Customer Reviews

Performance Appraisal Phrase Book: The Best Words, Phrases, and Techniques for Performance Reviews

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2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When you are lacking inspiration for detailing the successes or failures of your direct reports this handy reference book provides a vast library of useful phrases that can be used on performance appraisals. The phrases are nicely organised into key competencies with 3 levels (exceeds, meets, does not meet) of grading. Each competency also has listed a number of key verbs and nouns.
Although it can be argued that this type of book can devalue the feedback given in performance reviews, it can also help to prevent the reviewer from writer's block and falling back onto a few stock phrases.
The biggest criticism I have is that the book does not contain a concise index to all of the competencies. You have to browse the whole book to discover and find specific competencies.

Compared to some similar books I have read, this book has better phases to use on performance reviews along with key verbs and nouns for each "area" of an employee's review. When choosing a rating for an employee in a specific area it also helped to review the statements described in the book to have a consistent measure to judge performance.

Our corporate office Human Resource Department was so impressed with this book, we purchased one for each of our managers. Excellent book.

This book is a great tool to help write performance reviews. I have used it for several years, especially when struggling for just the right words to use. If you have multiple appraisal to write it can sometimes be difficult to find new ways to praise or coach someone, this book offers several choices and prompts.

I don't particularly like the layout of this book. I have taken a few phrases from it but overall, it has not been very helpful.

A good book with effective phrases, but it gets one star for being too expensive in the kindle version. It cost more than the printed version.

Great phrase book to assist with wording on performance appraisals. Thought the Chapters were sort of weirdly organized though, and I felt like I was flipping back and forth alot. An index would have saved me lots of reading. But overall, I liked the way each skill set was identified, with key nouns and verbs to use in describing performance of the skill, along with phrases that exemplify Meet/Exceed performance, Needs Improvement, and Unacceptable.

EXAMPLE: Skill Set = Time Management and Prioritization (pg 140)
Key Verbs - displays, manages, prioritizes, etc
Key Nouns - assignments, deadlines, priorities, resources, etc

Meets/Exceeds Feedback: Can accurately access the time required for a particular task
Needs Improvement: Has difficulty handling more than one task at a time
Unsatisfactory: Consistently fails to meet deadlines

Here is what I mean about it being weirdly organized. Say I was looking for that one phrase that talks about ability to multitask. My chapter choices are: Qualitative Attributes, Quantitative Attributes, Management Skills, Personality and Human Relations, Professional Skills. In this case, I would have to know that I'm looking for Quantitative Attributes. Ok, then within that chapter, I would need to look through the sub-categories: accomplishment of tasks and goals, accuracy and precision, computer skills, knowledge of job and industry, planning and scheduling skills, setting goals and objectives, time management and prioritization....etc. Finally, I would need to know to look under "Time Management and Prioritization" to find phrases about multi-tasking. So, basically, the information is there... it's just not intuitive.

Overall a really helpful reference, but could use some help with organization

I think it is a very good tool for employers to write appraisals on their employees. I used it in a different manner, for writing my own appraisal.

This little book (thick, but about the size of a Kelly Blue Book) can easily fit in your desk drawer or in your pocket (the trim size might be intentional). I guess the author intended for managers to keep this book handy whenever they needed it to compose their performance reviews. The book succeeds as a reference. You will never need another book if you are looking for the "right phrase" in order to praise or reprimand someone. It's ALL there.

I wish the book had a little more guidance on the actual appraisal process. The author could have removed some of the duplicate phrasing to make room for more commentary. Like for example, in the chapter "Strategies for dealing with unsatisfactory performance" there is only about 5 pages of actual guidance on how to deal with the actual performance of the employee, and I thought a few more pages of guidance would have made this book a more valuable reference for managers. Although I understand that the book is designed to be a book of phrases rather than instructional, simply providing a list of words is not that useful. That being said, the information that the author DOES offer is all very good, and spot-on.

Other than that, the book is a good resource and worth the price, in my opinion.

This book was and is very helpful documentig and delivering a successful review. I felt it was also helpful in reviewing what level of performance my fellow employees are delivering.