Rating:

In a hurry?  Recommendation   

As Looking Forward: Your Performance Appraisal begins, James, an enthusiastic intern, is ready for his first performance appraisal. Doris, his cynical foil, thinks the whole process is an unnecessary exercise, a pain, and we see her making sure her evaluations are adversarial.

James is a source of detailed wisdom about how an employee can make the most of an appraisal, especially with a manager who meets him or her halfway. I found it hard to accept that an intern would know so much and be brash enough to tell a veteran employee what she's supposed to do. The character comes off as wooden, but the actor has all the teaching lines, which are hard to deliver as conversational, and he's juxtaposed to Doris.

We see James following his own advice and then get a glimpse of Doris finally doing it the right way. I would have preferred a focus on Doris.

Any employee can benefit from this program. It makes the most sense in an organization that supports and values a developmental approach to performance evaluation. Yet, even people in organizations that don't can learn ways of being active on their own behalf instead of just sitting through an evaluation.

The video is only 12 minutes. Aside from the acting, the production is nothing special, but I would rather have a good cast than a fancy set or location.

This program is a companion to Care and Candor: Making Performance Appraisals Work, which looks at appraisal from the manager's standpoint.

Recommendation
This video can help employees approach performance evaluations so that they learn, not suffer, from them. It would be a good choice to show to new employees.

Looking Forward Rating