One of the most powerful key performance indicators of your employee is their self-evaluation. When properly done, self-evaluation can make your appraisal process more effective, open up constructive communication between managers and employees, and provide several key benefits to the company.
Benefits of Self-assessment
Active role: With self-assessment employees actively engage in the appraisal system, which turns them from being simply the ‘recipients’ of feedback to having their own ‘voice’ and thus letting them take a diligent part to shape their performance appraisals and review the process as well.
Gain a broader perspective: Self-assessment can help give managers a better insight into the employee’s overall performance and strategy as well as their perception of their own performance. At times, even after working closely with their subordinates, managers are not always in a position to see the full picture and correctly interpret the finer nuances that affect employee performance. With self-evaluation process, the manager can gain a broader perspective and get their side of the story.
Help identify the gaps: The information presented in the self-appraisals might guide the managers for evaluating their performance. An employee self-evaluation process can help identify the gaps that might not have surfaced. It also gives the opportunity to have a constructive debate with the employee and provide fair performance ratings.
Engage employees: Often, top to down evaluations serve to disengage or discourage employees from revealing the true worth of their performance. With self-assessment, you pave the way to open a two-way dialogue in the organization’s management culture, helping to foster a better collaborative performance management process.
Values and Guiding principles of Self-Assessment
It is crucial to discover and reach common consensus to define the parameters that guide all self-assessment activities. It is also crucial to develop a strategy for continual performance monitoring that actively outlines key performance indicators, required resources, internal and external monitoring processes. A blueprint should include processes for identifying opportunities to develop action plans which will address key areas and encourage better communication between managers and employees. It sets a direct link between the appraisal and the job.
A secure and non-judgmental environment is crucial to the self-assessment process. The key benefits of this are:
- Offers employees an active platform to provide honest answers about their knowledge and skills related to the job performance.
- Provides an opportunity to share their aspirations, hopes, grievances, and individual perspective in a candid manner.
- Ensures that the information captured during the process is used to bring meaningful change within an organization.
These guiding principles represent best practices within the following performance management process:
- Goals and expectations should be well-defined at the beginning of the appraisal process.
- Lay down the performance criteria and metrics to help clearly identify the parameters to measure the performance. For example, what key values will be considered as an ‘exceptional performance’.
- The appraisal process should be a continuous one and goals and expectations should be consistently measured throughout the performance cycle.
- Employees should be provided enough time to submit their self-evaluation before managers submit their review statements.
- Performance appraisals should include an assessment of the organization’s core values and vision.
The self-assessment process in now truly the first step of the performance appraisal process and has helped management to drive up engagement and retention.