Making the Most of Appraisals - Employees - Video and audio transcripts

0:01
Hello and welcome to making the most out of appraisals for employees.

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On Cliff Evans from the People and Culture team and the team have produced this video to serve as a refresher will remind us that employees who may be about to prepare for their appraisal meeting.

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The video summarises the key points of the appraisal process and I hope you find this useful.

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Please feel free to like or post a comment below to help us improve this and future videos.

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If you're new employee, we recommend that you book yourself onto one of the full appraisal briefing sessions.

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Which run from the end of March till the end of June.

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The four areas that we're going to talk about in this video are.

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The principles and Benefits of Performance Management.

0:53
Understanding the difference between values and behaviours.

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I'll talk about how to prepare for your appraisal.

1:01
And how you should evidence your achievements and use SMART objectives to deliver targets and standards appraisal enhancements for 2023-2024.

1:13
There are some appraisal enhancements for the forthcoming year.

1:17
We will be aligning the learning and development options under the six themes within the corporate learning and development hub.

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This will make it easier to search for the learning options available.

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And improved discussions between managers and employees.

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We will be introducing A diversity and inclusion performance objective for those employees grades seven and above.

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Senior managers can continue to use the comprehensive appraisal dashboard to view the completions and performance ratings for their departments.

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Principles of Performance Management.

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Effective performance management aligns the efforts of managers and employees with the organisations strategic plans and objectives.

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Appraisal was helped to make sure that we're meeting the strategic priorities and achievements of the ONE Council plan.

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Regular conversations, including feedback on performance, are designed to ensure that the work that we do has a positive impact for the people of Coventry.

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As an employee, we should understand where our role fits into the Council's plan.

2:30
The work we do should be aligned to wider Council objectives.

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That means that everything we do must be to the benefit of the people of Coventry.

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We must ensure that our resources are distributed fairly. Gaps in health inequality across the city are addressed.

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And as a public sector organisation we're going to need to deliver that with fewer resources.

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Employees have a degree of responsibility for their own performance and development. We should take an active role in planning and delivering on our objectives.

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And lastly, managers are responsible for deciding our objectives and setting standards. It's their role to lead the team and ensure individuals are meeting the objectives and standards that have been set.

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One to One meetings O one to One meetings are regular, scheduled meetings between yourself and your line manager. One to ones are an opportunity to discuss your work, your performance, and review your objectives.

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In addition to talking about the workplace, you might, if you wish, share information in your personal life.

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And that may impact upon your work. Your one to ones should be constructive and supportive.

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One to one discussions should include learning and development needs.

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Are you up to date with mandatory training? What additional training have you attended or would like to attend? Do you need to shadow a colleague during an induction or develop a new skill? Or do you want to help a new colleague develop their skill?

4:16
One to Ones are an opportunity to have your achievements recognised and documented, and this will help when you prepare for your appraisal.

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Thinking about what you've done and aligning that to the one Coventry values and Behaviours is a way of doing that.

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I supported a customer to complete a funding application. You could use that as evidence of something like putting customers first.

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When there were performance issues that need to be managed. Even when issues persist and become challenging, 1 to one conversation should never become personal.

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Value and respect of the manager and an employee as an individual must be maintained.

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Your manager's expectations need to be clearly stated and recorded, and it's advisable that you take your own notes after each meeting as well so that you can document progress and pick U on any actions that you will need to do for the next meeting.

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And lastly, 1 to 1 can be held as frequently as needed.

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As a guide, they should usually occur once every four to six weeks, but that will depend on the needs of the department and the needs of the individual.

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This is a 1 to one meeting template. You can see that it starts with an introduction conversation. So how are you? How have things been since our last meeting?

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It then prompts you to review the actions from the last meeting or review of any objectives that were set.

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It then prompts to record any evidence where an employee has met or hasn't met, organisational behaviours, values, et cetera. It finishes with documenting any support that's been identified and that could be about training, could be about managing workload or well-being.

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Or it could be something like asking for a new piece of equipment or some training for a new piece of equipment.

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Organisational values and behaviours.

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O Let's start with the difference between organisational values and behaviours. Well, on a personal level, values are our beliefs, and they're often communicated through what we do and how we behave.

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So organisational values then are the beliefs that an organisation has and the ideals that they base decisions on, and organisational behaviours are how we put those decisions into practise. To give you an example of this, one of our organisational values is nurture and develop, And one way the organisation demonstrates its commitment to that is through making sure that we all have regular, constructive, supportive, 1 to one conversations.

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So values are what we believe.

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And behaviours of what we do.

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Organisational values determine what it believes is the right way to operate.

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And organisational behaviours are the actions it takes to uphold those values.

