Your performance and development over a year are the basis for the assessment allowance and also for the periodic increase in your salary. In fact, it is about your performance as an individual and also as a player in the team. But the performance review is not a casual chat and requires an active attitude, including from the employee.
Preparation for the performance review
In the performance review, you make agreements in advance with your manager about the expected results. Because your final results will later be tested against the agreements made during the assessment interview, it is very important to properly prepare for the performance interview.
An active attitude from the employee is desired
The annual performance review is an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas with your boss in more detail about your work and the way in which you fulfill it. Together you can examine your personal career options, see where the strengths and weaknesses lie and determine whether there is a need for additional training. Anyone who, as an employee, slumps during such a conversation and lets everything happen to them is doing themselves a disservice.
Performance review is not an informal meeting
A performance review is not an informal meeting and requires an active attitude, also from the employee; One-way traffic is not the intention. Not only does the chef have to vent, you can also raise issues that are not going well (or are going well). By discussing your own working method, the workload, causes outside yourself, or the way in which your boss provides leadership. Together you set goals at the end of the conversation. During a follow-up, it can be examined what has ended up in practice with the goals.
Take at least the following points into account during your performance review
Every performance review is different, but there are a number of recommendations that are useful in many situations:
- Both your manager and you know exactly what results are involved, so that there can be no misunderstandings afterwards;
- The agreements are clear, achievable and measurable. This last element indicates whether the achievement of the result can be determined. This is of course indispensable for the assessment and a fair reward. Feasible, that goes without saying. But also ambitious. Because as we know, enough is often not good enough;
- Experience shows that it is better to focus on a limited number of goals and that you should be careful not to take on too much;
- The goals must fit in with and contribute to the objectives of the department. Your performance is largely dependent on your own effort and influence;
- It may well happen that a specific performance in a certain period is extra important for your department. A positive result will then carry more weight in the assessment. It goes without saying that this has been determined and agreed in advance;
- A deal is a deal. Agreements made cannot therefore be changed at any time. But of course flexibility must be in the system. There are always conceivable circumstances that require interim adjustment. These can, for example, be dictated by changing market conditions, by developments in the department, but can also be on a personal level.
What is listed above is both an important ‘tick list’ and a guideline for discussions with your manager. You both start from the same point.
Results
The results achieved in a year determine whether, and to what extent, you will receive an assessment allowance.