Spring 2009  now booking.......Why?  Because this is the time I get invited into organisations to run an appraisal or performance review day for their managers.  This is because many managers despair at the thought of stopping work (as they see it) to  have to run the annual appraisal.  Then there are the usual mutterings about it being a waste of time, or they lack the lack skills or have no time to prepare or……..and the response from the top - ‘let’s patch it up with a one day practical workshop’.  Of course later most companies realise they need two days training simply because their paperwork is so onerous and complicated.  The paperwork has completely taken over the process and everyone has to learn again how to fill in all the forms again.

And why is it so onerous?  One of the reasons is that many company schemes have been developed over time and with lots of different inputs.  New managers bring in favourite bits from their old company’s scheme and add those to the original.  Someone reads a book on competencies or hears on the grapevine of other ways to record information and these are added to the mix.  Eventually any scheme will just buckle under the weight of documentation.  And how do they try to sort it?  Often by putting it all online or on the company intranet and the system then separates from reality and people.  It recreates itself as it blossoms and grows.

A major shock to this organic method of getting an appraisal system was the recent introduction of competencies.  Wow more to measure and more to score.  It’s not difficult to see why people find appraisals so unpopular. And when people question why they don’t deliver improved performance it time to bring in someone from outside.
I had two interesting dilemmas with two different clients this year.  One  had evolved their paperwork to  invite the managers to score their staff on a five score grid and the first item was ‘honesty’.  I mean do you really think you can decide how honest someone is?  Do you want to employ someone who only gets a ‘3  or worse a  2’ for honesty?!!  My other struggling client did not really understand what a competency was and had been left with an appraisal system  asking managers to score their staff for Health and Safety.  The  scoring categories (which should have given it away) were  ‘being  a role model’ through to ‘must do better’.

It can be so much easier, less time consuming and much more beneficial.  To do so though  you must go back to the beginning, tear up the existing documentation and remind yourself  why you are doing it.  Answer the question – ‘what is the objective of doing a performance review?’  For me the appraisal is quite simply to encourage and improve performance to the benefit of the individual and for the organisation.

The appraisal is an interview or conversation.  It needs to be a formal discussion between two adults in three clear parts.  First you review together what happened over the previous year.  You discuss and give feedback on successes.  If required  you can offer feedback on how tasks  might be improved.  In essence - What worked?  What didn’t?  What might have helped?  Hindered?  The second stage is for the manager to share the company overview and business plan.  What are the objectives at the top of the organisation, what will be the impact on your team?  Finally the two adults agree the way forward for the next year.  This is normally by agreeing objectives based on the company’s key objectives.  It will also include identifying training to help the appraisee achieve those objectives.

After that it is easy to add the recording documentation.  It can be just an A4 sheet because all that is needed.  You will be recording a summary of what was agreed from the discussion and a record of the agreed objectives and training for the following year.

Quicklearn.co.uk  offers practical support for  smaller organisations to improve communications both with staff and customers.