Sample Performance Evaluation Comments

Performance evaluation or appraisals and reviews are an important part of any professional setting. The human resource department of a company in consultation with the employee's boss or department head is generally responsible for the evaluation of an employee's performance over a year's time.

While performance review is an annual affair in most companies, there are some firms that have reviews on a biannual basis to let the employee know his or her strengths and weaknesses. Every company makes use of different performance appraisal methods in order to evaluate the employee performance.

Some firms ask the employees to fill up a self evaluation form which enables the employer to know what he or she thinks about himself or herself. Performance evaluations are good ways of improving the morale of an employee by informing him or her about his strengths and also letting him or her know how they are an asset to the company.

As a human resource professional, on several occasions it becomes difficult to frame these performance evaluations correctly and without sounding overtly casual. It is here that sample performance appraisals come in handy, enabling them to draft effective phrases for performance appraisals properly. This article provides some sample performance evaluation comments for your use.

Performance review phrases need to maintain a fine line between a formal tone and being very casual. They also need to be written with authority but should not be written in a domineering tone. Always try to tone down the negatives mentioned in the performance appraisals by highlighting a few positives about the employee.

It is important that employee performance appraisals do not put down the morale of employees. There are many different key areas that are discussed in performance appraisals. Sample performance evaluation comments for five of these key areas have been given in this article. These aspects are time management and punctuality, stress management, professionalism, communication skills, leadership and team building.

Performance Evaluation Quotes on Time Management and Punctuality

• Has created a benchmark where punctuality and consistency related to work is concerned.
• Leading by example where punctuality is concerned has inspired his team and enabled to achieve team targets.
• Ensures that his team maintains proper schedules and does not take breaks outside the specified timings mentioned.
• Time management skills are extremely good and he is very efficient at judging the time required to complete scheduled tasks.

Performance Evaluation Phrases on Stress Management

• Handles stressful situations with great ease and is capable of coming up with solutions for these problems without much assistance.
• Never loses his temper or cool in even the most difficult situations.
• Works well under pressure and comes up with out of the box solutions even in crisis situations.

Sample Performance Evaluation Comments on Professionalism

• Develops and maintains professional relationships with people who would benefit the company.
• Behavior with fellow employees is extremely professional as is his attitude towards his work.
• Always works towards effective gathering of information to allow him to stay ahead of the curve and in tune with the demands of the market.

Sample Performance Evaluation Comments on Communication Skills

• Possesses the talent of frankly communicating with colleagues and team members without showing any disrespect. Gives proper feedback which has helped gain the respect of coworkers.
• Effectively thinks of solutions to problems and communicates the same to fellow workers
• A very good listener who cares about colleagues and listens to their problems giving them sound advise in case they need it. His ability to do so has earned him the respect of his colleagues.

Performance Evaluation Quotes on Leadership and Team building

• Inspires his team and builds their confidence by setting examples.
• Has the natural ability to make his fellow workers and customers feel at ease by solving the problems they have but never making them feel lesser than him.
• Appreciates the contribution of his team members, successfully raising team spirit by doing so.
• Is a natural leader who gets the amount of respect that he should due to the respect he shows to others in the company. This has helped raise team productivity.

These sample performance evaluation comments are complimentary performance appraisal phrases that you can use in your performance evaluations. Hopefully, they will enable you to draft your performance reviews well.

Customer Services Orientation

• A desire to help or serve others, to meet their needs. It means focusing one’s efforts and discovering and meeting the customer or client’s needs. The customer may be an “actual customer” or “end-user” within the same unit or organization.

• tasks personal responsibility to provide services for example by making one self fully available or easily accessible to the customer(s) when dealing with a difficult situation. Corrects customer services problem(s) promptly and taking extra effort to do so.

• knowing who the customer is and what they expect. Anticipating and responding to customer needs and requests. Seeking the  customer’s point of view and developing solutions for customer concerns or problems.

Teamwork and Cooperation

• A genuine intention to work cooperatively with others, to be part of a team, to work together as opposed to working separately or competitively.

•  Speaks of team leaders or members in positive expectations of others.

