Preparing for your Performance Appraisal Meetings : Appraisee
Preparation required for your first meeting:
Performance Appraisal planning meeting
What do you need to know?
§ You need to have an idea about how this process is going to work and start to have a go at using the documentation. To do this, you need to :
o Read through and familarise yourself with the Performance and Development Agreement (PDA) .
o Read through the Performance Management and appraisal process document at the same time as you look through the PDA to help you to understand what each of the sections involve.
What is the purpose of your first meeting?
§ Your first meeting with your manager will be to discuss the College’s strategic objectives, the mission and values of the college and if agreed- the operational aims / priorities in your department. Using this information, along with a job description ( If you have one) and your knowledge of your role and your development areas, you will start to discuss and write down key objectives , actions required, measures of success, by when dates. These objectives will then be linked to the relevant Strategic and Operational aims.
§ You will then complete a Competency assessment. This will involve you and your manager jointly assessing your demonstration of each competency. You and your manager will then highlight some areas that require the most development and link these to your objectives. Your progress will be measured in your mid and final year review.
§ A discussion will take place regarding your career aspirations and if / how this can be supported.
§ You will then have an opportunity to talk about your well being and any actions and support required to help you perform effectively in your role. Please note – responsibility lies with the individual.
§ Finally, a discussion and record will be made of any personal development needs and how these may be achieved. Please note- any application for courses will need to be agreed in line with Workforce development authorisation. However- please try and think of other learning solutions other than just attending a course. Eg Mentoring, on the job, learning resource centres etc.
§ At the end of this meeting, the Performance and development agreement may still be very much a draft. It is the appraisee’s responsibility to write up / type up this document, then it can be signed by both the appraisee and appraiser.
§ Although this document has been signed , it is a live document and it is the responsibility of the appraisee to own and update their progress ready for their mid and final year review.
What preparation should I do for my first meeting?
Preparation for setting objectives:
§ Have a go at brainstorming the key responsibilities of your role.
§ Use these key responsibilities to formulate some very draft objectives.
§ Please note- your manager may have already had a go at coming up with some objectives that are generic across certain roles. This will save re-inventing the wheel. Don’t worry about the wording of these objectives- as this can be finalised with your manager later.
§ Link this objective to the appropriate strategic /operational aim- if this does not link back to one of these- you need to question why it does not! Is this a relevant objective?
§ Then have a go at listing some actions that may be required to achieve the objective. Then for each action- think about how you will measure this- showing that you have achieved it. Then determine for each action- an appropriate time scale for achieving this.
Please note- the more preparation you can do beforehand, the better the conversation with your manager at the meeting.
Preparation for your competency assessment :
§ Every role will have a level of competency attached to it. This is a new concept and some work still needs to be done to determine what these should be for every role.
§ Everyone should be demonstrating level 1 as a minimum, therefore assess yourself against level 1 initially and determine what description reflects your performance of that competency- ie Always meets criteria down to never meets criteria. When doing this exercise- ask yourself, if my manager asked me for an example of this competency- would I be able to provide one?
§ If your role requires you to demonstrate level 2 / 3 competency- then repeat the exercise above.
§ Look through each competency and identify which ones you demonstrate the least.
§ Your manager will have conducted a similar assessment for you and during your first meeting you will be able to compare these and determine some key areas for development going forward.
Preparation for discussion on your career aspirations, well being:
§ Spend some time having a think about what you may want to discuss with your manager on these sections.
Preparation for your Personal development plan:
§ Think about your current role and any training needs required to fulfil your role.
§ Think about the types of activities you could do to achieve this development and the most cost effective ways of doing this.
§ Any development needs must support the strategic and operational aims of the college.
Provide a copy of your draft Performance and Development Agreement to your manager at least a week before your meeting to help your manager to prepare.
What happens next ?
§ Your performance and development agreement is your responsibility and it is a living document that needs to be kept up to date with your progress. This does not need to be a burden and should not be a small novel- however you will need to take some time between your initial meeting to set your objectives and your mid and final review to record your progress. If you do this, then it will save any last minute cramming to get this done.
§ Remember- all staff must complete this documentation- it is mandatory and reflects your performance in your role.
