Prepare for your performance review

Keep a wins journal all year

A win is anything you finished, fixed, improved, learned or were thanked for. Write it down the day it happens, in one line, with the number it moved when there is one:

• "Rebuilt the rostering spreadsheet: 3 hours a week back for the team leaders."
• "Sorted out the complaint on our biggest account; they renewed for two years."
• "Finished the payroll certificate I started in March."
• "Covered reception for three weeks in June while we recruited."

The number is what turns a win into evidence: hours saved, dollars, customers, errors, days taken off a process. If there is no number, write what changed and who noticed. Tag each one with its kind, delivered, improved, learned or feedback received, and your self-review is half sorted before you start it.

Two minutes on a Friday afternoon is enough. It is not a diary; it exists because in eleven months you will not remember most of it. Keep a link to the evidence where you can, such as the email that thanked you, but do not copy confidential or client information out of work systems to do it.

Keep notes from every 1:1

After each 1:1 with your manager, write down two things: what was agreed, and any feedback. Three lines is plenty.

A year of these does three jobs. It shows what you were asked to do, so the review measures you against that rather than a moving target. It shows what was promised to you, so a course or a change that never happened is on the record. And it shows the feedback you had and what you did with it, which is good evidence that you have grown. If something important is agreed in a corridor, confirm it in a two-line email.

Write the self-review

Many workplaces ask for a self-review before the meeting. Where yours does not, writing one anyway gives you the agenda. Five headings cover it:

1. What I delivered. The two or three things you finished that mattered most, each with a number.
2. What I improved. A process, a tool or a relationship that works better because of you.
3. What I learned. A skill you built, and where you used it.
4. Feedback I received. Something a colleague, a customer or your manager said, in their words.
5. What I want next. One or two goals for the year ahead, and the support you need for them.

Add a line on what was agreed at your 1:1s and where each thing got to. Then edit hard: a specific line with a number beats a paragraph of adjectives. Keep what sounds like you and cut the rest.

Name what did not go well, too. One sentence on what happened, what you learned and what you changed is stronger than leaving it for your manager to raise.

In the review meeting

• Send your self-review a few days ahead, so it is read before the meeting rather than during it.
• Lead with the two or three wins that mattered most to the team or the business, not a list of everything.
• Ask how your manager sees your year before debating any single point.
• Agree what goes on the record. If a rating or a written summary goes on your file, ask to see it, and ask for anything you disagree with to be noted.

Handling feedback

Feedback is easier to use than to hear. A few habits help:

• Listen to the end before answering, and write it down in their words.
• Ask for an example. "Can you give me an example of when that happened?" turns a label into something you can change.
• Ask what good looks like. "What would you want to see from me in three months?"
• Separate the fact from the verdict. "The report was late twice" is a fact you can fix. "You're disorganised" is a verdict: ask for the facts behind it.
• Take a day if you need it. "Thanks, I'd like to think about that properly and come back to you" is a complete answer.

If you disagree, say so once, with your evidence: your wins, your 1:1 notes, the dates. If the feedback is fair, say what you will do about it, and put that in your next 1:1 notes so the follow-through is on the record too.

If a review turns into a formal performance process or a disciplinary matter, get advice early, from Employment New Zealand, your union or an employment lawyer.

Turn it into goals

End the review with one or two goals you both agree, each specific enough to check in a year: a result, a responsibility, a skill or a qualification, with a date. Then list the skills each goal needs, and the support you asked for: a course, time, a mentor, a stretch project.

Keep the goals where you will see them. When a win shows one of those skills, tag it, and by next year you have the evidence that you grew into it. If your profession sets CPD requirements, log the hours as you go rather than in the week before they are due.

Build a promotion case

A promotion case is the same record pointed at a different question: not "how did I do?" but "am I already doing the next job?"

1. Name the role. Get the position description for the level above, if there is one.
2. Match your evidence to it. For each thing the role asks for, one or two wins that show you doing it now.
3. Name the gaps plainly, with your plan to close each one.
4. Ask how promotion works: who decides, when, and what they look at.

Ask early. Promotions are often decided over months, and your manager needs time to make the case for you to whoever holds the budget.

Where pay fits in

Some workplaces decide pay in the same round as performance; some keep them apart. Find out which yours does. If pay is decided with the review, raise it about six weeks before, not in the room, because by then the budget may already be allocated. Asking for a pay rise in New Zealand covers the timing, what prices have done to your pay, the range and the words.

Your wins are also the raw material for your next job, whenever that comes. The same lines become CV bullets and interview stories: see How to write a CV in New Zealand and Interview questions and preparation.