Performance Development Agreementprocess (PDA)

Performance Development AgreementProcess (PDA)

Performance planning provides an opportunity for employees and supervisors to work in partnership to achieve personal and professional goals aligned with the department's strategic and operational objectives.

Regular conversations between employees and supervisors are the key to successful performance planning and ensures all parties have the ability to give and receive feedback. The process also enables discussion around the key values shared by the team and the behaviours necessary for successful performance in individual roles, the team and more broadly the department.

Performance planning

The performance planning cycle occurs over a 12 month period, commencing on 1 September and concluding 30 August. The timing of this cycle aligns with and supportsother levels of planning within DPC.

At a minimum, formal mid-year and final reviews should be conducted every six (6) months. These reviews however should be supported by regular informal performance conversations.

New employees to the department are to commence the performance planning process within one month of being employed.Where an employee commences mid performance cycle, review timeframes should be adjusted to align with the departmental performance planning cycle.

The PDA process applies to all permanent and temporary officers who are employed for three (3) months or more and who are classified at the Senior Officer level and below.

Performance Development

In DPC performance planning is completed online and is a collaborative process between supervisors and employees. The online process consists of four (4)key elements including:

• Goals
• Development
• Contributions; and
• Conversations

The online PDArequiresongoing communication between supervisors and employees during the performance cycle with the objectives of the plan being to:

• Outline the performance goals to be met by the employee during the performance period, including key duties, projects and responsibilities;
• Discuss how these goals align with and contribute to other departmental planning processes including the DPC Strategic Plan, Business Plans and other relevant planning documents;
• Identify performance measures and expectations;
• Clarify expected individual and team behaviours and how these support departmental and whole of government values;
• Identify learning and development needs and activities;
• Provide timely and constructive feedback and guidance on performance and development priorities;
• Provide an avenue to increase two-way communication between supervisor and employee;
• Address areas where performance is not meeting expectations; and
• Recognise employee achievements.

Supervisors and employees canuse the following questions to guide the development of PDAs:

QUESTIONS / ACTIONS
What are my top 3-5 individual performance goals?
How will these goals contribute to DPC’s vision and strategic objectives? / Individual performance goals include relevant duties, responsibilities and projects to be undertaken over the upcoming 12-month period.
Refer to relevant Role Description, Strategic Plan, Business Plan, Operational Plan, CEO and SES Performance Agreements where applicable.
Discuss how each goal will support higher level planning processes and contribute to achieving the Department’s vision and objectives over the next 12 months.
What does success look like? / Identify success for each goal (see below for further information on writing SMART Goals).
What are my key development needs (top 2-3)? / Identify what capabilities requirefurther development in order to help reach your goals (short and long term).
How will I obtain this? / Consider what learning and development activities will enable you to meet your development goals. Remember learning can take many different forms and development may involve a variety of learning experiences including learning on the job, learning through others and via formal training programs (this model is referred to as 70:20:10).
How will I contribute to the team? / Discuss the behaviours and values you will uphold to contribute to the success of your team.
Discuss how the team can support the employee to be successful in their role.
Evaluation points:
6 and 12 month reviews
What progress has been made towardsachievingagreed performance goals, areas for development and team contributions? / All goals, development and contributions should be evaluated during formal meetings held at 6 and 12 month intervals.
The purpose of the 6 and 12 month reviews is for the supervisor to provide the employee with formal feedback regarding their progress performance goals and ensuring that the agreed training and development activities are being completed as planned.
Conversations
Are the agreed performance goals, development activities and team contributions still relevant or do they require further adjustment, including addition of new goals or removal of obsolete ones? / Regular conversations are the key to successful performance planning processes.
Participating in regular conversations enables both parties to give and receive feedback to improve performance, enhance workplace relationships, discuss what is going well and what needs changing.

Additional questions that support performance planning processes and conversations:

TOPIC / EXAMPLES OF WHAT TO DISCUSS
Feedback / Does the employee know how they are performing?
Are there any issues (internal or external) that may be affecting performance?
What are they doing well?
What ispreventing the employee achieving their performance goals or development requirements?
What else is needed to enable performance expectations to be met?
Role fit / What aspects of their role does the employee enjoy?
Is there anything else related to their role that the employee would like to do?
Environment / Does the employee have the necessary tools, resources and support to do their role effectively?
Competency / Does the employee have the skills, knowledge and ability to perform their role?
If not, what assistance or development do they need?

Developing Meaningful Performance Indicators

For each individual performance goal, imagine and describe in a short statement what success would look like. Ask, ‘What is success for me?’, ‘What would I expect to see?’ Specify what tangible evidence would clearly demonstrate the successful achievement of your goals. When you are clear about what success looks like, you are more likely to achieve that success.

Are your plans SMART?

One way to test if performance goals and plans are workable is to put them to the SMART test.A smart goal says what you are going to do and how you will do it. When writing SMART goals use concise language, but include relevant information. The following questions can assist in the development of more effective performance indicators.

What is the SMART Method for setting individual goals?

S / Specific / What do you need to do to achieve this goal?
M / Measurable / How will you measure the goal? (How much? How many? How well?)
A / Achievable / Is the goal feasible?
R / Relevant / Does the goal align with broader departmental goals and objectives?
T / Time bound / What is the time frame for achieving this goal?

Performance conversations

After the PDA has been developed, and prior to the 6-monthlyand 12-montly evaluation meetings, employees and supervisorsshould regularly discuss performance. The online PDA allows for employees and supervisors to keep a log ofperformance discussions in order to review progress, achievements and lessons learnedduring the PDA period.

Additionally, where it is agreed that a change to the performance plan, including adding, removing or revising a goal, development or contributionis required, it is important that such change isalso reflected in the conversation section of the PDA. Recording changes ensures that the performance plan adequately reflects all that has been agreed to between a supervisorand employee over the course of the performance cycle.

Date / Topic discussed (ieadjusting, adding or deleting performancegoals,development,contributions)