Due to lack of time and lack of profound knowledge about the contents of job references, superiors often advise their employees to write the references themselves.
This can result in formulations such as: "His always excellent performance was always and in every respect to our complete satisfaction and always found our highest recognition".
The employee's intention to award himself or herself top marks is the main focus here. This involves the issuing of a meaningful, well-founded and, above all, legally compliant certificate. Because when writing a job reference, there are important rules and language codes to be observed which are not always apparent to laypersons at first glance, but which can certainly lead to a false evaluation.
Our tip:
As a superior, write the certificates yourself.
The heading " certificate", "job reference" or "interim certificate" is also important. Each certificate must have a date and at least one, if possible two, signatures.
At www.arbeitszeugnis-info.de you can easily and quickly create job reference templates with pre-formulated sentences, which can be used as a basis, by entering the personal data of the employee, the period of employment and the evaluation of performance according to school grades 1 to 6. If school grade 1 is entered, for example, the following formulations for the performance assessment, the behavioral assessment and the final wording:
Expertise:
...entrusted with difficult tasks, which they successfully handled completely independently.
Performance:
...always to our complete satisfaction.
Endurance:
...a great deal of personal initiative and was always willing and able...
Method of operation:
...always carried out their work with the utmost care and accuracy.
Success at work:
...showed extraordinary commitment and outstanding performance.
Behavior:
Because of his or her always obliging, cooperative and helpful nature, Ms. / Mr. XY was a valuable support to her / his superiors and a valued partner to her colleagues.
Final note:
We thank Mrs/Mr XY for the always good cooperation and regret very much to lose her/him. At the same time, we understand that she/he is taking the opportunity offered to her/him. We wish her/ him all the best for the future.
The frequently used expressions for school grades 1 to 6 can be translated as follows:
very good = "always to our fullest / highest satisfaction"
good = "always to our complete satisfaction"
satisfactory = "always to our satisfaction".
sufficient = " for satisfaction "
deficient to insufficient = "always tried"
Text modules and job descriptions for more detailed and legally compliant job references are available in the Haufe Praxisratgeber „Arbeitszeugnisse“ (ISBN: 3-448-09074-3).
