How to Prepare for a Performance Review As an Employee

Tracking Your Own Progress

Record your performance. Whether you’ve just started a new job or have been in the same position for a while now, start a journal for work. Detail your experiences on the job to use as reference for your next review. Keep an accurate record of both your high and low points. Refer to these so your supervisor doesn’t overlook any points where you exceeded expectations, and so you’re not caught off-guard by any unexpected criticisms. Keep track of things like: Both positive and negative feedback from coworkers and/or customers. Dates, times, and circumstances surrounding specific instances. Emails, paperwork, and other reference materials to be cited. EXPERT TIP Elizabeth Douglas Elizabeth Douglas CEO of wikiHow Elizabeth Douglas is the CEO of wikiHow. Elizabeth has over 15 years of experience working and managing teams in the tech industry. She has held roles in multiple areas, including computer engineering, user experience, and product management. She received her BS in Computer Science and her Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Stanford University. Elizabeth Douglas Elizabeth Douglas CEO of wikiHow This data can be helpful in other ways, too. Elizabeth Douglas, CEO of wikiHow, says; "You should know what your level of contribution is and be able to articulate it. It's always good to have data in case you should get into a situation where you need to advocate for yourself, but you can also use that information as a bullet point on your resume or when you're asking for a promotion."

Reflect on the period to be reviewed. If your next performance review is in the next few days or weeks, then starting a journal now will really only benefit later reviews. If this is the case, cast your mind back and try to remember as much as you can about the timeframe to be discussed. If needed, ask coworkers for refreshers if certain details escape you. Focus on things like: Projects that you successfully completed. Missteps that lowered your productivity. Improvements that you’ve made over that time period.

Review your last review. If you’ve already received a performance review from the same employer, go over what was discussed, with a particular eye on any areas that your supervisor felt you should improve on. Reflect on how you have done just that (or still need to). Whenever possible, find measurable data to back up those claims. Available data will depend on your exact job and the issues raised in your previous review, but it could be in the form of things like: Positive increases in recorded sales, order fulfillment, or completed projects. Favorable decreases in missed work hours, disputes with coworkers, or disciplinary incidents.

Collect relevant and supporting material. First, if your supervisor provided you with a written description of your position’s duties, save it. Use their own words to identify exactly what is expected of you as an employee. From there, identify how you’ve met or failed those expectations, as well as how you may have exceeded them. Depending on the exact nature of your job, assemble any additional material that you can cite directly as further proof of your productivity. This could include: Customer ratings or reviews and/or similar material from outside sources. Daily, weekly, monthly, and/or quarterly reports. Project status reports.

Preparing Talking Points

Compose a list of highlights to cite. Use your journal or summary to create a concise list of your successes throughout the time period in question. Keep it short and to the point so it will sound impressive without verging into prolonged bragging. Include not only what you did, but a brief description of how you did it, too. For example: Say you’re listing “reduced overhead” as an accomplishment. Detail this further with short explanations like “renegotiated bids with supply vendors” or “switched to new materials that are equally effective but significantly lower in cost.”

Include the little things, too. Obviously, landing a major client that drastically increases your company’s revenue looks pretty good on a list of accomplishments. However, don’t neglect the small steps you have taken to improve your performance. Use minor things to highlight your attention to detail. For example: Reorganizing your physical workspace to make materials easier and quicker to access may have only shaved five minutes off what used to be a 30-minute project. But if your job is highly repetitive and you extend the math over an eight-hour workday, that’s over a half-hour of saved work-time.

Highlight others’ help when appropriate. Keep in mind that your employer is most likely more interested in having an efficient team for a workforce, rather than a collection of individuals who compete against each other for favor. As you compile your list of highlights, give credit where credit is due. Demonstrate your team spirit by sharing the spotlight when others deserve it. At the same time, don’t shy away from emphasizing your role in each success. So if that big impressive project that you were part of was a major success in large part because you personally reached out and improved communication between various departments, say so.

Identify challenges, shortfalls, and ways to overcome them. In addition to your highlights, list those aspects of your job and work environment that have been particularly challenging for you. Also make special note of exceptional shortfalls in your performance and detail the specific circumstances that led to them. In both cases, come up with your own solutions. Demonstrate your ability to analyze your own performance with objectivity, as well as your personal desire to improve. For example, let’s say you run the shipping department for an online retailer and have suffered delays in shipments. If this is a recurring issue, think of how restructuring your procedure, reorganizing your workspace, and/or adding more full-time staff could help. If however you got slammed due to unique circumstances (like a three-week holiday season between Black Friday and Christmas, instead of the usual four), consider what steps you can take the next time around in preparation.

Ensuring a Positive Exchange

Make sure everyone’s on the same page timewise. The length of time that your review is supposed to cover may vary from one company to the next, or even by department. At the start of your meeting, confirm with your supervisor the exact period to be discussed. Ensure that your performance over the entire period will be evaluated, rather than just the recent past. This is important because memory tends to skew toward more recent events. This means your supervisor may overlook particular highlights from earlier in the period, and/or fail to appreciate your rate of improvement over the entire timeframe.

Be objective. Keep in mind that everyone has areas in which they could improve. Resist the urge to grow defensive. Regardless of how you rate yourself as an employee, anticipate some amount of negative feedback from your supervisor. Begin your meeting with a humble mindset. This is why preparing a list of your own shortcomings beforehand is important. This way, you’re less likely to be caught off guard by specific criticisms, and thus less likely to take them personally.

Accept responsibility. When your supervisor criticizes your performance, own up to it. Avoid using your co-workers as scapegoats. Be aware that this will only add another valid criticism to your performance (“does not accept responsibility”). Of course, if you are being unjustly criticized for a situation that was genuinely created by others, stand up for yourself. At the same time, show your willingness to improve by offering ways that you could personally help in minimizing such situations (if possible), such as by improving communication or sharing resources.

Ask for help. Assume that your supervisor’s intention is to help you improve, not merely reprimand you. Don’t be afraid to ask for specific forms of help if you think you would benefit from them. Obviously, what to ask for depends entirely on your position as well as the company as a whole, but things to ask for could include extra training, additional resources, and/or the removal or restructuring of company policies or procedures that prevent you from succeeding. This doesn’t have to be solely in response to your supervisor’s comments. If you believe such help will benefit you, suggest it even if they don’t raise the topic themselves.

Look ahead, not backward. Obviously, as a review, your discussion will begin with past events. However, as the conversation continues, shift the focus forward. Instead of getting caught up in a point-by-point response to things that are already over and done with, concentrate on the future. Leave your supervisor with the impression that you’ve digested their comments and are already thinking of ways to apply them as you move forward. Don’t save the future-talk for the end, either. As your supervisor brings up concerns about past performance on a point-by-point basis, address each point by emphasizing the lessons that you’ve learned from past experience and how you intend to use those in the future.