Because one-way streets are restrictive. Sitting down and listening to what your manager thinks of you? That’s the old way of doing things. With self evaluations, the employee is given a voice. The manager’s role is to listen. Think about getting into an argument—do you find it easier to accept the other person’s point of view when they’re shouting you down? Or once you feel you’ve been heard? Introducing self evaluation forms will help your team shape their performance appraisal and boost employee engagement as a result. They’ll be invested in setting their own targets, rather than feeling like they are the target.

Employee self-review is now a common HR practice in most companies. A performance self-appraisal is a great way to get your staff to consider their performance and productivity. It also helps managers and HR teams produce effective improvement plans by consulting employees.

You can use Typeform’s basic employee self-evaluation template, which covers a basic performance assessment. However, if you want to create your own form from scratch here are some things you must include:

• Confirm employee name and job title

• Provide an explanation of what the self-appraisal is for and how the information will be used

• Ask if the employee is clear about their tasks and what is expected of them

• Ask them to describe their job and the main tasks they must complete

• Ask them to list any achievements in their role

• Ask them to list any challenges they face in their role

• Ask them to rate themselves on productivity, work quality, and teamwork.

• Ask them what they think they need to do their job better

Also, it's a good idea to provide employees with self-appraisal answers examples. This will help keep your results consistent.

Perhaps you work closely with your staff. You may have lunch together. You may have even declared your love to them at the office Christmas party. But no matter how close you are, you’ll never really get the full picture on what might be affecting motivation and performance. A self evaluation can help identify differences in perception, and avoid wild stabs in the dark on how your staff are feeling. The information you get will help you prepare for a fruitful appraisal meeting, rather than awkward silences and hurt egos. The best benefit of all? Staff will start seeing direct links between self evaluations and the work they do. That means better job satisfaction and more reasons to stick around.

An employee self evaluation is an opportunity for staff to think about their career—not their job. Help them to map out their career journey. Start by asking them how far they’ve come—have they accomplished the goals set in the last performance review? By what degree? What got in the way? What helped? This will lay the groundwork for thinking about the future. What would they like to achieve over the next six months? Robots have purely functional aims, humans have emotional aims—prompt some personal goal setting. How would they like to be perceived in the organization? What do they want to learn? Remember SMART goals: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound. Otherwise, you’re setting up to fail.

Your staff are busy enough. Now imagine sliding an 8-page self evaluation form onto their desk. Not cool. The entire evaluation process is a conversation. So make it more conversational. Typeform’s interface lets you ask questions one at a time, giving employees the chance to focus on their responses carefully, and answer in a natural and honest way. You can customize the form to make it way more inviting. Add images, gifs, videos, logos, and your company’s color scheme. What’s the point of asking for feedback if it then hits a brick wall? You can act on the info by setting up automatic email notifications, creating spreadsheets, or creating cards in Trello—all with Typeform Connect. Oh, and at Typeform we love employee feedback. So much, in fact, we wrote a guide on how to do it, 360 degree-style. If you’re looking for something else, check out our form builder.

To write an effective self-evaluation about yourself, there are several things to consider. Keep in mind that it is in your interest and the management’s that your answers are honest and as objective as possible. Generally, self-appraisals are an opportunity for you to highlight your contribution, so be confident but importantly, be evidence-based and that promotion will come soon enough.

To write an effective evaluation for yourself, you must:

• Have evidence of both professional achievements and problems

• Know how this evaluation will be used

• Review your job description and key goals

• Avoid talking about other members of staff where possible

• Avoid using subjective statements and language

• Have evidence for your assessment

You can preview and use the Typeform template and see what kind of answers you would give and what evidence you have to back them up.