How was your performance measured in your most recent role?
The interviewer would like to understand the key performance indicators you needed to meet in a recent role and how those KPIs were measured. A good interviewer will recognize that the top candidates always understand how their performance is measured and where they landed in regards to their performance against others in a similar role.
It is a red flag to an interviewer if the interviewee responds with 'I don't know,' or worse yet - 'My company didn't measure my performance in any way.' Every company pays attention to employee performance metrics; it's just that some ways are more evident than others.
Some ways that your employer might measure your performance:
- The rate of absence, late days, and sick days
- Setting specific objectives for you related to a task
- Amount of defective work submitted or amount of work returned
- Human Capital ROI
- Error counting
- Timed tasks
- Employee retention rates (for managers)
- Revenue Per Employee or Profit per FTE (Full Time Equivalent)
- The willingness of clients to recommend you or your work
- Feedback provided by coworkers and management
- Number of sales
- Scheduling errors
- Safety days
- First- call resolution or call quality and handling (primarily for call-center environments)
- Quality of contacts generated
"In my previous role as a content marketer for a cable company, I was measured by a range of social media analytics, client feedback, overall client satisfaction, and project churn rate. My KPIs were always sitting about 20% above expectations."
"We had online customer surveys in my most recent role. Another KPI was the number of services upsold per transaction. I was consistently in the top 10 out of 100 for our region."
Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.
Anonymous Answer
In my most recent role, my supervisor primarily measured my performance in a group setting. My target was 1.5M in group sales, where I performed over 19% of that goal. I also worked in a secondary role until they hire someone. In that position, my annual target for last year was 1M. I was able to reach that goal, as well.
Rachelle's Feedback
You have very specific numbers ready, which is an interviewers' dream! Try to remove words such as "about" so that your answer sounds more concrete.
"In my most recent role, my performance has been primarily measured in a group setting. My group's target is 1.5 M in group sales, where I performed over 19% of that goal. I also perform in a secondary role. In that position, I promote Transient Travel. My annual target for 2018 was 1 M. I was able to reach that goal as well."
Anonymous Answer
In my most recent role, my performance hasn't been officially measured. While I was working there, the company was developing a web application where each employee could set up his/her personal goals and measure them, while the manager could set up the team goals and measure the performance of the team. The HR team has organized a few workshops to inform the employees why and how we're going to use this tool. Eventually, I didn't have the chance to use the tool, but I believe that measuring the performance is important to an individual level as well as a team level.
Rachelle's Feedback
This program sounds very interesting! Did you measure your own performance, informally, in any way?
Anonymous Answer
Feedback and appreciation by coworkers and clients. Amount of worked submitted and returned as defects. Timed task.
Rachelle's Feedback
These are helpful measurements for the interviewer to know. If possible, try to expand on this by including what the feedback was, how you stacked up in your timed tasks, etc. Interviewers love numbers and percentages! :)
Anonymous Answer
At Park Hyatt Seoul, They used PDP tools to evaluate employees' performance, and I was measured above average, which was between good and excellent.
Rachelle's Feedback
Wonderful news! Were there any specific areas in which you stood above the rest?
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