ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

How to Take Charge of Your Annual Review

Updated on October 7, 2012

Take Charge

For a lot of people an annual review is the time when an executive calls you into their office, they sit on one side of the desk and you sit on the other, they talk at you for twenty minutes or so and then tell you whether or not you are getting a raise and how much. If they are a good manager they may discuss things like goals and objectives, performance and reward, etc. If they are not such a great manager, they will talk extemporaneously and your raise may be based purely on company economics.

Instead of letting your annual review just happen to you, why not take charge of it instead? Consider taking the following steps:

  1. Find out when your annual review will take place.
  2. When you know your review is imminent, send or give the person who will be reviewing you a list of your accomplishments from the past year.
  3. Prepare a presentation for your review.

It's All About Communication

Save The Date

Ask Management when your review will take place. Well run companies have a policy on when reviews happen, less well run companies may not. Managers at some companies don't like to give reviews at all. You, however, want to have a review because you want your raise to make sense. You want your hard work and your contribution to company success recognized, hopefully in a financial sense, but at least some verbal or written recognition of your performance.

Why do you want this? Because you spend several hours a day at your job. It takes up a lot of your life. Wouldn't you want it to mean something besides a paycheck? Well, no guarantees, bucko, but a great way to help make your job meaningful is to get Management to recognize that your contribution indeed is meaningful, is valuable, to the company. And the best way to make that kind of recognition is through your annual review.

If Management hedges about your review date, be pleasantly persistant. Send them a few emails a week. Mention it at the coffee machine. Or, combine Steps One and Two by sending Management a list of your accomplishments over the past year in order to spark interest. Then follow up by inquiring after your report.

"How did you like my personal assessment?"

You may get an impromptu review on the spot.

List Of Achievements

Knowing in advance that you are going to list your achievements for the past year is incentive in itself for you to go out and achieve. You are, in fact, self-incentivizing. Be sure and tell your boss.

Write you list of achievements well. Write it for your audience. The person who will give you your review is probably a very busy person. Be brief. Use bullets. Edit it down to one page.

Begin your list of achievements with an Executive Summary, just in case your manager or supervisor is too busy (or too attention deficient) to read one whole page. For the Executive Summary, boil down everything you talk about in your list of achievements into one short paragraph. Headline the paragraph, "Executive Summary". Next, create bullets and fill in between each one, and follow everything up with a brief conclusion. For example:

Annual Review: Patricia True
Prepared for Management
Date: 6-2-2009

  • Executive Summary
    This year I became more productive, implemented new procedures to enhance company efficiency and suggested cost cutting measures to management that were later implemented.
  • Improved Productivity
    Over the past year I was able to rearrange my personal life, enabling me to come in earlier and leave later. As a result, I became more productive, getting more work done at no additional cost to the company.
  • Implemented New Procedures
    In November, 2008, I redesigned the model delivery procedure so that fewer mistakes would be made. Since my new procedure has been implemented, mistakes have been virtually eliminated.
  • Cut Costs
    In February, 2009, I suggested to Management that if we eliminated paper coffee cups we could save over $400 per year. In March, 2009, I suggested to Management that the air conditioning could be set one degree lower, saving the company over $4,000 in annual energy costs.
  • Conclusion
    During the past year I have become more productive at no cost to the company and I have saved the company money by increasing efficiency and helping to cut costs.

Presentation

Do not go empty-handed to your review. At the very least, bring your list of achievements. At best, create a presentation about how you will improve in the coming year and how you will improve the company.

Whatever you decide to present, it must be brief. To many managers, giving annual reviews is an odious task. Try to make it fun as well as informative. Use a little humor. Use graphics.

Your review can be an opportunity to impress Management and advance yourself in the company. All it takes is for you to make the effort to make it just that.

Of course, some managers are just plain mean, or just not interested in rewarding performance. Even so, preparing in this way for your review is an opportunity for personal growth. And, of course, it will help you assemble the material you need to sell yourself through your resume, cover letters and job interviews as you search for a job where they do, in fact, reward performance.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)