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Why are organisational values and behaviours important? Well, our personal values and behaviours shape our identity. They influence what we do and how we treat other people. So if we want Coventry City Council to be an inclusive workplace and deliver services that benefit all the citizens of Coventry, we need to live those values.

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If we want a council where people know that they're valued and are treated fairly, we need to ensure the way we behave at work supports that.

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The six values that were chosen by our employees are open and fair.

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Nurture and develop.

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Engage and empower.

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Create and innovate.

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Own and be accountable.

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Barrier and respect.

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This is a page from the Values and Behaviour framework that can be downloaded from the Internet. On the left you can see the six core behaviours that all employees must demonstrate, and beneath those for additional behaviours that you might need to demonstrate depending on your job role.

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Next to those in the middle column, there's a short definition, a description of the behaviour.

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And on the right hand side you can see there's a value that's been added which should influence that behaviour.

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When putting customers first.

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We must be open and fair.

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When being adaptable.

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We need to think in a creative and innovative way.

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And you can see that when we're looking to improve what we do, we must nurture and develop others, as well as think about creative and innovative solutions. And within the guide there are pages that detail each behaviour in greater depth.

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In this example we can see that the behaviour indicator willing to identify and try new ways of working, which is in the red box.

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Is independent with the value you create and innovate.

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When we look more deeply, we can see that all of the values will guide all of the behaviours to a greater or lesser degree, and here's an example of how we can put those values into action.

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So I'm a manager and I've been given five places on a training course and I have 40 employees that want to go on that training course. I can use the values to decide how I should act.

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Open and fair.

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So I'm going to allocate the places as fairly as possible.

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And I'm going to make sure that everybody is clear on how I made my decision.

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Nurture and develop.

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Can I do something to support the people that didn't get a place on the training?

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Engage and empower.

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I can ask the people that attended the training to share their learning with the people that didn't get to attend.

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Create and innovate.

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Can the training be delivered in a different way? Could we record the training session so that everybody could watch it afterwards?

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Own an accountable.

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I'm going to explain my decision making. I'm going to take responsibility for the decision that I made and I'm going to take ownership of the consequences.

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Value and respect.

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I'm going to respect the fact that some of my employees that didn't get to go on the training might be upset and they might feel that they've been treated unfairly.

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How to prepare for an appraisal as an employee?

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So first of all, there's an appraisal preparation form which can be downloaded from the Internet and that can help you to prepare.

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And then when preparing for an appraisal, you should start to gather examples of achievement for each of the behaviours and record that onto the appraisal preparation form.

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You'll be asked to self evaluate your performance against the behaviours and the objectives that have been set from the previous year.

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You should draught some personal objectives for the year ahead, thinking about any career aspirations that you might have.

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Once you've done this, you should then share that draught appraisal with your manager prior to your meeting.

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Your manager may ask you to complete the offline appraise reform to capture your evidence and having received it, they will then review your behaviours and objectives for the previous year. Gather their own examples of evidence for each behaviour and the objectives that were set. Remember, you or your manager can gather feedback from various sources including peers, managers, customers, examples of work.

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Finally, your manager will start to plan your forthcoming objectives, which need to be aligned to service and team goals.

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Behaviour levels. So behaviour levels are set against job roles and they're linked to pay grades.

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The levels shown on the slide were guide and they will be set by your manager at the beginning of your appraisal, so there should be no surprises.

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Levels are always set against a job role, not against an individual employee. So for example, if you had two care assistants working in the same setting, they will have identical behaviour levels set regardless of age, experience or any additional responsibilities that they might have. You can find further information about behaviour levels on the appraisal page on the intranet.

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Performance gradings. So these are the grades that are awarded against your behaviours. That would be the six core behaviours and any additional behaviours that are linked to your job role and there are not met and met. So that's that you've met or not met the indicators for that behaviour on a consistent basis and you can also get an exceeds grade and that means you've exceeded the behaviour. Indicate your set on a consistent basis and that would mean if your behaviour were let's set at level 2.

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Then you were actually meeting the behaviours that are used to demonstrate Level 3, so you're working a behaviour level above that which has been set.

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As a guide.

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Unmet, Matt and Nick seeds are evaluated based on an achievement level of 80%, so one mistake or one exceptional piece of good work.

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Would not justify a a change of grade and consistently means across the year or for however long you've been in post within that year.

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Remember, you'll be expected to evaluate your own gradings before your meeting with your manager, and you do that by comparing the evidence that you've got against the behaviour indicators that are set for your job role.

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Tips for evidence in behaviours?

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First of all, speak to your manager and your colleagues and ask what examples of evidence could be used. Could be looking at feedback from customers.

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Work products, Examples of work that you've done.

