Performance Reviews for Assistants
One area that seems to change notably from job to job is remuneration and performance reviews for Assistants.
In my first full-time job, I had quarterly performance reviews with my manager, half-yearly appraisals and at the end of every year, a full review and 360° feedback with my team.
In one role, I didn’t even have objectives.
Now you may think this is a terrible thing and an example of bad management. But, and critically, not having a performance review didn’t make any difference to my role or my remuneration package. So why do we put ourselves through this process every year?
Some Executives I’ve worked for have quite often no idea what I do with my day.
They know the basics.
Assistants look after the diaries and schedule meetings. But overall, they didn’t know what the day-to-day involved.
The main reason for this is because everything runs smoothly in the office, the stationery cupboard is always stocked, the printer still has paper, board reports and presentation slides magically appear on their desk ready for them to take to their meeting.
In their mind, it just happens, but a good Assistant is always busy working behind the scenes.
It is easy to overlook the Assistant in the office that makes everything run smoothly, especially if your manager is incredibly busy.
But do remember that Assistants are an asset to their organisation.
So you should use your performance review to shout from the rooftops about HOW GREAT YOU ARE!
This article will take you through each step of the performance review or appraisal process for Executive Assistants and Personal Assistants. To ensure Assistants make the most of their review, we will start with the basics, and that is the job description for Assistants. We will then cover both the annual review and your mid-year reviews. Last but least, we will point you in the right direction for goal setting and objectives for Executive and Personal Assistants.
This Performance Reviews for Assistants article will cover:
10 questions to ask during your annual performance review
Before you leave your Executive’s office, make sure you have asked the following questions during your Assistant performance review.
Asking your Executive to answer these questions will give you the scope and information you need to succeed in the role and the year ahead.
- Are there specific skills you’d like to see me develop?
- What do you see as the next steps in my career and this role?
- What would you like me to achieve by our next performance conversation?
- How are you going to measure my success in the future?
- What are you thinking about in terms of pay rises or promotions, and what can I do to get there?
- What two or three things should I focus on in the next quarter to help me grow and develop?
- What are your objectives, and how should we align them with my goals to better support you?
- What could I do differently to better support you?
- What timeline did you have in mind for our next informal check-in or formal review?
- Is there anyone else in the organisation you think I should be receiving feedback from?
Getting to grips with your mid-year review
You may think that a half-year review isn’t a big deal, but for Assistants, the chance to discuss job performance, objectives and reward should be taken seriously.
We don’t often get to spend that much time with our Executive talking about ourselves, and we have to grab every opportunity to discuss our role.
So here are my 6 top tips for your mid-year review.
Make sure you have a mid-year review.
My first tip is relatively straightforward, right?
Well, no, for some Assistants, it can be quite difficult even to have a mid-year review.
An annual review is usually linked to pay rises and bonuses, so most Executives will conduct a review at the end of the year for their Assistant because HR need the paperwork.
Mid-year reviews are often seen as a ‘nice to have’ or utterly unimportant, so it is put off or forgotten altogether.
As I’ve said already in this article, the excellent thing for Assistants is that we have control of our manager’s diary to schedule a mid-year review ourselves.
I can’t stress how important it is to have two reviews per year at the very minimum.
The Assistant role is hard. It is even harder if you have no idea what your manager thinks of your performance.
Don’t rush the review.
Assistants should have the same amount of time dedicated to their review as any other member of staff.
It is easy to think we can squeeze our review into a 20-minute catch because we don’t think it is that important or because we see first-hand how busy our managers are.
Do remind yourself that your role only functions if your manager is happy with your performance. If issues need to be addressed or even processes that could work better, the mid-year review is the perfect time to discuss them and move forward.
What objectives have you met?
I’ve been seriously guilty of shoving my yearly objectives into a drawer and forgetting about them until the mid-year review and then stressing that I haven’t met any of them.
When you work in a role as demanding as ours sometimes, time doesn’t allow you to evaluate your performance.
That is unless firefighting is an objective, and usually, it isn’t.
Forgetting your objectives as soon as the paperwork is signed isn’t productive or helpful for career progression.
If you are in a similar situation leading up to your mid-year review, dust off your objectives and spend some time looking at what you have accomplished over the last six months, you might be surprised at how much you have done.
Are there any objectives that can be achieved relatively quickly if you dedicate a little time to them? For example, if you have a training objective, can you book yourself onto a course before your mid-year review so that you have something to tell your manager during the discussion.
There are other factors you should consider when reviewing your objectives.
- Are the objectives still relevant?
- Has your role changed in the last six months?
- Do you need new objectives for the rest of the year?
- Are the objectives too challenging or not challenging enough?
These questions can and should be raised during your mid-year review.
Print off supporting documents
If you have received any nice emails or feedback from colleagues or clients, make sure you bring the evidence along to your mid-year review.
