http:\/\/www.scribd.com\/doc\/23896\/12-Rules-of-the-Annual-Review<\/a><\/p>\nThere were 4, 380,00 hits on my Google search confirming the popularity of the topic.\u00a0 The goal of the PracticaL Mentor is to present ideas to help form unique and successful strategies for yearly reviews.<\/p>\n
Everyone\u2019s yearly situation is different. There may be a detrainment to adopting someone else\u2019s approach unless it fits your unique situation. My first professional job out of college placed me in a situation with a dozen new hires, like myself, and a half dozen old hands who had been there from a year to 20 years.\u00a0 It was a very competitive environment with a very manipulative supervisor.\u00a0 With just blue collar and military experience, I had no idea of how to handle my first yearly review.\u00a0 The first yearly review was the end of the probation period when the remaining wash outs were let go.\u00a0 The rumor mill ran wild with misinformation.\u00a0 The water cooler crowd insisted there were fewer permanent jobs than candidates. This caused a very unhealthy competitive situation, as this was a year, like now, when the country was in a deep recession. Entry-level jobs were almost impossible to find.\u00a0 It brought out the best and worst in all of us.<\/p>\n
The supervisor and old hands played us like used fiddles watching everyone jump through imaginary hoops, and pitting one against the other.\u00a0 It would have made a great TV reality show, as alliances were formed and broken, and free running rumors fueled the competition.\u00a0 Not a great position to be in, but as I learned later, not an uncommon one.\u00a0 So what happened and what did I learn?<\/p>\n
There was a lot of discussion among the new hires on how they were going to handle the review.\u00a0 Some were well prepared with documentation of everything they had accomplished during the year.\u00a0 Since we were mostly in training there were really few individual accomplishments.\u00a0 Others claimed to have established leadership and management abilities when there were few if any opportunities to demonstrate these qualities.\u00a0 There were a few who felt they were at the bottom of the heap, and were looking for reassurance they were doing a good job. The rest of us were somewhere in the middle. Some used the opportunity to brag, others complain.\u00a0 Several would talk about what they were going to do and say in the interview. (Which had no resemblance to what they actually did or said).\u00a0 These conversations transferred ideas good and bad among the group.\u00a0 The smart move was to listen, adopt any ideas that fit your strategy, and store the rest in memory.<\/p>\n
The yearly review turned out to be standardized. There were no trick questions.<\/p>\n
The whole basis of the review was: What do you think were your biggest accomplishments? \u00a0What was your assessment of the job you were doing?\u00a0 What could you do better?\u00a0 What ideas do you have to improve efficiency and production? All standard questions, but the way everyone responded was quite different.\u00a0 Some inflated their accomplishments and down played their deficiencies.\u00a0 Others made stuff up, and blamed others for any shortcomings. There were those who tried to turn the tables by asking the supervisor questions.\u00a0 Of the twelve reviews there were twelve different approaches.\u00a0 Nobody was fired, but the stage was set.\u00a0 The fierce competition never ended.<\/p>\n
So what are the lessons learned? Yearly reviews in most cases are pretty much standardized.\u00a0 When I worked for the government everything was on a form with check boxes. \u00a0Do some investigating into how your company conducts yearly reviews and prepare to answer the questions.\u00a0 The main objective of the yearly review is communication.\u00a0 The more open the exchange the better.\u00a0 Don\u2019t wait for the yearly review to develop as much rapport with your boss and others as you can.\u00a0 This may not always be possible, but it is worth the effort.\u00a0 During the yearly review,\u00a0 try to make it a conversation, not a question and answer test.\u00a0 Be yourself, don\u2019t try to apply someone else\u2019s tactics. (The advice may not be genuine, nor reflect your strengths and personality) Put the best spin you can on your performance. Accept responsibility for any shortcomings, and ask for help to eliminate them.\u00a0 In most companies, management is responsible for bringing deficiencies to the employee\u2019s attention prior to the yearly review.\u00a0 If they don\u2019t bring up a sore point, let it rest.\u00a0 If there is something bothering you, it may be better not to intertwine those issues with performance.\u00a0 Make an appointment for after the yearly review.<\/p>\n
Salary increases; cost of living adjustments; and bonuses \u00a0should be based on some tangible and recognized benchmark.\u00a0 There are salary calculators on line to help determine the salary range for most professions. Cost of living is usually tied to a consumer index. Check the Commerce Department Website.\u00a0 Bonuses are a combination of the company\u2019s financial status, and personal performance.\u00a0 Most companies have a set range for bonuses.\u00a0 Check the Security and Exchange site for information on your company\u2019s financial health and pay policies.<\/p>\n
Assessing your personal performance is probably the hardest to quantify.\u00a0 This is when keeping records of accomplishments, awards, etc, comes in handy. \u00a0You have to toot your own horn. If you don\u2019t, no one else will.\u00a0 Stay in your comfort zone \u00a0your boss probably already has an opinion of your performance.\u00a0 Your task is to reinforce the positives, and delete the negatives.\u00a0 Remember money is not everything.\u00a0 Sometimes it is better to negotiate perks in addition to, or instead of, money.\u00a0 Many people are negotiating for more work from home days, better computer equipment, additional responsibility, attending more or fewer meetings, special projects,\u00a0 college tuition, management training, etc\u2026\u00a0 Be creative, and reasonable.<\/p>\n
Leave a comment, and tell a friend.<\/p>\n
Good Luck<\/p>\n
The PracticaL Mentor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The yearly review process has been with us for a long time, and will likely stay until the end of time.\u00a0 To say the least it is an imperfect process where management and employees meet to discuss the previous years performance, and in most cases determine next year\u2019s pay or this year\u2019s bonus.\u00a0 There are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5,3,207],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advice","tag-career-advice","tag-practicalmentor","tag-yearly-review"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":412,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions\/412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/practicalmentor.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}