English For Cool Dudes

Essential Business English for HR & Career

🚀 Level Up! Career Progression and Performance Reviews

Mastering the vocabulary for reviews, raises, and moving up the ladder.

1. Reading: Setting Career Goals 🎯

The annual Performance Review is the key meeting for discussing your career path. This is where you reflect on your past achievements and set future objectives.

To successfully negotiate a pay rise or promotion, you must clearly demonstrate how you have exceeded expectations in your current role. You should bring clear evidence, measured by specific metrics such as sales targets or efficiency gains, to your meeting.

Career progression often involves a Job Description change and a move to a higher Pay Grade. You may also be asked to mentor junior colleagues as part of your development plan.

A good review focuses on strengths and weaknesses, giving you constructive feedback for professional development.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are the high-level metrics used to track progress toward your strategic objectives.

2. Exercise A: HR Terminology Matching 🤝

Match the key career term to its correct definition. (Watch for the correct match color changes!)

KPI
Pay Grade
Promotion
Feedback
A specific salary range within a compensation structure.
Key Performance Indicator: a metric used to evaluate success in achieving an objective.
Information about past performance used as a basis for improvement.
The act of moving an employee to a position of higher authority and salary.

3. Exercise B: Performance Review Conversation 🗣️

Select the best word/phrase to fill the gaps in the following conversation between a Manager and an Employee. (7 Gaps, 7 Words)

raise
mentor
development
objectives
exceeded
metrics
review

Manager: Thanks for coming to your annual performance . Based on the from Q3, you've clearly your core .

Employee: That's great to hear. I've also taken on a role to the new graduate, which I really enjoy.

Manager: We appreciate that initiative. For your professional , we're planning a new training course. Also, in recognition of your results, we're putting you forward for a 5% pay .

Conclusion 🎉

You have successfully completed the core vocabulary for discussing **Career Progression** and **Performance Reviews**. Time to get that promotion! 🚀