Are You Ready for Your Performance Evaluation?
posted on:08/16/2010
October is just a few months away and once again employees will be sitting down with their supervisors to review the past year's work performance. Will this experience be gratifying or depressing? As employees of the University of West Florida we do have some control over the process and how it plays out. There are steps that we can be taking right now that can help our supervisors complete the performance evaluation in a fair and equitable manner. The performance evaluation should be a joint effort between the employee and supervisor and should be considered an investment in encouraging and promoting an employee's professional development and career.
So, what should you be doing?
- Refresh yourself by reviewing last year's performance evaluation. Look over the remarks made by your supervisor concerning your strong points and accomplishments and areas that can be improved; check your standings on the General Performance Standard Worksheet A and make note of those areas that show a need for improvement; and review the objectives that need to be accomplished in this evaluation period.
- Now be brutally honest with yourself: Have you worked to improve those areas that were suggested by your supervisor? Have you met all or most of the objectives that were set for this evaluation period? Document what you have done to improve your skills and abilities and how you have met the objectives set for your evaluation period (November 2005 to present). A great way to do this is to use the Task Option in Outlook. Tasks allows you to put in the subject, list the dates that you completed the assignment, training or other essential timeline in meeting the objective and provides an area to give a detailed description of what was done to meet the desired outcome.
- Print a copy of the General Performance Standard Worksheet A (http://uwf.edu/ohr/PerformanceEvaluation.pdf) and complete the form based on the criteria provided. Once again, rank yourself fairly and try not to over inflate your ratings. List those areas that you feel still need improvement.
- Make an appointment with your supervisor to talk about those areas that need improvement and ask for direction, suggestions or examples of activities that would assist you in improving these qualities. Talk about training, mentoring or shadowing as means to assist you in building your skills.
Under the links for Human Resources Policies and Procedures, you will find useful articles that talk about the performance appraisal/evaluation and how to make the experience useful and insightful for the employee and supervisor. There are also articles on setting goals and creating a career/developmental plan. These articles should assist you in preparing for the performance evaluations and setting goals and objectives for next year that flow with your career enhancement progression plan.