We anticipate our reviews all year long. What we’ll say to our supervisors when we finally get the chance, how we’ll confidently convince them we deserve a promotion and eloquently express all of our previous accomplishments and when the time comes, we dread having to actually do it. If all we get is once a year to express what we enjoy and what changes we’d like to see, we better be prepared to put our best foot forward.
Work your Ass Off, Year-Round – It’s actually a pretty obvious insult to rev up your performance 90 days prior to your review in hopes to overcompensate for all the other days you kicked your feet up throughout the year. In PR, we work pretty closely with our managers and it’s not hard to tell when you’ve been doing nothing. Keep a constant pace of determination throughout the year and take serious responsibility of your work when things go good and when you’ve messed up – it speaks volumes.
Keep a Running List of Accomplishments – There’s nothing worse than getting the opportunity to talk about how you’ve contributed over the past year and drawing a blank. The average PR professional does so much on a day-to-day basis, we can’t remember what we did last week, let alone last year. This list will help you narrow down how you make a difference in your department and what you bring to the table. Bring two copies to your meeting: one for quick reference of your involvement and one for your supervisor in case they’ve forgot how awesome you are.
Look up Salaries – If you’re wanting a raise (and we are all wanting a raise), I would suggest you’d be sure you deserve one. My next suggestion would be to use tools like Glassdoor or Indeed to see what other professionals with your job title are making on average. Having knowledge of market salaries gives you a backbone for your argument if you’re making less than most.
Suggest but Don’t Demand – There may be a huge gap between what you feel you deserve and what your company is willing to offer. Nothing holds a person back more than the ability (or lack thereof) to be honest with themselves. If there are things you’d like to acquire such as an increase or promotion, suggest it with sound reasoning to back it up. Suggest what you feel would be an appropriate increase but giving off an “or else” demeanor isn’t the way to go. As much as we’d like to think we’re the best at what we do, the harsh reality is the company can and will survive without you.
Express the Change You’d Like to See – Although reviews are generally for our managers to assess us, it’s also a good time to go over what they can do better to help make your job easier. I’ve found through experience that the things I might be dinged for may be a result of my boss not getting me what I needed to effectively complete tasks. I’m naturally a defensive person (imagine that..) so I automatically want to bark back at anything my supervisor may have to say that I don’t necessarily agree with – but instead, I’m ready to quickly suggest a resolution to issues they may mention instead of making excuses.
What are some things you do to insure your review goes the way you’d like?
Great read & right on time!
2 major things help me out during review time:
– Align your accomplishments with the company wide or specific org. initiatives. For example, I fit within the consulting org. of my IT company. One of the major Q4 initiatives was “Growing the education for all consultants.” At review time, I’ll say – ” To align with the Q4 initiative, I passed my PMP certification…etc.”
– Set your own metrics or KPIs for the year. For example, I created Confidence and Satisfaction surveys for my clients. At review time, I’ll say – ” From the 3 implementations that I led, I received a 90% confidence score and 94% confidence rate from the project leadership for my ability to successfully manage the timelines and tasks.”
Thank you for input Lacey! Those are some really great points. My review’s actually coming up in a couple of weeks so I’m definitely going to implement some metrics into my discussion. Great points boo.
I like how you worded that! That’s my hardest problem is writing it correctly. What something says on paper versus how I say it in my head don’t always make sense.
Hi Courtney!
I’m a very visual person so I try my best to come to annual reviews prepared WITH VISUALS. Lol. I bring a list of my accomplishments and also my vision. This includes quarterly initiatives and suggestions on how we can keep our team (and employees we support) engaged in a positive culture.
Oh Cassidy, you are WAY better than me LOL! I’ll show up with one page of bullet points like here you go, where’s my raise? Haha it definitely wouldn’t hurt. I plan to include a few this time around.