It will be easier if you keep an ongoing list on your computer and add achievements to it as they occur. Mention how your performance has allowed the employer to save dollars, generate sales, or expand the client base. Be specific while you are at it. Numbers make a significant impact during a performance review.

Plan out your response to a substandard performance review

Don’t just cross your fingers and wait for a satisfactory performance review. Think about what you would do if the review were a bad one. It’s always better to be prepared to face a negative outcome than to have a sudden outburst of indignation and make a grave mistake. In case of a negative review, ask to speak with your manager in a couple of days. It will give you both the time to think about the matter. Maybe you would learn that the review was somewhat on point, after pondering it for a few days.

The takeaway from your performance review

Be it a negative or positive outcome, your performance review is a valuable chance for you to understand where your work is at on a professional level. You may even understand how your boss thinks of certain actions you took. Your boss may have been unaware of your achievements at the time of the review. In such cases, you can set up several meetings a year with your boss to talk about your accomplishments and get feedback on your work. If you receive positive feedback from your performance review, you will now know exactly what to keep doing more of!