• Shows respect for and solicits other’s inputs, contributions and expertise, willing to learn from others especially subordinate(s); make others feel valued.  Develop positive working relationships with others and willing to co-operate in fostering effective teamwork and achieving team goals.

An Initiative

A bias for action and a preference for taking action. For example, a employee may do more than is required or expected in the job or look for new opportunities to improve performance or results.

• Shows persistence in taking action to overcome problems or obstacles and rejection by others. A resilient attitude of not giving up easily when things do not go as planned.

• Puts in extra effort or time as needed to solve problems or address current opportunities for immediate results.

World English Dictionary

— n

• the first step or action of a matter; commencing move: he took the initiative ; a peace initiative
• the right or power to begin or initiate something: he has the initiative
• the ability or attitude required to begin or initiate something
• government

• the right or power to introduce legislation, etc, in a legislative body
• the procedure by which citizens originate legislation, as in many American states and Switzerland

• on one's own initiative  without being prompted

— adj

• of or concerning initiation or serving to initiate; initiatory

Concern for quality and order

Concern for order and quality is the desire to see things done logically, clearly and well; it takes various forms: Monitoring and checking work or information, insisting on the clarity of roles and duties, setting up and maintaining information systems.


To what extent does the person pay attention to details and organize them?

1. Checks his or her own work and takes an interest in the overall quality of work in the unit: Tends to the quality of the information, services and systems at the level of her or his own personal work. Pays attention to the quality of work throughout the unit (ex. proofreading, data entry, client information, cable connections).
2. Monitors the general quality of the work and recommends improvements as his or her responsibilities allow: Ensures that procedures are followed and keeps clear, detailed records. Suggests improvements in other areas (ex. number of files processed, number of customers served to satisfaction).
3. Monitors systems, projects or information: Monitors the progress of a project or the efficiency of a system. Analyses data, pinpoints weaknesses or missing data, and seeks out information to maintain or even improve organization and priorities (ex. obtains progress reports from workers and team leaders).
4. Designs systems on his or her own: Tries to improve the quality of data and services by designing complex tools such as flow charts and engineering plans.

What is achievement orientation?

• A concern for working well, bias towards action competing against a standard of excellence. The standard can be one’s own performance, challenging goals set by the individual and comparing with the performance of others i.e. a keen sense of competitiveness, always striving to improve

• Works toward a standard of excellence, tries to do a job well and right.

• Works toward meeting a standard set by management (e.g. works within allocated budget, timely completion of assignment, meeting sales target.

• Works to improve own and other’s efficiency using for example, skills and techniques available in the organization.

The Great Khalifah Umar ibn Abdul Aziz

"...When the Khalifah died the Roman emperor is reported to have said:

“I should not be the least surprised if a monk renounces the world and busies himself in worship behind closed doors, but I am simply amazed at this man who has a vast empire at his feet but he rejected it and lived the life of a monk....”

Umar ibn Abdul Aziz is a person who is just well known by a few Muslims (those who are interested in the history of Islam). After the death of Prophet Mohammed, for some years, is when he was born.

All Muslims nominated the leaders in Islam, who succeeded each other after Prophet’s death, unanimously, but before Omar was born, everything had changed due to worldly pleasures. That is the word DYNASTY was introduced, instead. And since Omar belonged to the reigning family, when his time for leadership came, he was given the opportunity.

Actually, the above is just a short summary of his introduction, but what impressed me hence calling him my hero, are the following reasons that were portrayed throughout his life span.

First, comparing his life before and after his leadership is that, he led a luxurious and royal life before, but he underwent a complete metamorphosis after his declaration. For example: -

Immediately when he became a leader, he dismissed all the governors who were known to be cruel and unjust to the servants. Therefore, the people were happier than ever.

Secondly, all the jewelry and valuable presents brought before him were deposited to the state treasury in a number of occasions, instead of taking it for personal treasury.

Also he gave out all his wealth for the betterment of the society until he was remained with only one shirt. His people realized this when he was always late for Friday prayers as a result of waiting for his only one shirt to dry after washing it. Furthermore, at times there was no food in his house, hence, one day he saw his children hiding their mouth not to be open to their father, and when he enquired, he discovered that his children had taken onions as food and were hiding the smell from reaching him. He felt pity on them and made sure that they had enough food. This shows that, even the kids have taken after their father’s heroic nature of understanding the situation. Moreover he did not have enough money to go for pilgrimage despite the fact that, he was the leader of the mightiest empire in that time.

