Everybody loves appreciation or praise when it comes from other people- be it from our mentors, our colleagues, or our bosses. But what if we have to praise ourselves? We all get nervous, don’t we? This is because the process of self-assessment isn’t very popular in our business ecosystem. We all rely on other people to offer us performance feedback or reviews during the appraisal process. But have we ever considered how we feel about ourselves as professionals or about our work? We didn’t, but now we do. With the help of a self-appraisal process, we can do a self-assessment and know our strengths and weaknesses as an employee or professionals. Let’s first understand, what is self-appraisal?
Self-Appraisal- The Basics
A self-appraisal process offers employees a platform to tell the world- especially their managers and colleagues- all about the contributions they are making to ensure the growth and success of the organization. It eliminates the complaints that employees usually make about not having the chance to present their side of the story or the disagreement with the feedback shared by their superiors.
However, it becomes difficult to conduct a self-appraisal process when we don’t know how to write a review, what comments to add, and what is the right way to tell all about our achievements. In this comprehensive guide to self-appraisal, we are going to tell you about the self-appraisal process.
Why is Self-Appraisal becoming popular among organizations?
Self-appraisal is important, not only for the employees but also for the employers. This gives them clarity about what people think about themselves or whether or not the managers are fair in giving feedback to employees. It also helps them to figure out the areas of improvement so that they can work on their weaknesses and come up with better strategies for future appraisal processes.
According to research, 45% of employees value feedback from their peers and clients/customers, yet less than 30% said they receive it. This means that self-appraisal can be the right step in the direction of an improved feedback process. Some of the major benefits of self-appraisal are mentioned below:
➡️Boosts employee engagement
When you offer employees a fair chance to review their performance, then it promotes employee engagement in the performance appraisal process. This helps them feel valued and heard and they will not leave a chance to discuss their achievements from their point of view. A fair appraisal process will then prompt them to actively participate in the process.
➡️Encourages ownership
Do you want your employees to take ownership of their work? Promote self-appraisal in the workplace. The performance appraisal process will not be completed if employees don’t share their feedback and it will get delayed. Nobody wants that. This is why they feel more accountable for tracking their performance and reviewing themselves based on their evaluation.
➡️Strengthens work relationships
Taking feedback from both employees and managers can foster better work relationships in the workplace. When there are continuous conversations between employees and their managers, it becomes easy to communicate things that would have been hard otherwise. Both employees and managers can brainstorm ideas on how to improve and overcome the roadblocks.
➡️Get rid of one-way communication
Self-appraisal process has opened doors for two-way communication. Employee interactions have become normal and employees can clearly communicate their expectations to their managers. This gives employees the confidence to share their thoughts and ask the right questions to their managers.
➡️Empowered employees
When you trust your employees for such important things and consider taking their input they are more likely to feel empowered. This passes on a clear message that the organization wants to do what’s best for its employees. This ensures that employees are empowered and motivated to deliver their best all the time.
➡️Career growth
We all seek career growth opportunities but how can we grab those opportunities if we don’t have the required skills and abilities. Self-appraisal helps employees know better about their strengths and weaknesses. They can introspect and work on them and upgrade their skills and set a path of growth for themselves.
So these are some of the benefits of self-appraisal, let’s now move to the most important part and that is:
How to write Self-Assessment during Self-Appraisal?
Some organizations circulate self-appraisal forms which make it easy for employees to review their performance. But sometimes, employees don’t have any idea on how to fairly review themselves. For such times, follow the below tips on how to write self-appraisal?
1️⃣Be clear of the objective
Know about the objective of the self-appraisal process. Will it be a deciding factor in your appraisal? Is it only for a performance review or will it also play a major role in deciding the raise or promotion? Will it be shared across teams? This will help you give the best responses.
2️⃣Be honest, be specific
Don’t exaggerate. Talk about your accomplishments but don’t brag. Write specifically about the goals that were set for you and how successfully you’ve achieved them. Try to mention a few examples, if possible, this will help prove your point in a much better way.
3️⃣Have the courage to acknowledge failures
There might be times when you fail to deliver your best and that’s okay. You don’t need to hide if you have failed in some areas. However, instead of self-sabotaging or blaming other people for your failures, try to improve in areas that hindered your ability to deliver 100% percent.
4️⃣Talk about your learnings
Apart from writing about your accomplishments and failures, it’s also important to discuss the things that you’ve learned while achieving your goals. Any new skills you’ve learned, any new idea that you brought to the table, any new strategies you implemented, talk all about them.
5️⃣Numbers speak for themselves
While writing your accomplishments, it’s advisable to mention some facts or numbers to give substance to them. Give due credit to the people who have collaborated with you. Also, don’t criticize others while praising yourself, and be gentle, humble, and professional while writing performance reviews.
