Help! First ever appraisal next week!

[AlfiesGirl]

Can anyone tell me what kind of thing I should be expecting? I've never had one before!

What kind of thing is usually discussed? Is the conversation usually a two way thing, or is it just their chance to tell me what they want me to do better in future?

For context, It's an admin role which I've done for 10 years but the company was pretty old-fashioned and didn't go in for all this kind of thing; if there was an issue you just spoke to the boss about it or vice versa. Now it's been taken over by new management and there are now staff at the top who are trying to streamline and improve the HR function - hence appraisals being introduced amongst other things.

I think I have done pretty well in my role up until now - but have been largely left alone to get on with things. But because of the new management taking over, all procedures are is changing dramatically and I don't really know what the next 12 months are going to look like apart from it seems I'll be working more collaboratively with other colleagues.

All this uncertainly means it's hard to know what would be sensible targets to set myself. Any pointers you can give me would be very helpful. Thanks in advance!

Should be 2 way with the option for you to rate your performance, raise any concerns, raise any strengths, identify progression you would like and build a plan for the next year of training, objectives etc you would like to set.

Your line manager should give their view of your performance and any objectives they would like to set for you as well.

So would it be ok to have as objectives "to get things working efficiently with the new procedures and to build good working relationships with my new colleagues"?

Or do I need to be more specific, eg "rewrite this manual, clean up this customer database, ensure that X happens by a particular date" etc?

Objectives generally need to be measurable so it will be the latter more than the former OP.

Don't stress too much, your line manager should lead the appraisal and objectives will be a two way discussion rather than just given to you or reliant on you to make up. If you want to prepare I'd just have a think about what type of things I want to achieve over the next year (training, outputs etc)

I worked for 30 years for a global,company that had good Appraisal system ( called PM- perf management)
key thing was it was employees responsibility to document and gather evidence. It as employee led -although we had a very defined format and some people neeeded more help than others - so go prepared. Your work - your appraisal..you are summariseing to your boss what you’ve achieved and whether you met your objectives

the main way to gather evidence is either through collecting data on what you’ve done, but also from feedback from other people. Think of people you’ve worked with this year atalllvels. Then send email requesting feedback . You can prompt them with a “ we worked on this together” or I did this for you, or I helped you with this. Ask for feedback in terms of what worked, what could you do differently to better effect, anything you need to stop ( the start,stop, continue triage) and what impact what you did had on organisation overall.

you’re probably up against it for this year, so maybe focus on 1 or 2 reallykey people this year, and if necessary go to see them in person to ask.

in our company everything we did had to be expressed as STARs for appraisal: what was the situation, what was my task, what actions did I take and what was the result

id always start appraisals with “ what are the things you’re most proud of this year” which is also worth thinking about ahead- as a boss I learnt a lot about what made folks tick from that
then later I’d ask “ what 3 things do you think could have been done better and how?

also think aboutvtrain8ng and development you need and that relates to where you want to be in 5 years time,mor just how to avoid issues you’ve had this year

preparing thoroughly is a sign you value an appraisal and own it. It’s your chance to shape your future and ensure you’re recognised for your work

Your objectives need to be set my your manager, with your input at start of year ( or whatever cycle you use). Have you had no objectives to date? 🫤- if not then you must state that at start of meeting and tell manager what you believed your objectives were, and to insist they’re set and clear for next period going foward

objectives should be SMART
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound ( ie by when)

ideally you’ll have no more than say 10 objectives for a given review period. Some may be very specific in terms of do this specific task every Tuesday, others could be big and broad like deliver this project in 18 months time. The broader and bigger the less objectives you will have.

Oh, and your job description in your contract should give you broad objectives for your job at least

Sorry,just reading your example “to get things working efficiently with the new procedures and to build good working relationships with my new colleagues"?

to be SMART you need it to say how will you measure that it is more efficient, when will you acheive that ? What specifically is your role ( eg just writing procedures, trying them? Just rolling them out?) and how will you measure good working relationships - that’s quite hard…sure feedback will provide that from those stakeholders, but I’d want to set myself up to succeed by being way more defined by what this actually means - maybe think about what happens if not good relationships and then reverse that to write more sp cifxally somthing that can be measured,

It should definitely be a two way process. Make a note of any points you wish to raise as well as any issues, but have proposed solutions to any issues. Ask how your employer feels you can expand your role and how they can help you do it. Don’t be defensive to criticism. If you can legitimately defend it then do so with examples and ask them to reconsider your grading. I have to prepare a written summary of my performance pre-appraisa against my objectives. I spend quite a bit of time doing this to justify my grading. If you haven’t met a target, explain why - perfect chance to say how the process can be improved! Good luck. You need to continually sell your achievements so keep a written record to refer back to.

Thank you, some really helpful tips here.
I can see I need to go armed with something so will get my notepad out and have a think.

I would request the Appraisal policy if you haven't already.
This should outline the procedure you can expect.
If there isn't one, the the new management function isn't working that well despite wanting to "streamline" things..