Five Ways To Prepare For The Next Appraisals

COMPANIES HAVE sent out their first round of mails requesting employees to keep their performance management sheets updated. The last-minute scurrying around for data can be avoided if a few basic principles are observed a few months before appraisal time, suggests Devina Sengupta.

Keep your Facts Ready Now is the time when a quick search in your mail Inbox would help gather all the mails the bosses wrote in a rare mood of indulgence. Those that are complimentary should be saved in a separate folder for easy access along with few mental notes on how your contribution helped the team during tough times. Updating the Performance Management System canhelp in case evidence is required, says Sameer Farooqi, manager in a Pune based manufacturing company.

Look Ahead Aditi S, a senior executive in a Bangalore-based media firm, has appraisals every two quarters. “While most worry about their past performance in an appraisal, you should be ready with what you want to do,” says Aditi. The review, which lasts for 15-20 minutes , has supervisors talk to her about her career progression and skills that can be improved.

Know the Hierarchy Many employees do not know either their organisation’s structure or their key performance indicators (KPI). If the employer is systematic in its appraisal process and the KPIs are under control, the employee still has the chance to work hard in the last three months and make up for any slack. This is specially so in case of teams where deals can be struck at the last minute as well, like business development.

Keep Questions Ready “While keeping facts and numbers ready, one may also like to look at the roadmap assured by the employer in the previous appraisal,” says partner at Hyderabad-based executive search firm, Maxima Global International. Instead of a charged-up employee and boss firing volleys of questions at each other, a planned set of queries will help the employee come across as an organised employee who has chalked out a flow chart of how he or she wants his or her career to shape up.

Be Consistent In panic, those who believe that a sudden burst of teamwork will bring them to the spotlight, often end up looking shallow. The review of peers and supervisors will reflect how one has been performing in the past few months. A change of attitude would not mean a change of heart for those who are rating.

(The Economic Times, Mumbai, 27-12-2011)