The biggest part of preparation for a performance review is competency assessment, make sure you reserve at least 2 hours for that. The process differs based on whether you do it for the first time or whether it's a follow-up self assessment. Results of the competency self assessment are used on performance review meeting as input to discussion with your manager. Make sure to ask your colleagues for feedback in advance before doing the competency assessment.
We use Excel sheet to track your competencies and progress. Every person should have their own private copy so you don't need to be worried that some more sensitive personal information or comments would leak out. Check the competency overview to learn more about details of the competencies.
- Download the competencies template document and store it to your Google Drive.
- Fill in your scores (either Nope, Somewhat or Yes) for all the skills (cells of the sheet) in each level (column) for each competency (sheet). Please follow the score definitions in order to ensure, that we have consistent scoring within the department. After you're done, it may look something like the picture below. Level achievement is calculated automatically, do not fill it in.
- Share the document with your manager so that they can see your scores, comments, comment on their own etc.
Everyone who has been with the company for at least three months will have a performance review. While our career framework works very well for more seasoned employees, recent hires might still need more time and opportunities to demonstrate all expected competencies during the first few months of employment.
For example, if a recent hire goes through the first performance review four months after joining the company, many competencies typically expected from the role might still be unticked. And therefore, the overall progress would also be lower than expected. That is normal, and we grant each new hire a grace period to demonstrate progress towards desired competencies. Depending on the job start date, the role, and the current phase of the performance review cycle, the new hire's grace period might take up to ten months. The upper limit applies especially for more senior roles where we expect a demonstration of various expert competencies that might require particular conditions or to drive a long-term initiative successfully.
In the following scenario, an employee joins the company in October, shortly before the review cycle starts in January: With all the learning about the new company, product, practices and tooling, there might not be much evidence of demonstrated competencies after four months of employment. So this first performance review is rather used to align on expectations than to evaluate achieved results. Their second review will happen in July (the 10th month of employment). It might already be a proper review for some roles. While for others, it wouldn't be a big deal if there wasn't enough evidence about the consistent demonstration of some of the advanced competencies. However, we need to see solid progress towards the expected level from the employee. The purpose of the grace period is to give everyone a fair chance to learn, grow and find opportunities to demonstrate their skills. It's not there to tolerate underperformance.
If you have already done the first-time self-assessment some time in the past, you have the document from last time, and you think there was a change in one of your skills, highlight it with a different background color and insert a comment describing the proposal and specific demonstrations that prove the change. Do not update the score directly, as this is supposed to be a discussion with your manager on your progress.