Annual Reviews - What makes us tick

[Michael Tully]

Hi:

Here's an interesting subject that I thought could be worthwhile discussing and sharing.
What besides *money* is talked about at your annual review interview. Here's some I thought about, not in any particular order.

money
training
promotion prospects
dead wood
teamwork
management --> where are we going
communication
workload
performance
on call

The more the merrier

This will be interesting....

[Martin Johnson · Accepted solution]

We have what is called the PMP (Performance Management Process). The employee does 90% of the work. He sets goals - SMART goals (Specific, Measureable, Agreed on, Realistic, Time bound). The manager reviews goals and makes changes if necessary.

In subsequent reviews, the employee has to write up how the goals were met or exceeded, re-evaluate the existing goals. Again the manager reviews and makes any necessary changes.


Marty

[Craig Rants]

I like to talk about these issue:

What is the direction of our group/team and how can I contribute to that direction.

What would my manager like to see me improve on in the next year.

What items do I need to work on to further my career progression.

Evaluate the current status our our group/team and relay what I see and what I would like to see changed if anything.

Relay to my manager if I feel over or underutilized

Ask questions about how the review will be processed before or after the interview.

.....

C

[Wodisch]

High Michael,

even though I do not have a "annual review interview" (never had one...), things I like are (no order of importance):

- freedom: to accept tasks or not, to do it my way, to do it in my time (especially my time of the day - which usually happens to be during the nights)

- challenge: doing things that are supposed to be unknown/hard/impossible

- travelling: you may have noticed that already...

- variety: working on new things, working on old things in a different way, not having a (boring) routine job

- vision: being able/permitted to dream/invent/build something new - even though there is no order from a customer

- "toys": having access to a *lab*, to play around/test/improve techniques and methodologies

- friends: being able to work with friends, not having to work with fiends (there is nor 'r' missing here)

- learning: attend to interesting meetings, like usergroups, trade fairs, trainings

- reading: getting all/most of the magazines and books about the new stuff

Nice question, really!
Wodisch

[steven Burgess_2]

Hi Micheal

We have set objectives through the year for each job role. It's basically up to you to say whether you have met them objectives and give proof if you feel as though you have. Your line manager will then agree or disagree. You also get the chance to say where you feel as though you have been useful and done that 'little bit extra' and of course your overall job performance

As my employer is an 'investor in people'

We also get to write aspirations each year. In this we put where we would like to be 'short term' and what we would like to be doing in say 3 years. Other projects we would like to get involved in. Further training we feel we require. The good thing is, if you work hard and give to the company then you get what you ask for. The emphasis is that it's your career and you choose your own paths. Complete your tasks, keep everyone happy and you will be rewarded.

I have only been in the industry for just over 2 years. In that time I have been introduced to applications across multi platforms ( NT. Mainframe and Unix ) and Infrastructure services.I Have been given the chance to take my pick in the discipline I prefered then given all the training to help me become competent in my chosen subject. Fantastic really. These forums though have probably been my greatest help. Having just less than 1 years solid Unix experience I have just got what I would call a 'pure unix role' with our design and implementation team.

Steve

[Tom Geudens]

Hi Michael,
Ah ... the infamous EPO (not to be confused with the sports drug :-). We have a PO (which would translate as Personal Talk) every month ... and once a year the word Evaluation is put in front of that.

In the old days (I've been in this firm for 8 years ... almost a lifetime :-) you were supposed to prepare these things all by yourself. Since I'm not much of a talker, it tended to be very short meetings :-).

Nowadays we get a list of questions around which we can built the conversation. Both me and my superior answer these questions (the subject always being me off course :-). Here they are (excuse me if they sound a little strained, the orginals are in Dutch and I graduated in Informatics, not in languages :-) :

EVALUATION OF LAST YEAR
1. How would you describe these last 12 months in a few words/sentences ?
2. What would you say are your most important realisations (literally translated it would be "acts of war" :-) of this period ?
3. How would you evaluate your work yourself ? What are the things you are most/least proud of (+ explanation why) ?
4. Is the job content what you expect it to be ?
5. List your 2 best / weakest "points" (in the job during last year :-). How are you going to address these weak "points" ?

EVALUATION OF THE FUTURE (weird description, but that's what it says :-)
6. What are your ambitions (short term / long term) ?
7. What would you like to see different in the "System Engineers"-group ? Would you like to play a role in these changes and (if "Yes" :-) what role ?
8. Describe your goals for the next year.
9. Try to put a value on your work. Do you think your salary is in balance with this value ?

And that's it. Number 9. is off course a trick question (most of them are really :-). Talking about money is not really done in my firm. Usually the "number" is already on my superior's paper before we start this conversation and it is a "take it or leave it number".

Hope this is what you had in mind (if not, let me know :-),

Regards,
Tom

[Michael Tully]

Hi,

This is excellent, I never thought that we would have such diverse differences in the way that companies did their reviews. It just goes to show that each business is vastly different and in how these things are done. Points to be
awarded on Monday my time.....

Cheers and avagoodweekend
Michael

[Wodisch]

...you've got a monday different from ours???

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

what's dead wood?

Later,
Bill

[Steve Lewis]

5 years ago I worked for a company where the HR appraisal scheme was totally overblown and out of control (in my opinion). You had 3 separate types of appraisal each year:

1. A general appraisal of objectives vs. achievements, project and personal, to see how you progressed.

2. An appraisal of your technical skills against key corporate requirements, e.g programming languages, databases and systems admin, where you had to justify a rating between 1 and 5, where 1 was novice and 5 was acknowledged international authority.