6️⃣Convey your needs
If you think you can do better in some other areas or you believe you could’ve done better if you were provided some additional help or resources, then do convey that to your managers. You can also ask for any courses or mentorship you need to improve your performance.
By following these tips or suggestions you can write an outstanding self-appraisal review. Below are some of the examples of self-appraisal that can give you an idea of how to write exceptionally well self-appraisal reviews:
Self-Appraisal Examples
It is obvious that we all are capable of praising ourselves, however, sometimes the other person can think that we are showing off. We don’t want that, right? So here are a few phrases of examples of self-appraisal you can use to tell your peers or managers about your achievements or abilities.
✅Tell them how good you are at communication
- I clearly communicate my ideas or opinions to all stakeholders.
- I barely had any situations where my work got affected due to miscommunication.
- All my team members are able to communicate and collaborate with me.
- I am an active participant in all the office and team meetings.
- I don’t hold myself back from providing honest and constructive feedback to my peers or managers
- I never had any problem communicating with the members of other departments.
- I always appreciate my team members for their contributions or their good performance.
✅Self-appraisal examples for good work Performance
- I always try to deliver my best.
- I am very dedicated to my work and I never miss a deadline.
- Instead of focusing on problems, I like to look for solutions.
- I even help other team members to perform their tasks or resolve any problems they are facing.
- I believe in teamwork and I don’t have any bias toward any member of the team.
- I have outperformed myself in this month/year/quarter (any other period) by achieving (mention goal) by (mention a number in percentage).
- I have this urge to do better all the time, this is why I keep upgrading my skills and learning new things.
✅Write about how reliable you are as an employee
- I am punctual, honest, and kind.
- I prioritize my work and focus on delivering all the projects on time.
- I am open to feedback and don’t shy away from taking guidance from other people whenever there is a need.
- I try to be there for my teammates.
- I never try to defame anyone.
- I am not into blame games.
✅Write about your abilities to handle customers
- I have always received good customer feedback.
- I never had a bad relationship with any customer.
- I effectively listen to their questions and then offer them suggestions and try to resolve their queries.
- (%) of customers have given a five-star rating on my customer satisfaction survey
- I always try to understand our customers’ needs and offer solutions that suit them.
✅Don’t forget about your innovative and creative side
- I constantly try to look for solutions or strategies to improve our work processes.
- I have an agile mindset.
- I approach challenges with a positive attitude.
- I love collaborating with other people and getting their thoughts on our work processes.
✅Focus on growth and development during self-appraisal
- I set goals that are important for both my personal and professional growth.
- I seek out opportunities that can help me grow in my current role in this organization.
- I am a quick learner. Recently I have learned (mention skills).
- I have a clear vision for my career and I know what I want to achieve from this role.
✅Showcase your zeal to improve performance
- I have realized that I have great potential but I can do better in terms of performance.
- I need to be more transparent with my team members.
- I am a very positive person so I sometimes shy away from difficult conversations.
- I face difficulties in presenting in front of a large set of people. I need to improve that.
- I focus on my work, but sometimes I take leaves without informing others on time.
- I might be having ideas in my head but I don’t feel confident enough to present them in front of other people.
- I have difficulties asking for help, it sometimes affects my performance.
- I have realized that I need to continuously upgrade my skills or knowledge.
Self-Assessment template for the Self-Appraisal process:
Here is an example of a self-assessment template:
“First of all, thank you for giving me the opportunity to conduct a self-appraisal. I heartedly appreciate this gesture by the organization. Now coming to the self-assessment part, I was assigned the following job responsibilities or the following goals were set for my performance evaluation. I have given my best to accomplish all the goals set for me and the following are the goals (mention numbers, facts, results) I have achieved during the appraisal cycle.
Besides, achieving these goals I have also learned the following things (any new skill you have learned, course you took or completed, etc). Lastly, I think there were a few areas (mention the things you weren’t able to achieve) where I wasn’t able to perform well due to the following reasons (mention reasons). However, I think we can overcome these shortcomings by doing the following things (mention any solutions you have in mind).”
The Bottom Line
Sometimes employees forget about their tasks as they were set a long time ago and they have no recollection of those accomplishments or tasks. However, you can get rid of this by opting for a performance management software that not only helps you set SMART goals but also keeps track of the progress and performance of your employees. It stores all the data and information about performance reviews that you can use at any time from anywhere.
So this was all about the self-assessment or self-appraisal process. You can use the aforementioned examples or you can also tweak them according to your needs. Be honest and clear- this is our only suggestion. Remember that this process isn’t about getting into your manager’s good book, it’s about how you see yourself, how you think you can improve as a professional, and what makes you stand out from the crowd.
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