06 July 2017 Helen Scott, Executive Director
With our Members we have been evolving new approaches that we would like to share in Performance Appraisal and an HR Maturity Model.
Performance Appraisal
As our Members have become more concerned with the impact on performance of staff engagement and development, they have been questioning the effectiveness of the Annual Appraisal/Personal Development Review (PDR) process. PDR should energise staff and identify opportunities for development, but is often a time consuming source of dread or indifference.
The same issues face organisations outside of HE and practice is changing. October’s Harvard Business Review carried a long article on the subject. Firms including Adobe, Dell, Microsoft, and Gap have moved from annual appraisals to more regular, less formal check-ins focused on development and the future.
PDR is complicated in HE by the range of processes that it is closely related to: work allocation, REF and TEF, disciplinary, attendance, wellbeing, promotion and reward. Most of which could be dealt with more effectively elsewhere, for example through line management.
We have been working with members to separate these processes and allow the PDR to really add value. The new approach is based on:
Appropriate performance issues are addressed through line management - with a greater focus on training and support for operational management. People will be mentored by those who enjoy the role and are good at it – those who will appreciate their talents.
HR Maturity Model
Benchmarking has been popular for many years but often generates more questions than answers. After many years of analysis attempting to answer these questions - drawing upon HE experience and from other sectors - it became clear that we were on the way to developing a framework of HR competences for the whole university. This evolved into an HR Maturity Model for HE that can help with the interpretation of quantitative results (benchmarking) and set a direction of travel and supporting actions.
It soon then emerged that the model has other uses:
For more information visit www.sums.org.uk or contact Bob Walder at b.walder@reading.ac.uk or 07816 873929.
Author: Bob Walder, SUMS Consulting