§ Record your progress against your objectives, competencies and Personal development in the boxes provided.
§ Add any new actions, measure etc you may have taken that you didn’t identify in your initial discussions.
§ Collect any feedback you receive on how you are performing- keep this in a file for yourself.
Preparation required for your Mid year review :
What is the purpose of your mid year review meeting?
§ This is a meeting to discuss your progress against your objectives, competencies and personal development to date along with feedback collated to help your manager to determine a mid year rating.
§ This meeting will help you to get a clear understanding of how you are doing and if you are on track, or not and need to do something differently.
§ If you have completed some of your objectives already, you may set new objectives during this meeting.
§ You and your manager may also identify new competencies that require improvement if others have been met.
What preparation should I do for my mid year review?
Preparation for reviewing your objectives:
§ Write down / Type up any additional actions , measures and by when’s you may have taken to achieve the original objective.
§ Write down / Type up all of your progress and achievements in the “Progress / Mid year review comments” box. Keep this simple and use bullet points. (Your manager will be familiar with what you have been doing and you will have the opportunity to expand on this anyway during your mid year review meeting).
§ Consider and self assess each of your own objectives as either Exceeded / Achieved / Ongoing / Not achieved.
Preparation for reviewing your competencies:
§ Review each of the competencies you agreed to work on to improve and document any examples of progress in the Review section of your PDA, Competency Review , Mid year review comments. Again, Keep this simple- bullet points. If you have recorded your progress during the year against the competency- this will make this easy for you.
§ Consider what further competencies you may seek to improve in the next period prior to your final review.
No preparation is required on the Career aspirations / Wellbeing sections. Although these may be referred to again in the mid year review.
Preparation for reviewing your Personal Development plan:
§ Record your progress against each of your identified development needs.
Preparation for your Summary of Performance MID YEAR REVIEW
§ Complete the “Comments Individual section” of the Summary of Performance Mid year review document. This should summarise your thoughts on your overall performance against your role, competencies, personal development, key achievements and feedback.
§ Collect feedback from a variety of people on your performance, eg customers, peers, managers etc that you have received and forward this to your manager in preparation for your meeting.
§ Self assess your whole performance to date and identify what rating you believe you deserve and the justification for this. Your manager will do the same and has the overall decision on what he / she recommends this to be.
Provide a copy of your updated Performance and Development Agreement and feedback to your manager a week before your meeting to help your manager to prepare.
§ You are responsible for updating the agreed ratings and comments, and must then forward a copy to your manager to check and to complete their Comments on the Summary of Performance sheet.
§ This document should then be printed and signed by both the appraiser and appraisee.
Preparation required for your Final year review :
§ You should be in the swing of this now- this is virtually a repeat of the Mid year review.
o Ensure you have recorded your progress and comments in the final review comments box on each of your objectives
o Self assess your objectives and identify if you have Exceeded/ Achieved/Ongoing/Not achieved.
o Record your progress against each competency in the Final review comments box in the Competency Review section.
o Update your PDP.
o Complete the Individual comments box on the Summary of Performance, Final Annual review.
o Collect and forward feedback on your performance to your manager in advance of the meeting.
o Self assess your whole performance for the year and identify what rating you believe you deserve and the justification for this.
Provide a copy of your updated Performance and Development Agreement and feedback to your manager a week before your meeting to help your manager to prepare.
§ You are responsible for updating the agreed ratings and comments, and must then forward a copy to your manager to check and to complete their Comments on the Summary of Performance sheet.
§ This document should then be printed and signed by both the appraiser and appraisee.
Important information
§ The Performance and Development agreement belongs to the individual.
§ The manager and individual will work jointly on determining the individual’s objectives, competency requirements, personal development and ratings, however, where there may be disagreements, the manager’s decision is final.
§ This process is mandatory and all employees must have a Performance and development agreement in place and must fulfil their obligations in the performance appraisal process.
§ The individual and manager will discuss ratings, the manager will have the final decision in making a formal recommendation of the rating to be given to an individual. This rating will be a provisional rating ONLY. All areas will conduct a process of calibration to ensure employees objectives and ratings against performance are fair and transparent. Once this has happened, employees ratings will be confirmed and where appropriate Increments will be given or withheld accordingly.