Employee self-appraisals, or self-evaluations, have undergone scrutiny on whether they are beneficial, help employees achieve goals, or provide an accurate picture of the employee’s performance from their own perspective. While some employees may express they find self-evaluations to be tedious, the real benefit of employee evaluations is in the strength of the team.

High-performing teams are found to be more effective and productive as they are able to better communicate and coordinate their efforts in order to meet deadlines and attack projects head-on. Self-appraisals benefit the entire team by allowing employees to identify and refine their strengths, and focus on improving areas of opportunity.

Adding an employee evaluation section to your regularly scheduled annual performance reviews will require setting a good foundation, creating a self-evaluation process, determining next steps to keep the employee’s professional growth on a positive trajectory, and monitoring progress.

Here are our tips for creating or adding employee self-evaluations to your existing performance review process.

Provide accurate, current job descriptions. Employees should always know what their current role is and be able to communicate their job duties and responsibilities. This information will allow the employee to understand exactly which areas they should be focusing on in their self-appraisal. The employee and manager should be in agreement of the employee’s duties to ensure the employee is evaluating the proper scope of their position.

Create a formal employee self-evaluation. An employee’s performance development should include a self-evaluation. The results of these evaluations should be used to contribute to the employee’s professional development planning and as a motivational tool. Managers should be able to glean information from the evaluation to help prepare the employee for their next professional move or better understand the areas the employee requires assistance to achieve their goals.

Include evaluation questions that require the employee to explore their current role, new goals or challenges, achievements, and how the company can assist in their professional development.

Closely monitor the new or integrated evaluation process. Whether your organization currently employs self-evaluations, or you are considering integrating them into your existing employee performance reviews, it will be important to monitor the progress and program success. Managers will want to keep a pulse on the process to confirm cross-departmental consistency and suggest or provide additional training, as necessary, to further ensure managers are prepared to execute the process effectively.
 
Follow-up. Schedule regular check-ins with employees to provide feedback throughout the year, rather than once or twice. Employees will see consistent performance-focused feedback as their manager investing in their career. These employees are 94^{% [1]} more likely to stay with your organization.

Evaluating an employee’s performance, even reviewing an employee’s self-appraisal, can be an uncomfortable task for managers. Regular performance reviews that incorporate an employee’s self-evaluation should look more like a performance snapshot throughout the year. These evaluations open doors for communication and opportunities for the employee and manager to provide feedback to one another, keeping the entire team engaged and productive. Contact Vensure to learn more about incorporating self-evaluations into your existing processes and procedures.

^[1] LinkedIn: 2018 Workplace Learning Report