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Well-conducted appraisals, also known as Personal Development Reviews (PDR), play a fundamental role in assisting education leaders to achieve and maintain successful school or Multi-Academy Trust outcomes and improvements.
Appraisals:
- Enable employees to understand the school’s expectations, priorities and realise their potential
- Provide an opportunity to increase employee engagement and motivation
- Improve school-wide performance and standards
Here are five key tips to help you conduct a successful appraisal process in your School or Multi-Academy Trust:
1. Agree on a suitable time and location in advance
Appraisals are important meetings and should be seen as ‘protected time’ where the employee can review feedback on their performance, discuss development needs and set new targets. Although schools are busy places, it’s important that the time and date of the appraisal isn’t moved once set (unless it is absolutely essential) as this will reinforce the credibility and importance of the appraisal to the employee.
Arrangements should be made to avoid any interruptions to the appraisal meeting. It is recommended that you allocate at least an hour to the meeting to ensure the appraisal is not rushed, and that the employee doesn’t come away feeling like you didn’t have time to focus on them.
You should also take small steps to organise the environment where the appraisal meeting will take place. For instance, you may wish to arrange chairs side by side, rather than across a desk, as this may help foster an environment that feels less confrontational and is more conducive to sharing ideas.
2. Thoroughly prepare
Prior to appraisal meetings, it’s important to have reviewed previous appraisal forms and any evidence submitted by the employee (sometimes via appraisal software) in relation to their targets and expected standards. Recent events may be at the forefront of your mind, but may not be representative of the employee's long-term performance. You should assess whether the objectives have been met and identify any patterns in the challenges that the employee is facing.
However, it is worth noting that failed objectives aren't always the fault of the employee, and you should consider why the objectives have not been met. For example, it may be that priorities have changed since the objectives were set, meaning that they have been justifiably side-lined.
It is also advisable to organise the meeting in plenty of time and communicate all arrangements with the appraisee, as this gives them plenty of preparation time. Documents that need to be completed should be easily accessible and relevant previous documents should be provided or easily accessible, e.g. the outcome of their last appraisal.
Targets for the current academic year should be prepared in advance and should be overseen at a senior management level to ensure that they are fair and focus on the necessary outcomes and priorities of the school or Multi-Academy Trust.
3. Deliver feedback with clarity, integrity and sensitivity
During the meeting, you will formally provide the employee with feedback on their performance throughout the year and set objectives for the coming year. The employee should be encouraged to participate and contribute to these objectives.
The effectiveness of the appraisal process depends on the appraiser's sensitive and clear delivery of feedback on the performance and behaviour of an employee. There should be no big surprises, as the employee should have been prepared to receive any feedback as a result of one-to-one meetings, lesson observations, pupil data and normal day-to-day management that occurred during the year.
4. Agree and record any follow-up actions
An appraisal should conclude by summarising what has just been discussed. You should agree on actions that need to be taken, identify who is responsible for what and set any subsequent deadlines. In the event of any disagreement regarding performance against objectives, or the new objectives set, the areas of disagreement should be documented.
It is important also to remember that expanding skills or updating knowledge through training can be difficult for employees with longer tenure, as they may feel that they don’t need any additional training. However, as the education landscape is constantly shifting, all employees need to review their skills frequently.
Follow-up what was discussed and agreed at the meeting, in writing, to allow the employee to comment on the outcomes and to have a record for future reference.
5. Ensuring moderation and equality
Follow up what was discussed and agreed at the meeting either in writing or using your appraisal software, so that the employee can comment on the outcomes and has a record for future reference. The September 2024 iteration of the STPCD has removed the statutory requirement for performance related pay (PRP) so you must consult your pay policy to determine what next steps are needed in relation to the application of a pay increment for the individual. In most cases, unless formal concerns relating to performance have been raised with the employee, a recommendation for pay incrementation (unless the employee has reached the top of their pay scale) is likely to ensue.
Your school or Multi-Academy Trust should have a moderation process, whereby the pay recommendations are reviewed before final recommendations are made to the Pay Committee. This ensures consistency and fairness across the setting in line with the Public Sector Equality Duty. This allows original pay recommendations to be amended, where necessary, and where this has changed it should be communicated to the employee.
Personal development reviews
Our specialist HR team is committed to delivering excellent results and driving continuous improvement in schools and Multi-Academy Trusts. We support education leaders with appraisal and capability procedures in a variety of ways; from providing proactive updates on legislative changes and best practices, support with managing poor performance and conducting appraisals; to providing model letters, policies and documentation.
