It’s not easy for many people to talk about themselves at a party, let alone complete a formal analysis of themselves that will be scrutinized by their managers. Maybe it’s because it is potentially awkward that the self-evaluation portion of performance management often gets overlooked.

To make matters worse self evaluations are still viewed as something an employee undergoes—like a painful surgical procedure. It is little wonder that at companies where this is the case, the entire performance appraisal is a dreaded annual event.

Including employee self-evaluations as part of your performance appraisal process and making sure they are seen by employees in a positive light is vital to empowering your employees and creating a cohesive corporate culture. Employees are not passive participants in your workplace, so they shouldn’t be passive participants when it comes time to their annual appraisals. Giving them an active and important role to play in the performance management process is vital to their engagement in the process as well as in their day-to-day work.

A recently published article entitled Why Are Employee Self-Evaluations So Important? looks at some of the drivers and benefits of employee self-evaluations. If your organization doesn’t currently encourage employee self-evaluations, take a few minutes to take a look at it.

What do you think? Are there other benefits to employee self-evaluations? Have you encountered any challenges with them?