Hi, Insiders! Before we jump into holiday celebrations and travel, there’s one crucial work task many of us need to complete: performance reviews. This end-of-year evaluation can be incredibly stressful and time-consuming, especially if you’re looking to build the case for that long-awaited raise or promotion. To ease some of the burden, turn to Microsoft Copilot!
Generate ideas for you and your team’s reviews
You want to have a productive conversation with your boss and teammates – Copilot can assist with this by providing suggestions for asking questions about your goals, negotiating salary and other perks, and addressing complicated matters like organizational shifts or poor performance.
Sample prompt
I’m 25 and work in marketing. I’d like to ask my manager for a raise this year in my performance review meeting. Give me a script for bringing this up that’s professional, respectful, and acknowledges that the company has a lower budget than past years and may only doll out raises for top performers. Highlight that I’ve taken on more work than usual since one of our teammates left earlier this year and we haven’t had a chance to backfill the role yet.
Copilot’s response
Write an impressive and professional self-evaluation
You know your value and what accomplishments you want to bring up – now you have to actually write them down in a convincing and eloquent way. Copilot can take those rough ideas or outlines and polish them up into a complete self-evaluation.
Sample prompt
Help me draft my self-evaluation for my performance review. Please reference this OneNote for information: [attach or link to a OneNote page that includes relevant information on your performance, such as status reports, presentations, feedback notes, and emails].
Then, write an impactful reflection (maximum 6,000 characters) on my 2025 contributions and include the following:
- Hit my sales goals every quarter, and exceeded my goal in Q4.
- Helped create a completely new onboarding system for new hires, including comprehensive documentation on everyday processes and filmed a short video showing a sales call in action (my idea!).
- Attended several networking events to meet new clients, with one interaction turning into a big contract.
- Always showed up on time to work, dressed professionally, and helped with mentoring new sales associates.
- Assisted with other tasks outside my day-to-day job, such as working with the accounting team on integrating new software into how we track revenue/sales.
Finish by explaining why I believe I’m qualified for a promotion after 2.5 years in this role, and how I plan to use that new position to further drive business outcomes and team success.
Copilot’s response
Get help providing feedback to peers
It’s easy to give out positive feedback, but a lot harder to phrase constructive criticism. Copilot can make this duty less intimidating by offering suggestions and advice for addressing the issue with confidence and tact.
Sample prompt
My colleague can be really negative and hard to work with. She never offers solutions, and tends to complain when she’s assigned something new or asked to do more than her typical job. It makes getting stuff done harder and also brings my mood down. She’s very good at her job otherwise, like meeting deadlines, responding to emails, and showing up when needed! Help me bring this up in a peer performance review in a way that’s encouraging, doesn’t talk down to her, and offers suggestions for improvement that are realistic.
Copilot’s response
Here’s to smarter reviews – and the standout results you deserve!
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