Self-appraisal form

You can assist employees to prepare for their appraisal meeting by giving them our self-appraisal form to complete. Make it optional and leave it to them to what extent they choose to share the information with their manager.

Appraisals

It’s good performance management procedure to appraise your staff on a regular basis and, in any event, no less than once a year. The aim of appraisals is not just to explore performance during the relevant appraisal period but also to use this information to set objectives and targets to be achieved during the forthcoming appraisal period. This is called an action plan. In order to make the whole process worthwhile and meaningful, the appraisal meeting should be a two-way open discussion, where views are exchanged and agreed conclusions reached. Therefore, you need to encourage your employees to self-reflect on their objectives, achievements, challenges and areas for improvement, and the suggestions, issues, problems or questions they wish to raise, ahead of the appraisal meeting. It’s relatively pointless their turning up and having nothing whatsoever to contribute to the appraisal discussion. This is where our Self-Appraisal Form comes in. It enables your employee to record their thoughts in preparation for the meeting so that they can attend the meeting in a constructive manner. It invites them to think about whether they understand the requirements of their job, whether and to what extent they have achieved the objectives and targets set at the last appraisal and what else they’ve accomplished, as well as analysing what parts of their job they think they’re good at, what they have difficulty with or don’t like and what they think would assist them to improve their performance and development.

Not formal

Self-assessment isn’t part of the formal appraisal procedure so don’t make it compulsory. It’s really up to the employee to decide if they want to complete the form as an aide memoire but do encourage them to do so. Likewise, it should be up to them whether they want to use it just for their own guidance and keep it confidential or show it to their manager. If the latter, as it’s not part of the formal procedure, it shouldn’t go on the employee’s personnel file unless they’ve agreed to this.