How to Write Performance Review Comments

Knowing how to write performance review comments is one of the best ways of enhancing both your writing and general communication skills. As a student, this is an ideal starting point for you in writing top notch academic papers. In fact, the skills will be useful even after school in your field of work. Read on to find the best guidelines on how to write performance review comments.

Performance reviews are important in the evaluation of an employee. In fact, a performance review can even be used in evaluating your academic performance. This implies you have to know how to write a good one for successful results.

Good performance review comments will assist the tutor or instructor in setting individuals to make priorities and clarify actions towards productivity. The comments can be used to establish the gap between the set objectives and individual behaviors. By knowing how to write performance review comments, writing academic papers and reports will be quite easier considering the tasks are almost similar.

A performance review comment should indicate your accurate opinion on the person. However, this does not mean that you can always write anything just to fill up the spaces. You have to give relevant, adequate and useful information that can facilitate proper evaluation of the individual (s) under review.

Tips on how to write performance review comments

Performance appraisals should provide a dialogue and clear-cut information that can be used in effective evaluation. Thus, it is very important that you know some of the things to consider in writing good ones.

The following are some basic guidelines on how to write performance review comments.

Do some preparation

In order to enable your instructor or manager to conduct an effective evaluation, it is important that you give relevant and proper comments with the right information. You should take some time to research on performance review comments in order to get up to speed with the key requirements.

Performance reviews mainly focus on the usual things that people do on daily basis, their relationships with others and their assignments. This implies there are certain aspects that you need to highlight before beginning to write a comment.

Apart from doing your research from the internet and even libraries, you can also take some to study the subject in prior in order to have something tangible to comment about his or her performance. However, you must be very keen and attentive in order to get the right information that can be useful in evaluation.

Carefully read reviews about the subject

In order for you to write a proper comment for performance review, you have to read and understand what others say about the subject. In fact, your comment has to show that you know what you are discussing.

The length of the reviews may not usually be similar especially when they are about different people. Although, it is it is important that you read each at a time and understand the information relayed therein. This will help you in coming up with a good comment for effective review and, eventual success.

Think of what to write

Before you pen down your comments about an individual, it is advisable that you organize your thoughts. Take some time to analyze the information that you have about the person in order to narrow down to the main points.

Consider how the review has described the conduct and relationships of the subject with others. Besides, you should also look into how the person under review has been able to handle assignments.

Try to relate the facts that you have with rational thoughts in order to give a subjective argument in the comments. If the review is about someone that you know, it is important that you compare what is said with what you know about him or her. This will help in delivering a better analysis in the comments section.

Things to avoid in writing performance review comments

• Rumours or speculations about the personal life of the subject
• Unfounded theories about the person’s behaviour
• Your thoughts on the career prospects of the subject
• Unsubstantiated complaints about against the individual
• Restricted information including medical history, beliefs, ethnic or family.

Procedures on how to write performance review comments

Performance review comments are used together with other elements to give evaluations on the abilities and relationships of people in different areas. Thus, only a properly written and accurate one can offer better solutions for success.

The steps outlined below will assist you on how to write performance review comments with ease.

Consider the format of the review

Performance reviews highlight different aspects of an individual’s abilities with regards to general output, behaviors, accountability, and relationship with clients and colleagues in the organization among others.

You may find that the aspects are highlighted in subheadings indicating specific ratings like poor, needs improvement, meets requirements, exceeds requirements, outstanding among others.

Your comments should be written in the same format used for the review. However, there are instances whereby you are given specific instructions on how to relay your comments.

It is important that you first define the meanings of each of these elements and ratings in order to determine the best ones to use in writing the comments.

Present your comments      

It is advisable that you always handle one aspect of the review at a time. For instance, if the performance review is based on aspects like decision making, adaptability, use of equipment or even an individual’s relationship with clients, you should comment on one and effectively argue it out before moving on to the next.

In order to make your argument more compelling, it is important that you also give examples supporting it. You can simply quote an event or situation to give your comment more weight. Remember only substantial arguments can facilitate proper evaluation. However, you focus should be more on specific examples instead of general views.

Always ensure that you give accurate comments because any misleading information might as well taint the entire process of performance review.

Your comments should give observations and not assumptions. In other words, try to always give subjective comments.

Write the comments without biasness or personal prejudice since that would not give the desired information. Besides, you should also avoid any form of language that may sound inappropriate in a conversation.

As you write, it is also important to note that not so many people always have all the time for reading. Your performance review comments should be brief, but complete. Try to only include necessary information in every part.

It is recommended that you write short sentences that are conclusive and provide adequate information.

After writing the comments, you should take some time to read through them just to make sure that it meets the required expectations. As you do this, remember to make all the necessary corrections.

Examples of performance review comments

Reading sample performance review comments can also enable you to master the art of how to write performance review comments easily and fast. Below are some that you can refer to for inspiration in writing yours.

Example 1

Sample Employee Performance Comments

Attendance and Punctuality

Positive

Jim continues to be a valued member of our team and is someone we can count on. His focus to attendance and punctuality has made our core group operate significantly better over the past one year.

Tim is extremely dependable in attendance and is regularly punctual.

Janet begins everyday refreshed and ready to solve any problems that may come her way throughout the day…

Negative

Todd is always showing up late for work and should improve on this in the next months- atyourbusiness.com.

Example 2

Sample Performance Evaluation Comments

Communication skills

• An effective communicator who always handles all his team members and colleagues with utmost respect. He gives proper feedback without putting down his team members and this has earned his respect.
• Possesses easy problem solving capabilities and effectively communicates solutions to his colleagues…

Leadership and Team Building

• Has excellent leadership skills which enable him to motivate his team and reinforce their confidence. He is inspires them by setting examples himself.
• He can make customers or clients and colleagues to be at ease by solving any problems that they present to him- buzzle.com.

Example 3                                                                                   

Sample Performance Review Comments on Accountability

1. Positive performance review phrases for accountability

• Terry is responsible in his team job and assists others in doing the assignments given to the whole group.
• He is an accountable at work and responsible for his actions without avoiding them…

1. Negative performance review phrases for accountability

• It is not good for Terry to blame others for his failure which he should be responsible for.
• Terry is reluctant in accepting his failure…

Find the rest of this sample on performancereviewphrases.info.

If you may need help on how to write performance review comments, get in touch with us. You can also refer to our homepage for more on the custom writing services that we offer.

References

http://www.businessmanagementdaily.com/res/BMD/Free-Reports/EffectivePerformanceReview.pdf

http://www.cnbc.com/2014/12/09/7-tips-for-your-performance-review-commentary.html

http://www.southeastern.edu/admin/hr/ee_and_mngr_info/manager_information/ppr_comments.html