In his office he had two candles, if he wanted to write the state affairs, he would use the candle that belonged to the state and if he wanted to write his own personal letters, he would use the candle, which he bought from his own money.

Omar ensured that, his governors follow the same path. For example one of the governors brought a letter requesting for more candle sticks but Omar replied, “I remember we used to walk in the dark night without candle sticks and we survived, do you want to tell me that now you are in a worse condition?” This shows that he was against extravagance.

In another occasion, there were a request for papers, but Omar replied again, “Make the points of your pens thinner, and write small hand writings including your important matters and leave the details in very short and straight forward form.

It was during his reign when all taxes were abolished. People commented that during the reign of other leaders the state treasury was filled up, but now there was nothing due to the abolishing of taxes and most of the savings were used to help the poor and the needy. He replied that the state treasury was not meant for the walls but the people, so why should they not be given?

Instead of taxes, he encouraged all the governors to argue people to practice agriculture and if anybody had a piece of land which he did not cultivate for three years, the land was to be taken and be given to somebody else who would cultivate, hence burning off laziness.

In order to strengthen up the administration he took the following steps: -

(i) State officials were excluded from entering into any business.

(ii) Unpaid labor was made illegal.

(iii) Pasture lands and game reserves, which were reserved for the family of the dignities, were evenly distributed among the poor for the purpose of cultivation.

(iv) He urged to all of the officials to listen the complaints of the people and during any occasion, he used to announce that, if any subject had seen any officer maltreating others should report him to the leader and he will be given a reward ranging from 100 - 300 dirhams.

His fruitful achievements lead to the well being of his society, and even when the time for annual obligatory charity from came, no one accepted it, but was to be sent to other towns to raise other's standards of living. Everybody could assist his family without begging. This brought about jubilance among the people and loyalty towards their leader.

Omar's leadership cannot be compared to any other person's - it was so unique. Different leaders reigned before and after him but none could break his record.

He died in the year 719 CE, after ruling for two years and five months. His subjects mourned in great pain, saying that, they would never have a leader like Omar.

By:
HAIDAR BATHAWAB

Ada 4 isteriku

Suatu ketika, ada seorang pedagang kaya yang mempunyai empat orang isteri. Dia mencintai isteri yang keempat dan memberikan harta dan kesenangan yang banyak. Sebab, isteri keempat adalah yang tercantik di antara kesemua isterinya. Maka, tidak hairan lelaki ini sering memberikan yang terbaik untuk isteri keempatnya itu.

Pedagang itu juga mencintai isterinya yang ketiga. Dia sangat bangga dengan isterinya ini, dan sering berusaha untuk memperkenalkan isteri ketiganya ini kepada semua temannya. Namun dia juga selalu bimbang kalau-kalau isterinya ini akan lari dengan lelaki yang lain.

Begitu juga dengan isterinya yang kedua. Dia juga sangat menyukainya. Dia adalah seorang isteri yang sabar dan penuh pengertian. Bila-bila masa pun apabila pedagang ini mendapat masalah, dia selalu meminta pandangan isterinya yang kedua ini. dialah tempat bergantung. Dia selalu menolong dan mendampingi suaminya melalui masa-masa yang sulit.

Sama halnya dengan isterinya yang pertama. Dia adalah pasangan yang sangat setia. Dia sering membawa kebaikan bagi kehidupan keluarga ini. dialah yang merawat dan mengatur semua kekayaan dan usaha si suami. Akan tetapi si pedangang tidak begitu mencintainya. Walaupun isteri pertamanya ini begitu sayang kepadanya namun, pedagang ini tidak begitu memperdulikannya.

Suatu ketika, si pedagang sakit. Kemudian dia menyedari mungkin masa untuknya hidup tinggal tidak lama lagi. Dia mula merenungi semua kehidupan indahnya, dan berkata dalam hati, "Saat ini, aku punya empat orang isteri. Namun, apabila aku meninggal, aku akan sendiri. Betapa menyedihkan jika aku harus hidup sendiri."

