Request a Performance Review
A performance review is a vital part of one's career path. It is important if you plan to request a raise, promotion or simply want to get better at your job. Many bosses are reluctant to provide these reviews, or procrastinate. Being able to strongly request a review, in a respectful manner, is a very critical career tool.
Instructions
Determining the Appropriate Procedure
1. Begin by determining why you want a performance review. There are lots of reasons that one might want a review. Some of the strongest are:
- To document strong performance so as to gain a raise.
- To document strong performance so as to gain a promotion.
- To gain valuable feedback and use it to improve performance.
- To document issues that may be grounds for future actions, positive or negative.
Determine which of these or any other rationale are your own reason for wanting a performance review.
2. Contact your organization's Human Resources Director or the person responsible for that function, or utilize your company's Intranet (if there is one) to find out the organization's policy on performance reviews.
3. Determine if there is a formal policy for performance reviews, and if so, if there is a form that you can use to request a review. If there is a formal policy, ask the HR person to help you complete your request using the specified form. If there is not a formal policy, you will have to follow the steps in Section 2.
Making the Request
4. Determine which is the strongest method of communication in your organization's culture. Is it e-mail? Written memo? Inter-office memo? Use that method to make your request.
5. Decide who would be the best person to perform your performance review. Most likely, it is your direct supervisor -- your boss. In some cases, it may be a division director, or some other individual if you have an unique structure in your organization. An in-house HR professional can help your determine this if you are unsure to whom you must address your request.
6. Once you have decided who to request perform the review, you are ready to write the request itself. In writing your request, whether e-mail or document, write it in a very respectful manner. Begin by outlining the facts about your employment. Included in that paragraph should be:
- Your position.
- Tenure on the job.
- Your areas of growth and of extra effort.
- Any exemplary measurable results you have produced that you feel should be highlighted.
- The lessons you have learned through your boss's on-the-job feedback.
7. In the next paragraph, explain your personal/professional goals and why you believe that a performance review is critical to accomplishing them. For example, if you hope to be promoted to (say) manager, you might write: "In my commitment to become a manager by the end of this fiscal year, I am consistently working to identify the areas in which I can make progress and develop my skills through practice and study. Having the benefit of your feedback about my performance in that area would be helpful to my ongoing development, and toward becoming a manager within the next six months."
8. In the next paragraph, make a simple request for a written performance review and a scheduled meeting to go over it with your boss.
9. If you have access to a template for performance reviews, offer to provide that document or format to your boss to make it easier and faster for him to prepare your performance review.
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