Preparation

Contents on this page:

• At the organisation level
• At the individual level
  • The manager’s responsibility
  • The employee’s responsibility

At the organisation level

Staff appraisals must be conducted with all employees annually. This also includes those on sick leave, parental leave or other types of leave of absence. At the organisation level, a common and coherent timetable should be established in advance of budgeting. Staff appraisals must be held in conjunction with operational planning, as the appraisal is part of operational management.

The person responsible for conducting staff appraisals should be the salary-setting manager and it should be clear in the organisation who has responsibility for staff appraisals with specific employees. In the exceptional cases where it is not the salary-setting manager who conducts the staff appraisals, this must be discussed and a plan for reporting back to the salary-setting manager must be put in place.

When a new manager starts, the line manager must ensure that the new manager has the required skills in order to conduct staff appraisals and, if necessary, provide professional development in this area. If support in conducting staff appraisals is needed, contact the organisation’s HR coordinator. Salary-setting managers who will later conduct salary-setting appraisals must have attended or be enrolled in the University’s training course in salary-setting appraisals.

The following should be discussed at the department/division/unit.

Organisation-specific questions 

Overall focus areas, goals, priorities, etc. for the organisation, should be communicated to managers so that these can be addressed in staff appraisals.

Follow-up

Planning for the follow-up to staff appraisals should be in place at every organisation. For example, measures for joint planning in systematic work environment management and collective professional development activities.

At the individual level

Preparing for the staff appraisal is the responsibility of both the manager and the employee to ensure a high-quality appraisal.

The manager's responsibility

• Provide timely information about the appraisal, including a timetable and questions to be addressed. Focus on issues that you as a manager, or the management as a whole, consider a priority. Ask employees to make suggestions and inform the manager in advance of any other issues that employees think are important to discuss.
• Book a time and neutral location for the appraisal and allocate sufficient time for each conversation. It is better not to hold the appraisal in the manager’s office. Allow between 45 and 90 minutes per conversation, depending on how much needs to be discussed. The staff appraisal should be perceived as positive for both the manager and the employee, which is why sufficient time should be set aside.
• Follow up on the previous years’ objectives and professional development plans in order to provide feedback to each employee on the outcome of the last staff appraisal.
• Think about what goals are important for the coming year, both at an individual and organisational level. 
• Consider what type of professional development may be appropriate for each employee for the coming year, depending on, for example, new and changing work duties and increased responsibilities. 
• If necessary, gather information from other clients, such as project managers or research supervisors, to get an overall picture of the employee’s remit and work situation.

The employee's responsibility

• Follow up on previous years’ discussions and review the objectives and professional development plans that were set at that time. 
• Prepare a description of your work situation.
• Prepare your own goals and remit, as well as concrete activities and development that you might need in order to carry out your work duties and achieve stated objectives. 
• It is important that both the manager and the employee come prepared to the staff appraisal so that the conversation is perceived as equal. The staff appraisal is not about the manager telling the employee what will happen in the coming year. The idea is for the manager and the employee to plan the coming year together through dialogue based on the existing overall objectives.