Lalu dia meminta semua isterinya datang dan kemudian mulai bertanya pada isteri keempatnya, "Kaulah yang paling kucintai, kuberikan kau gaun dan perhiasan yang indah. Nah sekarang, aku akan mati, mahukah kau mendampingiku dan menemaniku?" Isteri keempatnya terdiam. "Tentu saja tidak!" jawab isterinya yang keempat, dan pergi begitu sahaja tanpa berkata-kata lagi. Jawapan itu sangat menyakitkan hati seakan-akan ada pisau yang terhunus dan menghiris-hiris hatinya.

Pedagang yang sedih itu lalu bertanya kepada isteri ketiganya, "Aku pun mencintaimu sepenuh hati, dan saat ini, hidupku akan berakhir. Mahukah kau ikut denganku, dan menemani akhir hayatku?". Isteri ketiganya menjawab, "Hidup begitu indah di sini. Aku akan menikah lagi jika kau mati". Pedagang begitu terpukul dengan jawapan isteri ketiganya itu.

Lalu, dia bertanya kepada isteri keduanya, "Aku selalu berpaling padamu setiap kali mendapat masalah. Dan kau selalu mahu membantuku. Kini, aku perlu sekali pertolonganmu. Kalau aku mati, mahukah kau ikut dan mendampingiku?" Si isteri kedua menjawab perlahan, "Maafkan aku...aku tak mampu menolongmu kali ini. Aku hanya boleh menghantarmu ke liang kubur saja. Nanti, akan kubuatkan makam yang indah buatmu."

Jawapan itu seperti kilat yang menyambar. Si pedagang kini berasa putus asa. Tiba-tiba terdengar satu suara, "Aku akan tinggal denganmu. Aku akan ikut ke manapun kau pergi. Aku, tak akan meninggalkanmu, aku akan setia bersamamu." Si pedagang lalu menoleh ke arah suara itu dan mendapati isteri pertamanya yang berkata begitu. Isteri pertamanya tampak begitu kurus. Badannya seperti orang yang kelaparan. Berasa menyesal, si pedagang lalu berguman, "Kalau saja aku mampu melayanmu lebih baik pada saat aku mampu, tak akan kubiarkan kau seperti ini isteriku."

Teman, sesungguhnya kita punya empat orang isteri dalam hidup ini;

ISTERI KEEMPAT adalah tubuh kita. Seberapa banyak waktu dan belanja yang kita keluarkan untuk tubuh kita supaya tampak indah dan gagah, semuanya akan hilang. Ia akan pergi segera apabila kita meninggal. Tak ada keindahan dan kegagahan yang tersisa saat kita menghadapNYA.

ISTERI KETIGA adalah status sosial dan kekayaan kita. Saat kita meninggal, semuanya akan pergi kepada yang lain. Mereka akan berpindah dan melupakan kita yang pernah memilikinya.

ISTERI KEDUA pula adalah kerabat dan teman-teman. Seberapa pun dekat hubungan kita dengan mereka, mereka tak akan mampu bersama kita selamanya. Hanya sampai kuburla mereka akan menemani kita.

DAN SESUNGGUHNYA ISTERI PERTAMA adalah jiwa dan amal kita. Mungkin kita sering mengabaikan dan melupakannya demi kekayaan dan kesenangan peribadi. Namun, sebenarnya, hanya jiwa dan amal kita sajalah yang mampu untuk terus setia dan mendampingi kemanapun kita melangkah. Hanya amal yang mampu menolong kita diakhirat kelak.

Jadi, selagi mampu, perlakukanlah jiwa dan amal kita dengan bijak. Jangan sampai kita menyesal kemudian hari!

Top 15 Ways to Build Your Subscriber List

Email marketing can be profitable for any business, no matter what kind of product or service you offer. It is significantly cheaper than other advertising methods and, if done right, helps build loyalty and trust with customers. As a result, you generate more sales and more profits!

The foundation for successful email marketing is a targeted, permission-based email list. Marketers call contact lists their "goldmine" because it can generate much of their sales revenue. If you've built up a list of opt-in subscribers that are qualified and interested in what you have to offer, then you've completed the first step and are on your way. Now it's time to "mine" for gold!

