April 29, 2024
Providence House continues to build our resident’s Workforce Development skills. Last week, we focused on setting and achieving goals. This week, we will learn skills for understanding performance reviews. This language is being used in staff interactions with our residents and often includes stories of personal experience.
Topic: Understanding Performance Reviews
A performance appraisal is a way for a manager to evaluate your job performance, or how you are doing at your job. Each company has its own way of evaluating employees. The process can help workers improve and let them know when they’re doing well.
Kinds of Performance Appraisals
There are different kinds of performance reviews. When you first start a job, you may be on probation. A probationary period can last weeks or months. This is a kind of trial period. The employer makes sure you can handle the job duties. Your supervisor usually monitors how well you complete certain tasks. At the end of the period, you continue as a regular employee or are let go. Regular employees usually get evaluated once a year. In some companies, the review happens on your work anniversary. In other companies, all employees are reviewed around the same time.
At the Performance Appraisal
Usually, a supervisor writes an evaluation and discusses it with you. In some companies, the human resources department is part of the process. In the evaluation, the supervisor rates how well you met objectives. Sometimes the objectives are tied to goals set the previous year. The supervisor meets with you to discuss strengths and areas needing improvement. The results of the evaluation may be used to decide who should get a promotion or a raise and who needs more training. A manager may develop an action plan for an employee who needs to improve.
Preparing for the Evaluation
An evaluation can be stressful, but the process can help both you and the company meet goals. The best way to prepare is to work toward your goals all year, not just right before your review. You may have a chance to do a self-evaluation. If so, highlight what you have accomplished. Don’t overreact or get defensive if your supervisor is critical during the review. Instead, you can just focus on how you can do better.
Providence House staff plans to share their own experiences with performance reviews and talk about examples of a great review and examples of some that needed improvement.
Questions about the Workforce Development program at Providence House? Contact Dr. Whittney Polley, Director of Education at 318-221-7887 or wpolley@theprovidencehouse.com.