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Compliments that you've received any ideas or suggestions that you've shared with the team, there are all good examples of what you could be using to evidence your behaviours.

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Collate evidence over the course of the year. Make sure that you collate evidence when it's available. Particularly important if you've been redeployed or you've been working with the Niva team for a period of time.

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And finally, ask for feedback in your once, once and from your colleagues. There should be no surprises in an appraisal. Your performance should be managed throughout the year.

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So keep a record of those discussions and you can use that to build a portfolio of evidence across the year.

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Using the Star model.

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This model is useful for remembering a time or event and telling a story about that in a short but concise manner.

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Following the Star model can help you describe a time when you've met a behaviour, demonstrated a value, or delivered an objective.

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Situation.

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What was the situation that you were in?

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Task.

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What needed to be accomplished?

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Action.

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What exactly did you do?

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Discuss the steps you took in the situation to make sure you use the key skills that you're trying to explain.

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Result.

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What was the outcome? What did you accomplish? What did you learn?

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You can use this style model to promote yourself and your achievements.

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Here's an example.

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Situation.

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We were notified that we were no longer able to allow family members to visit the residential home because of the risks of spreading COVID to our vulnerable residents.

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Task.

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We knew that this would cause a lot of distress through the residents and their family members, so we needed to do something about that.

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Action. I suggested that we use our laptop computers to set up online meetings so that our residents and family members could see each other.

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We use this to help families keep in touch throughout lockdown.

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Result.

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We help maintain relationships using our laptops in a new way.

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Families appreciated what we've done.

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And we still use this method now when families have difficulty visiting.

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Objectives.

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Objectives can be set in many different areas of work.

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Behaviours There could be objectives set about performance or conduct. This could be where an employee has not met the values or behaviours required. Or an objective might be set that gives you an opportunity to improve your grade from Metric Exceeds, which you might want to do if you were looking to progress your career.

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Development objectives.

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This could be an objective to complete qualification, improve a skill or attend a piece of training.

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Targets. There will be team, service or individual goals that might need to be set as objectives.

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Tasks and projects. These could be performance objectives that relate directly to a piece of work you do. Or you might want to be involved in a new project that will help you develop and progress your career.

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When objectives are written, it's helpful to use something like the SMART method.

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SMART stands for specific.

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So what is it that we're trying to achieve?

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Measurable.

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So how will achievement be measured? How will we demonstrate success?

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Achievable.

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Is everything in place that we will need to complete this? For example, do I have the right skills? The right support? Do I have the resources?

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Relevant.

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Why are we doing this?

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Is it linked to service plans? Does it align with our values and behaviours?

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Timed.

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What's the deadline for this objective, and are there dates where certain pieces of the work need to be completed?

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When using SMART, objectives or standards should be attached, which is a level of quality that's considered acceptable or desirable, and a target, which is a summary of what it is that we are aiming to achieve. Here's an example of a SMART objective that I've written around the work I've had to do to create this video.

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Specific create a video recording for employees.

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That they can use to refresh their knowledge before having their appraisal. The recording will be similar to the recording we used last year, but it will include updates relating to the values and behaviour framework.

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Measurable.

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I will ask for feedback from my colleagues when creating the recording and I will ask for feedback from the employees that watched the recording. Achievable.

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I've blocked out sufficient time in my schedule to do this.

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I have the software that I need to create the recordings.

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And I have the support from my colleagues should I need their advice.

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Relevant.

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Everyone deserves an effective appraisal and this recording will help employees contribute and understand how the process should be conducted. Explaining the council's strategy, values and behaviours is helping employees make these things become a reality.

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Timed.

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I'll have two weeks in which to schedule and produce this work. It's important that I have created the recordings in time to allow my colleagues to upload it onto the council's YouTube channel.

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Standard.

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So I've been given a template for the PowerPoint slides that I'm going to use and I have the recording from last year which I can compare my recording to.

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Target.

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Produce an updated recording that will share the key elements of the appraisal process to assist employees to have a productive and effective appraisal.

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Finally, the last thing we're going to look at is learning and development.

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Learning and development is an important part of performance management and therefore it's a key part of the appraisal process.

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Think about the development that you've had in the last year and what you would want to do going forward.

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Some of the things you might want to consider are online learning courses.

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Qualifications that can be accessed via the apprenticeship levy.

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Occupational Health and Safety and well-being courses.

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Training in the corporate development programmes that are on offer.

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And other opportunities such as shadowing A colleague, working with another team, or being involved in a project.

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Well, that concludes the employee briefing for making the most out of your appraisals. I hope that you found it informative. Please leave your feedback or like the video at the bottom of the page.

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Thanks for your time. Thanks for listening.