We’re in the midst of annual reviews at my company; unlike some companies, which schedule an annual review on the anniversary of the employee’s hire date, we do ours all at once, at the beginning of the year. Part of the review process is “peer feedback;” that is, each employee has the ability to request feedback from co-workers on his or her performance throughout the year. In addition, each employee creates a “self-assessment,” where he or she analyzes his or her own performance over the past year. Having recently finished reading dozens of these, I’d like to share what I find most helpful in a well-written peer or self assessment.
(Note: your company’s process is most likely somewhat different than mine, so feel free to adapt this to your particular situation. I do think, however, that the general principles are common to most business settings.)
The first rule of thumb is: be on time! A review or self-assessment that arrives before my deadline for reporting on you is infinitely more valuable than one that arrives later. When I have to tell my manager about your performance, I’m going to have to rely on my (imperfect) memory about your work if you don’t give me your self-assessment to remind me. Six sentences scrawled on the back of an envelope (who uses envelopes any more, any way?) is far, far better than a dozen pages that arrive 24 hours too late.