You are not gloating or showing off. You are merely giving evidence that will support your performance.
Managers are often accused of not understanding the role, and I often hear assistants say that their managers do not know what they do.
Here is an opportunity to tell them what you do and show them how well you do it.
Look forward to the rest of the year.
Split your review into two sections that cover the last six months and the rest of the year.
Review how you have been performing and look at what is coming up over the next six months.
This is an excellent time to look at your managers’ objectives for the rest of the year and how you can help support them.
This is also an excellent opportunity to ask for more work if you are not being challenged or support if you have too much work.
Self-evaluation
The mid-year review is a great time to reflect on your performance and overall feelings towards your role.
You must be honest with yourself and with your manager. It is also necessary that they are frank with you too.
I don’t suggest you tell your manager you hate your role, and you hate them – as much as you would love to, brutal honesty is not going to get you a pay rise! Instead, if you are having issues or are unhappy, discuss the problems with your manager in a constructive manner.
Before the review, spend some time noting down what has worked over the last six months, what you have enjoyed and also what hasn’t been working and what can be improved.
Come prepared for the meeting, take a deep breath and speak. Perhaps they were unaware of the problems and just needed to be told.
If you are delighted and love your manager and the role, tell them that too! Who doesn’t like to be told they are a good boss!
Mid-year reviews are an essential element of your career development.
After six months, you can check how you are progressing through your objectives and goals and make any necessary changes.
If you are unsure what to discuss during your mid-year review, here are ten questions that you can ask and discuss with your Executive. These questions will help you flesh out what you have achieved and what you need to work on for the rest of the year.
Ten questions to ask during your mid-year review
- What has been going well for the last six months?
- What can be improved for the next six months?
- What am I doing that is most helpful for you?
- What can I do to make your job easier?
- Are there any additional projects or areas of work I should be looking at over the next six months that are not part of my current goals and objectives? – This could lead to more growth (if you have performed well over the first six months).
- What are your goals and objectives for the next six months, and how can I help you achieve them?
- Are there are patterns in the way that I work that I could change for the better?
- If you missed any of your goals for the first two-quarters of the years, what can I change so that I hit all of my goals for the rest of the year?
- Are there things I could do that would make our relationship better?
- If I stay on course with this level of performance, what salary and bonus should I expect next year?
Giving and receiving feedback
Lastly, in this article, I want to talk a little more about giving and receiving feedback.
Most advancements in our careers and our lives come from difficult conversations. Still, we are never taught how to have these conversations, manage them, and deal with the people we are communicating with.
Giving and receiving feedback at work can often be classed as one of those difficult conversations. But it doesn’t have to be; if presented correctly, with the right intentions, feedback is a beautiful thing that can help move us in the right direction.
For Assistants, giving and receiving feedback is so critical.
We have to keep an open dialogue with our Executive’s so that we know the partnership is working effectively, which means we also have to give our Executive feedback and receive it.
This is hard, providing feedback to the person that runs the team? Department? Division? Organisation? Yup!
It is part of the role, and again if given constructively and with the right mindset (and timed correctly) can help improve your role and ultimately your career.
I want to share ten fantastic resources (books, articles and online courses) that will help you give better feedback at work to all levels of seniority.
Great articles and blog posts
Giving feedback to your boss (Harvard Business Review)
Giving feedback to your boss, like a boss (The Muse)
Difficult Workplace Conversations (Balanced Career)
31 tips on how to give and receive feedback at work (ThriveYard)
The Art And Science Of Giving And Receiving Criticism At Work (Fast Company)
Books
Lead Your Boss: The Subtle Art of Managing Up
The Feedback Imperative: How to Give Everyday Feedback to Speed Up Your Team’s Success
How to lead when you’re not in charge
Online Courses
Giving and Receiving Feedback for Management and Leadership
So what’s my favourite tip from all of these resources?
I like the idea of being teachable, from the ThriveYard article,
Of utmost importance is your ability to recognize your shortcomings or weaknesses and the willingness to do something about it.
At times we might have our internal sirens blaring warning us that we are headed on the wrong path and feedback serves as a red traffic light or a stop sign to alert us that we are headed down the wrong path.
Demonstrate the desire and understanding to change course and to move to the correct road. Even though at the moment of impact, receiving critical feedback can sting since it feels bad to be told that you don’t measure up, yet we need the reality check to jump-start us back into realignment.
Look at the big picture on what went wrong and ask yourself what you could have done better and what you can do better moving forward.’
I also like the idea that the more feedback you get, the more you want. It becomes part of your everyday experience at work.
What next?
Before you head off to think about your Assistant performance review, remember to read our SMART objectives article and remember to download our bundle of FREE templates and guides for setting your SMART objectives.
Originally published 14th December 2011, updated 4th February 2020.