One of the most difficult nonengineering chores that both managers and employees have to contend with is the job performance-review process. Employees feel at the mercy of the system and their managers, while managers usually don't have time to perform honest appraisals of their employees' accomplishments and professional future. Don't forget that getting ready for a performance review starts the very day that you're hired.
A performance review doesn't have to be worse than a trip to the dentist. In reality, you have more power than you might think in the performance-review process. While it may seem that you're only the recipient of all of the praise and criticism, without any control over its content, you can actually turn the tables to make the performance review a showcase for yourself and your achievements.
Employees' power comes from two primary sources. First, they are in the best position to know just what they did throughout the course of the year. Second, with the proper preparation, employees can present themselves in the most favorable light possible.
Start at the beginning. When you're first hired, an initial formal step is to establish yourself within a job category. It might be something like "Engineer III" or "Lead Engineer." Typically it will correspond to written job categories in the company's personnel manual.
Most companies, especially the larger ones, try to manage their human resources by creating categories of jobs and development steps within those categories. This job category usually has a broad set of defined responsibilities, a salary range, and a defined method of moving from lower steps to successively higher ones.
Employees should understand where their job category fits into the company, and where they fit within their job category. A part of this is to gage just how much one will be able to enlarge the responsibilities and salary within that category, and into other, higher categories.
But, a more important part is for employees to identify just what kinds of actions are required on their part in that category. For example, if your job category requires you to "lead in the design of new products," then you should be sure to establish such a role within the first few months of the review period.
Employees might also be ranked against one another in the company within the same job category. Therefore, if you pay close attention to what the company expects in your category, you could have an edge over others. While comparing people from different departments and different projects may seem difficult and unreasonable, it's often done as a way to manage human-resources programs and costs.
In many cases, an initial part of the formal review process is to establish what are commonly called "goals and objectives" for employees during the review period. These will probably be tailored more specifically to your role, and will be more detailed than those found in a job category definition.
Almost certainly, you will have inputs into the establishment of these goals and objectives. You may, in fact, be asked to draft them yourself. This is your first concrete opportunity to influence your performance review, so make sure you take advantage of it. Set your objectives in such a way that you will be able to tackle and succeed at the tasks that are important to the company. At the same time, don't set impossible standards for yourself. You want to be able to achieve challenging, yet reasonable standards.
What if you're new to the company, and don't have a good idea of what type of projects or tasks are appropriate for your position? That makes it a little tougher, but you should ask others who hold similar jobs within the company for advice on realistic objectives. If you have no external reference points, work through the list with your manager. But, be clear which objectives are entirely within your control, and which rely on others or outside circumstances.
Further, you have to understand the relationship between the results of your review and your opportunities for pay raises and advancement. Take the opportunity to ask if there's a direct relationship between your performance as reported on the performance review and any salary increases.
In some companies, there might exist a strong and direct relationship between the two. In other companies, managers can exercise broad discretion on pay, no matter what the performance. This is an upfront indication of how much control an employee's performance review grants them.
Perhaps the most important thing you can do to prepare for your review is to know when it comes due. Companies perform the review process in several different ways.
Some companies conduct it on your anniversary date, while other companies review all employees at the same time of year. Some perform the process annually, while others may review semi-annually or even quarterly. Still, no matter how many times your employer performs the review, you should be prepared well before the actual day of the review.
In many instances, your manager will not have taken the time throughout the year to track the details of your accomplishments. That provides a place for you to make a big difference in your review. By taking a few minutes to prepare an outline of your most significant accomplishments, you can offer to your boss a list that will make his or her job much easier in preparing the review.
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