Below you'll find several list-building and retention ideas that will help you get the best results from all your email marketing activities:

1. Provide useful, relevant content. Your visitors will not give you their email addresses just because they can subscribe to your newsletter free of charge. You have to provide unique and valuable information that will be of interest or use to them.

2. Add a subscription form to every page on your website. Make sure it stands out so it is easy to find. If it doesn't look cluttered, you may want to include more than one on some pages. For instance, if your opt-in form always appears in the top-left corner of your site, you may want to add one at the end of your most popular articles.

3. Add subscription forms to your social media pages. Make sure that you don't waste this valuable source of revenue opportunities. Integrate your sign-up forms with Facebook and more!

4. Make it easy for readers to sign up. The more information you request, the fewer people will opt-in. In most cases, a name and an email address should suffice. If it's not necessary, don't include it here. You can always survey them once they're customers! We do recommend that you provide a link to your Privacy Policy however.

5. Publish a Privacy Policy. Let your readers know that they can be confident you will not share their information with others. The easiest way to do this is to set up a Privacy Policy web page and provide the link to it below your opt-in form. (Note: If you don't have one, put the words "privacy policy generator" into a search engine and you should be able to find a suitable form to use.)

6. Provide samples of your newsletters and Ezines. This lets potential subscribers review your materials before they sign up to determine if it's something they'd be interested in.

7. Archive past newsletters and articles. An online library of past newsletters and articles is both appealing and useful to visitors and builds your credibility as an authority. In addition, if your articles are written with good SEO techniques in mind, they can increase traffic to your website through enhanced search engine positioning.

8. Give gifts subscribers can actually use. Offer an opt-in bonus for joining your subscriber list! Write an ebook or provide a PDF business report, or even hire a programmer to create downloadable or web-based software. But don't limit yourself to offering gifts to opt-ins. Give them out when your readers fill out a survey, provide a testimonial, success story, or a great product idea. Let them know when they can expect the next gift offer. Everyone likes to get something for free! And if you pass out "goodies" throughout the year, your subscribers will feel truly appreciated − and that's good for business!

9. Ask your subscribers to pass it on. Word of mouth is a powerful viral technique that works great with email marketing. If your subscribers find your content interesting, amusing or informative, they'll probably share it with their friends. This can be a great source of new customers, so make sure to remind them to "pass it on".

10. Let others reprint your newsletter as long as the content is not modified. If you're happy to share your content with the universe, then why not! Many webmasters and newsletter publishers are actively looking for high-quality content and, if they reprint your newsletter, you'll get new subscribers, and more traffic and links pointing to your site.

11. Include a "Sign Up" button in your newsletter. If you're using plain text instead of HTML, be sure to provide a text link to your subscription page. You may feel that this is not required because the subscriber is already on your list, but remember that readers will forward your newsletters to others, or reprint them online. Make it easy for them to subscribe!

12. Add a squeeze page. A squeeze page has one goal − to acquire opt-ins and build your list. Think of it as a mini-sales letter to go along with your subscription or opt-in gift. It should feature a strong headline and a couple of powerful benefits that should make subscribers salivate to sign up! Once created, use a service such as WordTracker to find hundreds of targeted keywords, and promote your offer using pay-per-click advertising from Google, MSN and Yahoo. Now that should make a splash!

13. Include testimonials on your squeeze page. This is crucial. Put one or two strong testimonials from satisfied customers on your squeeze page. This can be in any format, but you may find that multimedia (audio or video) is more "believable" and inspires more people to action. To further enhance believability, get permission to use actual customer names, locations and/or urls (Don't use "Bob K, FL"). Add a note inviting others to participate. After all, it's free publicity!

14. Blog religiously. Blogging is a great way to communicate with prospects and potential customers, and creates a nice synergy with your email marketing. Be sure to include your newsletter sign-up form on each page of your blog. You can start a free blog at Blogger or WordPress.

15. Post on other blogs. Post thoughtful comments and information on similar blogs with a link to your squeeze or opt-in pages. Also comment on others' blogs through trackbacks. In most cases, your comments will be posted on their blogs with a link back to your site. This is an easy way to generate new traffic and subscribers, and get your brand out there!