3. An appraisal of your business and marketing knowledge, e.g. what are the markets the company sells into, who are the competitors, knowlege of products, plus knowledge of project management tools and accounting.

Out of these 3 came new objectives of things to work on during the next year.

[Chris Wilshaw]

Oh yeah, the joys of reviews and SMART.

I have to say that based on experience, I take quite a cynical view on these. Some companies take the to be more of a PR exercise

"Hey, look! We REALLY care about our staff."

Of my 5 objectives for the last year,

1) Certification. Not done, as there's the annual (lack of) training budget in the way. I did get the FREE certifcation in ITIL though (oh happy day!)

2) Set up EMC restore solution to mirror data between machines. Done, but due to pending changes to the system it'll be redundant within a couple of months.

3) Assist with introduction of new Helpdesk system. Clashed with objective 4 due to time changes.

4) Work on HP-UX11/Ingres 2 migration. Due to start in January, actually started about a month ago in real terms.

5) Mentoring. Going OK I think. At times, I do like to turn this into more of a Tormenting role.

Apparently, we're not supposed to discuss money in our reviews. It's a "job satisfaction" thing instead. Ho ho.

[BFA6]

Hi,

We have an annual review, round about the date when you started with the company.

Objectives are then set, which you get to talk about in the next review to see if you've met them. And you get to put down where you want to go and how you're going to achieve it, and how the company can help you achieve it.

What can I say - I have achieved a couple of my set objectives - giving training courses to the helpdesk. HP certification. But some of the other objectives - HA certification won't be achieved, probably due to funding.

Money is never talked about.

Hilary

[Pete Randall]

I haven't had a review in at least three years, probably more like four. Our IS department has been drastically re-organized (that's pronounced "reduced") from the top down and management has been streamlined down to one person. This one person believes very strongly in doing your job and doing it well - as long as you're doing that, he's pretty much hands off. He touches base frequently to see if you need anything and to provide subtle feedback on the job you've been doing. That's probably the real "performance review" for him. And I should say that he's going against the flow here - official company policy requires a formal annual review - maybe he just submits the same one over and over, I don't know how he gets away with it.

For me, I find this ideal. Going through the forms that human resources (remember when they used to be called "personnel" - not pompous enough, I guess) came up with out of some book they got when they were going through Catbert University, forms that have little bearing on an IT related job, forms best suited for secretaries and production laborers, was little more than a waste of time. Sure, you might end up with some inkling of what your supervisor thought of your work and where they thought you should be going from here, but it was laughable watching some of my former superiors trying to massage this rediculous system to make it apply. Now I get the freedom to do what I know needs to be done, the support to accomplish it, and relatively constant feedback on whether I did it right or not. It doesn't get any better than this.

Pete

[steven Burgess_2]

Back to the top

[Pete Randall]

Bounce.

[Rita C Workman]

Hmm...Annual Review...

Frankly I don't care for them...period !

If I'm doing it right..say 'Good Job' and if your only going to say it once a year..then don't bother. I want to hear you appreciate my hard work...when I work hard. I think everybody needs positive re-enforcement on a regular basis.

If I'm not doing it right...then why would you wait to tell me 'annually'.

And although this may not sound politically appropriate-after many years in the field (as a woman), it has been my experience that $$$ does talk. If they value you...truly value you...then the money says it all !!

What's the old saying..."if you get it cheap, then you don't view it of any real value".

No, HR can keep their annual reviews.

Just my 2cents,
Rita

[Jeanine Kone]

We do the normal setting and discussing of objectives as well.

We also though, have to rate ourselves against specified attributes: business acumen, performance, customer focus, teamwork, innovation, technical knowledge, committment, developing people, values and ethics, bias for action, vision and purpose. We give ourselves a rating, and our manager rates us - we then compare and discuss why we eached picked what we did.

[Jeff Schussele]

Alright Rita!!!!
You go girl.

I agree value, especially perceived value, expresses itself very loudly in the workplace, and it speaks $. The universal language.

My 2-1/2 cents (my rates went up),
Jeff

[Scott Van Kalken]

I tend to agree with Peter, I have just finaliased mine from the beginning of the year.

We have an overblown one too.

We get to measure up to the company's goals and values though.

Which is interesting since it's a consulting company in the finance sector, and our department never does any external work.

Even though my boss says "this stuff doesn't apply to us" we still have to fill out the forms.

The coolest is the bit that says "Software Skills" which for everyone except the IT department probably makes sense.

We are supposed to make extensive use of our internal training, which if I want to learn the intracacies of word or excel, is probably fine.

Then there's the "financial" section. How have I personally contributed to the company's financial goals? Well, I spent lots of money because people were complaining, and now they're not... but that's my fault for misunderstanding that section. It's actually, "how much money did you NOT spend and get people to stop complaining?"

There is also a really funky section where you get to talk about your career aspirations for the next 18 months and the "long term". This is the best bit. No matter what sort of answer you give on this section you end up with either "no ambition" or "disgruntled" stamped on your forehead. It's all quite bizarre really.

Scott.

[Michael Tully]

Thanks guys! Excellent thoughts with diverse opinions, obviously enough to get some people riled up. :^))

Closing this thread....
Any further answers will get N/A