Top 5 Appraisal Questions and Answers
Performance appraisals or annual reviews offer an excellent opportunity to show your achievements, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and improve your performance.
However, to reap the benefits of annual reviews you must know how to answer performance appraisal questions correctly.
So, in this article, we will discuss in detail how to prepare for your performance review. We will also discuss common appraisal questions and tips on how to answer them.
How to Answer Top Appraisal Questions
What is your most significant achievement this year?
This is your chance to highlight how you add value to the company. Talk about how you exceeded the company’s expectations and outperformed your peers. Use your effective communication skills to state instances, where your performance helped the company achieve goals and get an advance.
Pro-tip: Make it a point not to draw comparisons between you and your peers while answering this question. It is an unhealthy habit that many institutions don’t encourage, and you might face a backlash from your manager. So, be cautious while answering this appraisal question.
What are your long-term and short-term career goals?
Besides the goals your manager sets for you, there are short and long-term goals that you can set for yourself. It will help you achieve your career objectives, among others.
You can answer this question by stating the long-term goal and short-term goals you might have set for yourself. For instance, your short-term goal could be learning social media skills by taking a certificate course. Moreover, to fulfil your long-term goal of becoming a social media manager.
Pro-tip: You should get into the habit of journaling all your goals. It will help you formulate your long-term and short-term goals before following appraisals. You don’t need to dig through umpteen emails and documents to decide which one to put and which to delete.
What part of the job do you enjoy the most?
Think twice before answering this question, as it might cost you a promotion or appraisal. For instance, you cannot mention that you love coffee breaks or chit-chatting with your colleagues. Perhaps something like “I feel the happiest when I learn something new. Learning new things challenges me and emphasises my long-term goal of continuous learning” will increase your chances of getting a promotion.
Why Should You Revise Appraisal Questions?
There’s an aspect of the performance appraisal that often gets neglected. It is the appraisal questions that the manager discusses with the employee during the performance review to ascertain their approach toward work. Here are some reasons why revising appraisal questions and their answers are important:
- It helps you integrate your accomplishments with the answers, which increases your chance of getting an appraisal
- It helps you effectively communicate that you strive to learn and grow constantly
- It betters your performance in the appraisal.
How To Prepare for A Performance Review?
Step 1: Research and Gather Preliminary Information
: Review your job description and track your performance throughout the year or quarter. You can refer to your last appraisal and use the learnings to prepare for the current performance review.
Step 2: Prepare Your List of Accomplishments
: Most review meetings analyse an employee’s accomplishments to ascertain their growth in the organisation.
Therefore, prepare a list of achievements before you meet your supervisor. It will help you connect the accomplishments with your personal and organisation’s goals.
Pro-tip: You can also mention any training or additional course you took to enhance your performance. Perhaps talk about an advertising, digital marketing or sales certification course you might have taken.
Step 3: Self-evaluation
: It is the process of analysing your performance to find your strengths and weaknesses. Self-evaluation ensures that you are self-aware of your weaknesses and prepare ways to work on them before the review.
Step 4: Prepare Areas of Development
: Preparing areas of development before the appraisal helps impress the manager. It sends out the message that you are a self-aware and conscious employee who can determine your weaknesses and take adequate steps to reduce them.
Step 5: Draft Goals for The Coming Period
: It is essential to draft goals for your future. The main reason behind it is because it shows promise that you want to work yourself. You are ready to change and evolve to become a better person.
Pro-tip: Don’t wait for your manager to hand you down your goals. Instead, prepare your purposes. Take a proactive approach, find out where you lack and formulate plans accordingly.
Besides preparing for appraisal questions and the overall performance review, upskilling can also increase your chances of getting a promotion or raise.
Emeritus India has some of the best certification courses designed for freshers and working professionals looking to secure the highest-paid jobs after graduation or get a raise at their current workplace. We have partnered with renowned Indian universities to offer these courses.
