How to Have an Employee Complete a Self-Evaluation

Performance appraisals are hard to do. Finding out how employees rate themselves can help the conversation. Employees are usually harder on themselves than you will be. It may also be a part of the process at your company. Either way it’s a chance to start a dialog with an employee about performance.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Performance appraisal forms
• Documentation about employee performance

1. Decide what part of the evaluation form you want your employee to fill out. If there is a specific section on the form, you can just use this or add others. You choose what you want the employee to rate.

2. Tell the employee about the self-evaluation and give them the document. If this has never been done before or it’s a new performance appraisal form, do this in person. Make sure they understand the document, what they have to fill out and any rating scale.

3. Set a due date for the employee to return their self-evaluation. This helps you get started on the parts you have to write and stay on target with the process.

4. Review the information and use it for your preparation for the actual performance evaluation discussion.

5. Use the employee self-evaluation during the performance appraisal discussion. Where your ratings are very different ask for reasons. You may get information you did not know or you may have to set the employee straight in some areas.

Tips & Warnings

• If you don’t have an evaluation form or don’t want to use it for a self-evaluation ask the employee to write a summary of their performance. Tell them how long this should be and what they should cover.
• If an employee who you think is a really poor performer rates themselves really well on everything, start with a discussion about why your opinions are so different. This will be easier if you have been telling them about poor performance. It should not be a surprise.
• For differences in ratings between you and the employee, have specific, concrete examples to support your scores. If the employee says they complete all reports perfectly, have samples that were not turned in according to the standard.
• Don’t just use the employee self-evaluation as the basis for your entire discussion about performance. If you have not done your own preparation, it looks like you don’t care about the process or the employee. The self-evaluation can be a valuable part of your preparation but should not be your entire preparation.