20 Self-Performance Review Examples to Guide Employee Feedback Sessions

A self-performance review is an occasion for employees to look back at their own work and evaluate what they’ve done well, what was challenging, and how they can improve.

Anyone can take a self-performance review: An employee, a manager, even the business owner. This article is meant especially for employees who need to answer one, and for HR reps who plan to prepare a self-review cycle.

If you're leading a team or designing a performance review process, this guide will walk you through the practical side of self-evaluations, like setting concrete goals and writing strong self-appraisal comments, with real-world examples you can use or adapt.

What is a Self-Performance Review?

A self-performance review is a structured survey where employees assess their own work, behaviors, and progress over a specific period. Normal evaluations only include feedback from managers. Self-reviews, on the other hand, let employees have a say and may even help them realize they haven't been doing so well. This self-evaluation process might support continuous learning, career development, and skill development.

Someone else usually reads a self-analysis. It has a specific purpose: To work better in the company.

When done well, self-performance reviews invite employees to pause, reflect, and set strategic goals, all while giving managers useful information about individual contributions and challenges. They also help assess job performance over time and support personal and professional growth.

For startups and lean teams, self-assessments can be a handy lever too. They promote transparency, reinforce ownership, and build a culture where feedback is two-way and continuous, not just top-down and annual. This makes them especially useful when it comes to building a positive team environment and managing multiple tasks with competence.

Why it Matters

At its core, a self-review helps answer two key questions:

• What have I accomplished of what was expected of me?
• Where can I grow?

As a strategic tool, it helps with both personal growth and team cooperation, because employees are putting into words what the company requested from them, and seeing where they can improve to either get there or improve from there.

Check our HR software for HR generalists →

What It Typically Includes

While formats vary by company, a strong self-assessment typically covers:

• Key accomplishments: Projects completed, goals hit, or milestones reached, especially when compared against set goals (like a sales quota).
• Challenges and lessons learned: What didn’t go as planned, and what the employee took away from the experience.
• Strengths: Skills or behaviors the employee believes they bring to the team, such as interpersonal skills, time management skills, or technical skills.
• Areas for improvement: Honest reckoning on where growth is needed.
• Goals for the future: What the employee wants to achieve next and how they plan to get there. This may include project management skills or improving how they effectively communicate.

Some companies might also adopt a rating scale or questions about core values, leadership skills, or working together with peers at some companies.

Key Benefits

Self-assessments create space for employees to think critically about their role and performance, and not just react to feedback. When done well, they:

• Help employees feel heard and involved in their own development.
• Start more meaningful conversations in review meetings.
• Catch blind spots and misalignments that managers might otherwise miss.
• Support goal-setting that feels personal and actionable.
• Create a positive work environment where employee feedback and constructive feedback are valued.
• Promote a culture of ongoing professional development and welcome innovative solutions to shortcomings.
• Push the employee to a personal accountability session so that the company and the employee are on the same page regarding their performance.

For startups or small teams, they can also reduce the load on managers by prompting employees to come to the table prepared with insights and self-identified next steps.

In short, self-performance reviews turn feedback from a one-way evaluation into a two-way dialogue. They help make sure employees consistently demonstrate initiative, creative solutions, high-quality work, and strong job knowledge the next time they're at their jobs. In the end, it was the employees themselves who picked out the areas for improvement!

Examples of Self-Performance Review Goals

These examples work for either HR or for employees who are looking for a framework. Setting clear goals as you do a self-evaluation shows that you value initiative and direction. The best goals are specific, realistic, and tied to both personal growth and business needs. Here are 20 examples across common goal types:

Professional Growth Goals

These focus on building skills, advancing in a role, or preparing for future responsibilities.

• “Improve my data analysis skills by completing an advanced Excel course and applying those learnings to monthly reports.”
• “Take on more client-facing tasks to build confidence in presenting and handling objections.”
• “Increase my total number of meetings with prospects by 20%.”
• “Schedule monthly mentorship check-ins to prepare for a team lead position next quarter.”

Team Collaboration Goals

These center on communication, alignment, and contributing to a positive team dynamic.

• “Start weekly check-ins with my teammates to talk about your progress and avoid doing the same work twice.”
• “Help people from different departments work together by leading a project with the product team.”
• “Increase the speed at which internal messages are replied to [insert time! "From 2 hours right now to 1 hour"], so we can make teamwork easier.”

Task-Specific Goals

These relate directly to an employee’s core responsibilities or key deliverables.

• “I helped cut the turnaround time on customer support tickets from 12 hours to under 8 by Q3.”
• “Complete the redesign of the onboarding flow by the end of next sprint, based on user feedback.”

