The traditional performance appraisal process is genuinely daunting for both the employees as well as the managers since employees will often dread the meeting where they will be judged on their performance over the past year. Managers need to go through all kinds of paperwork and do numerous meetings with their employees.

In fact, according to the reports by Harvard Business Review, only 46% of employees have faith in their employers, and 39% of employees mark the process as pointless and time-consuming.

To make the process meaningful, you’ll always need to prepare well to present yourself in the appraisal programs. If you are a manager, you should learn to provide constructive feedback and make the conversation comfortable enough for the employees to speak about themselves.

In this blog, we are to guide you to prepare yourself for the next performance program.

About Performance Appraisals

Employee appraisals are an integral part of the performance management process. They evaluate an employee’s past performance, behavior, and skills based on the goals set and help to improve the skills of employees by identifying their key strengths and weaknesses. Plus, it even tells employees how they are performing and the core areas they need to work on.

Still, this process can be a bit difficult for the employees as they do not know where to start their preparation. Thus, to help employees understand the appraisal process better, let’s look at a few common questions around performance appraisals.

Examples of best performance Appraisal answers for employees

1.   What was your most outstanding achievement at work as an employee?

This is the most common question asked in a performance appraisal. Here you can simply put up all the achievements you have excelled in the last year.

Your achievements can be related to your work at the office. Or, it can be a certification or course that you completed, and now it’s helping you in your work. Overall, you can simply highlight any positive thing you have achieved which is helping you in your work.

Sample Answers:

• The project I was working on helped increase the company sales by 20%.

• I recently completed a computer course, which is now helping me to quickly complete office tasks.

• The presentation crafted by me was a success.

2.   What was the biggest challenge you faced last year as an employee?

To understand you better, the managers try to figure out your areas for improvement by asking about your challenges. Here, you can highlight the challenges you faced while working on different projects. You can even refer to the problems related to some tasks or something you faced in your office.

Protip: Wanna sound more positive in front of your managers? Focus on the steps you took to overcome the problems. This will help create a solid and positive profile but remember, do not create new events. It is okay to ask for help.

Sample Answers:

• As a fresher, getting synced into the new office environment wasn’t quite easy for me. It took time. I spoke to my seniors and my colleagues about my problems, and finally, got mixed up with them. Now, they are like my family.

• I trained myself with the company’s software, which I felt was confusing in the initial days.

• Worked overtime when a colleague was on a vacation to help complete a project on time.

3.   Some goals were set for you during your last Performance Appraisal. Did you achieve them? If yes, what did you do to achieve them?

The managers often ask this question to check whether you have completed your set goal or not. This helps them get an idea about your approach regarding your goals and your commitments.

You can speak about the targets you have completed, how you completed them, and what are the next goals you want to achieve. Plus, you can even mention the progress of any target which is not completed yet.

Sample Answers

1. My goal in the last quarter was to reduce the marketing expenses by 10% and increase social media engagement by 15%. Even to my surprise, I exceeded my engagement expectations by 5%.

4.   How can you contribute more to the company?

This question can be a great opportunity for you to open up about having a change with your manager. Here you have your chance to extend your career goals. You can target a need in the company that matches your skill or a position you can lead better.

Thus, whether you want to get promoted to a post or want to discuss a change, this question opens the chances to discuss with your manager.

Sample Answers

1. I recently noticed a lack of appropriate approach on social media of our company. As I have the necessary expertise, I believe I can skyrocket the engagement.

2. I do see a huge potential in the content space for our company. However, we haven’t explored that properly yet. Using my experience as a content manager, we can scale it up pretty quickly.

5.   What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?

If your seniors ask about your core strengths and weaknesses during an appraisal interview, always start with your weaknesses so that you can end with a positive note by showcasing your strengths.

You may discuss skills, abilities, and personality traits as both your weakness and strength, as you may wish. Additionally, you can add more contexts to each subject and a specific example showing how it emerged as a strength or weakness in your life.

Remember, while sharing the weaknesses, make sure you mention the actions you have taken to rectify them.  And if you are talking about strength, explain how it gives you an edge over others.

Sample Answers:

• Weaknesses

o Sometimes, I lack the focus to solve problems. But I am working on it, and I have improved a lot.

o Time Management is a big mess for me. So, these days, I use a notebook to assign the duration for each task and try to complete it within the period. 

• Strengths

o Discipline is my key to success.

o Adaptation is my biggest asset.

Conclusion

A good appraisal answer will help your superiors evaluate your workload, contributions, and overall adherence to the culture in the company and help them understand you better.

This may seem like a tough task at the first glance, but once you start practicing, it becomes easier day by day. You never know what kind of opportunity lies in front of you, until you give your best.

If you need more help, feel free to ask your colleague for suggestions and doubt clearing to improvise your preparation for your career advancement.

We hope this article will help you draft the best possible answers for the upcoming appraisal interview.