What do you write in self-appraisal?

In a self-appraisal form, employees mention their accomplishments, challenges they faced while achieving goals, and things they are planning to achieve in the next performance review cycle.

How do you answer an appraisal question?

While addressing appraisal questions, you need to be more specific about your accomplishments. Also, focus on your struggles and achievements rather than highlighting other’s mistakes.

How do you speak in an appraisal discussion?

During an appraisal discussion, avoid sounding vague about your achievements. The more specific you are, the higher will be the impact. Also, feel free to give your suggestions about improving the revenue and productivity.

How to Write Self Appraisal: 10 Tips & Example for Performance Appraisal

During a performance evaluation process in any organization, it is common for employers to ask their employees about writing a self-appraisal. No matter how brilliant you were during the year, you will not be able to impress your supervisor and the management if not communicated well.

While the thought of writing the perfect self-appraisal can make employees nervous, it can be enormously beneficial if done right. This article is here to calm your nerves and get you started.

What is Self Appraisal?

Self Appraisal is a form of self-assessment where you review your work performance over a specific period. You reflect on your major professional achievements, goals accomplished, and other ways through which you proved to be an asset to your organization.

Self-performance appraisal forms also include the difficulties that you dealt with in that time frame.

What’s the Importance of Writing a Performance Appraisal?

Writing a self-appraisal is essential for an employee to realize where they are in their career. You get a clearer picture of your strengths and weaknesses. You become an active participant in your performance evaluation and have a higher chance to improve your career prospects.

What's the Importance of Writing a Self Appraisal

It helps in creating a two-way communication channel between you and your manager. Your employers further understand your perspective and expectations better. It also resolves any past conflicts.

Based on your self-evaluation, your manager can recognize what you are good at and the areas where you need training. This helps in optimized allocation of tasks, hence better productivity moving forward.

What All You Need to Prepare for Self Evaluation

The best way to reduce your stress and write that impeccable self-appraisal is to prepare well in advance.

Understand the purpose:
You should be sure about why you are writing a self-review. It provides you a clear picture of what your highlights should be and the depth of evaluation.For instance, if you are looking for a promotion, you should focus on the previous tasks that make you a suitable candidate for the senior position.
Know your accomplishments:
If you are not proactively keeping an account of your daily tasks, the chances are that you can miss listing out something important during the review.Gather your work records, analytics, appreciation for contributions, awards, and additional achievements. If your company uses software to track your performance, refer to it. Be ready to show how well you fulfilled your key responsibilities and even worked beyond to benefit the organisation.
Think about your struggles:
It is necessary to note the challenges you faced during the work period. If you think you never had any issues, you are either missing something or doing the wrong job.Mention anything you can think of. Do not be afraid of addressing them. You can edit those later. This shows your self-awareness and provides room for improvement.

How to Write a Self Appraisal for Performance Review

After gathering all the necessary information, the next step is to start writing. But how? Here are some tips for you.

Haste makes waste: Take your time while writing your self-review. This not only prevents you from making mistakes or leaving out something but also shows how serious you take this process.
Prioritize your successes: Map the accomplishments that best align with your company’s goals. For example, if you introduced something new that increased the website traffic, engagement from prospects, leads, etc., do not feel shy to mention them. Keeping the focus on relevant accomplishments can set you apart from the rest.
Add improvements since the last review: There would be training sessions and other opportunities that helped you improve since your previous review. Stating your progress shows your flexibility and willingness to adapt in the future too.
Let the numbers speak: Use metrics to quantify your claims. Nothing is as effective in solidifying your achievements as analytics. They catch the employer’s attention immediately and are easy to verify. Make sure that you use them wherever possible.
Be honest and accurate: Stay objective, and do not exaggerate your accomplishments. However, do not be self-deprecating. Keep your tone positive even when mentioning your failures and ask for growth opportunities.
Accept your shortcomings: Take accountability for any issues that have occurred in the past. Do not blame other factors or people such as your team members. Self-appraisal is about you and not what others could have done better.
Mention other parameters: Your qualities are also a key indicator of your performance. Many leaders pay special importance to traits like punctuality and leadership. Clearly assess yourself on these traits while filling out the appraisal form.
No grammatical errors: There is no place for typos or other grammatical mistakes in your self-evaluation. Proofread on your own or use online tools available to check your grammar. Grammatical errors point to your lack of attention, which can leave a bad impression on your employer.
Set goals for the next period: Indicate what you plan to take up in the future by making Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely (SMART) goals. Think about changes you want to make that can increase your efficiency and note them down. Conveying them to your manager will prevent future conflicts between the two of you.
Get feedback: Before submitting, it is a good idea to get a second opinion. Ask people who are honest and trustworthy. They will be able to give feedback from a reader’s perspective and help you notice if you can do something better.

How Does 360 Degree Feedback Software Help in Self Appraisal?

Organizations popularly use 360 Degree Feedback Software to enable continuous feedback management. With the software, it’s quite easy to track employees’ performance and offer 360-degree performance reviews.

Performance management software also helps employees with self-appraisal form templates. Your employees can access and fill the self-appraisal form online, define their goals, KRAs and track their success with performance management software.

Also, managers can review the self-appraisal forms of their team members and share their feedback and remarks.

Self Appraisal Example You Can Follow Right Away

Many companies have predefined templates that they want you to follow while filling out your self-appraisal. But if you are stuck, here is a sample for your reference.

Self Performance Review Example for Appraisal as a Corporate Employee

In my last three months as a <Designation> for XYZ Company, I maintained consistent growth in performance. I exceeded the <Performance Metric> targets by 8% in April, 12% in May, and 7.5% in June. I believe that effective teamwork and my proactiveness were the main reasons for success. I dedicated additional time in <What You Did to Differentiate Your Efforts from the Rest>. This resulted in an increase in <Output of Your Efforts>.

Despite the growth, there were days where I struggled to maintain a regular schedule and meeting daily goals. However, I am working towards setting priorities in the right order to not miss out on any deadlines. This way I am hoping to achieve more targets during the day.

My goals for the next quarter are to improve further and achieve the following:

<Mention Your Quarterly Goals>

I look forward to working with the company and helping it grow. In the future, I hope to work as the <Next Designation in Your Career Graph> and help new hires in adjusting to the role’s responsibilities.

Ways to Write Self Appraisal FAQs

What do you write in self-appraisal?
In a self-appraisal form, employees mention their accomplishments, challenges they faced while achieving goals, and things they are planning to achieve in the next performance review cycle.
How do you answer an appraisal question?
While addressing appraisal questions, you need to be more specific about your accomplishments. Also, focus on your struggles and achievements rather than highlighting other’s mistakes.
How do you speak in an appraisal discussion?
During an appraisal discussion, avoid sounding vague about your achievements. The more specific you are, the higher will be the impact. Also, feel free to give your suggestions about improving the revenue and productivity.