Top Self-Evaluation Examples by Category

The fundamentals in a self-review are to stay honest, use specific examples, and connect performance back to team or company goals. There are two tactics that employees should consider if they're putting together a review about their work:

• When you mention something you should improve on, immediately say what you have done so far to improve in that regard. You'll see how this plays out in the examples. 📈
• And it's better to stick to these templates instead of copy-pasting an answer from an LLM. Many people already recognize LLM text as a low-effort procedure. ✍️

Here are some examples of statements that can help you with your evaluations in important areas.

Communication Skills

These are areas where you can review your communication style and also show how you've been working on it.

• “I’ve made a conscious effort to communicate more clearly in team meetings by sharing agendas in advance and summarizing key points afterward.”
• “While I collaborate well in one-on-ones, I admit that I could improve in large-group discussions and plan to participate more actively.”

💡 You see? You're already saying what you have done to improve on that implied shortfall. If you're an employee, this is how you should do it. You either mention a success, or you mention what you're doing to be better.

Time Management

Good time management reflects the ability to prioritize tasks, meet deadlines, and stay focused. This is how you show strong time management skills and a knack for juggling multiple tasks while also doing a review.

• “This quarter, I consistently met deadlines by blocking out focused work time and limiting unnecessary meetings.”
• “I struggled with determining priorities during our busiest weeks but have started using a task management tool to better structure my day.”

Problem-Solving

This is how you review your problem-solving skills while also saying what you've done to work on them.

• “I pointed out a bottleneck in our sales handoff process and proposed a solution that cut delays by 20%.”
• “I'm confident in my ability to complete tasks, but I want to improve my critical thinking and problem-solving skills for when things go wrong, and that's why I joined the problem-solving workshop last month.”

Leadership Qualities

Leadership includes taking ownership, mentoring, guiding projects, and committing to a positive attitude toward the team. Leaders who have received positive feedback and have done something about it often rise quickly. So that's what you should do.

• “I led the launch of our new onboarding program, coordinated with three departments, and delivered it ahead of schedule.”
• “I’ve started mentoring a junior teammate weekly and helped them warm up faster and feel more confident in their role.”

Each of these examples can be adapted based on role, seniority, and company priorities. The goal is to strike a balance between self-awareness and ownership. Including references to the job description could help you get a better standing, because you're appraising yourself based on what the job demands.

Give and Take Constructive Criticism (with Examples) →

How to Write Effective Self-Appraisals

Here are some quick tips to help you write an effective and memorable self-review:

Tips for Employees

• Don't copy and paste from an LLM: It's a signal of low effort by now.
• Be honest and balanced: Admit both strengths and areas for improvement.
• Use specific examples: Show impact with concrete, measurable results.
• Align with company goals: Link up personal achievements to team or business objectives.
• Focus on outcomes: Highlight the results, not just the effort.
• Set actionable targets: Write down clear, measurable growth goals that can be carried out.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

• Over-inflating achievements: Stick to facts and bring in evidence.
• Being vague: Avoid general statements. Use specifics that only apply to your company.
• Ignoring areas for improvement: Balance strengths with a plan to grow.
• Forgetting future goals: Set goals for the next review period.
• Staying away from accountability: Take responsibility for mistakes and challenges.

Self-Performance Review Sample Answers

To help guide your self-appraisal, here are some sample answers that demonstrate how to look back on different areas of performance. You can use these templates if you think that the sample answers that we featured above were too incomplete. They follow the following structure:

They show a strength → they show where you can build upon it → they show why you're making that effort.

Here they are:

Communication Skills Sample Answer

"I improved meetings because I used clear agendas. This cut follows up meetings by 25%. Next, I want to speak up more in group talks. I will write my main points before meetings to do this. I would also like to help the team get better at public speaking. I will hold practice meetings once a month."

Time Management

"I used task management tools to meet deadlines every time. Occasionally, I find it hard when tasks overlap, so I will ask others to help more often. My goal is to plan tasks upfront each week to slim down my last-minute work."

Leadership

"I was in charge of a successful product launch and helped a new team member get up to speed. But I need to provide feedback faster to the team, because next time things might play out differently. My goal is to sign up for leadership courses for managers and use what I learn with my team."

Improve Review Cycles with HR Software

For HR representatives, HR software can simplify the review process with tools to start review cycles. Some software solutions are bundled with a reviews feature that has separate employee and manager forms. HR can tweak those forms so that they're self-performance review templates.

Some tools also come with employee performance management tools, can collect employee data, and can analyze performance trends over time, which means HR managers can use data points to match up the answers from reviews. And in some cases, HR software can link up with LMS software so that reviews can lead to training sessions!

TalentHR is an all-around HR solution with a reviews feature. Register now for free. It takes seconds to set it up.