Purpose
A good performance and development review process takes place throughout the year so the discussion you had with your employee during the PDR meetings in preparation for the new financial year need to be re-visited with your employee on an ongoing basis.
Ideally – you will have a mind to these during your monthly 1:1 discussions – to help make sure the day job is in working broadly in line with the anticipated requirements, to manage performance and to provide targeted appropriate support.
6 months down the track is a good opportunity to conduct a mini-review.
The more (meaningful) points of contact you have with your employee the more you, as the manager, can help to make sure there is a return on investment for the work they deliver and that they are supported to work at their best – a win/win.
The impact of a manager spending quality time with an employee to clarify development, objectives, performance, challenges and just to listen and share views on how things are cannot be over-stated in terms of building relationships and productivity. Regular two-way communication has a major impact on wellbeing and performance.
What do you focus on?
Our PDR process is light touch. We want to ensure you have a meaningful conversation and that the paperwork does not get in the way of this. We place a high priority on making sure you have what you need to make it a useful management tool so that you incorporate it into your management practice.
Once you have given yourself some time to read through the completed PDR form in preparation for the meeting then consider what you have noticed so far, and what has changed.
The following points are prompts you might like to consider. These should be adapted for your circumstances – however as a minimum you should book and hold the meeting and record that you have done so in i-trent. Guidance to record and uploading PDR information to iTrent can be found here.
(The prompts have been designed to sit alongside the completed PDR form to help with the conversation flow in the same structure as the form).
- Is there progress against the agreed objectives or have any of them significantly changed? Do you need to re-write any objectives? (Appreciating that not all roles translate as readily as others into objectives – some tasks are more complex and ongoing in nature – is there a useful discussion to be had again on what ‘good’ looks like?)
- If progress is good – recognise this and give praise or recognition where it is due.
- If progress is not as good as expected – is this because of external factors or is there something the employee can do to improve things? Is there any support or guidance you can give?
- Does the employee demonstrate behaviours in keeping with MVDC values?
- Again – if good, recognise and give praise; if there is room for improvement be clear what your expectations are and how he/she can develop further.
- Where possible give the employee an idea of what upcoming areas within the team you are likely to be focussing on in the future. (There are likely to be a number of discussions taking place across the organisation during this period – potential content of business plans, key annual council projects, strategies or other identified priorities. It is possible these may not be finalised yet but where possible talk to the employee about potential changes or key priority areas and make it clear if these are subject to further agreement).
- Has the agreed training taken place or is it in process?
- Have any other training needs emerged?
- Re-visit the wellbeing and aspirations section – check whether there are there any areas of change and/or concerns (whether in the workplace or connected to the employee’s home life) that the employee wishes to discuss or that may be impacting performance.
- Keep up a dialogue about future plans so that you are aware if your employee is seeking to make changes and can support in any aspirations that will retain desirable skills or knowledge (either within their current role or within MVDC more generally)
- Give the employee feedback on how you are viewing their overall performance and any key learning or development areas that will lead to further improvements
- Reassure your employee that you prioritise supporting them in their role by holding regular (ideally monthly) 1:1s.