What are staff appraisals?
In the business world, the staff appraisal is typically an annual interview. At this time each member of staff is evaluated against specific competencies and/or personal objectives linked with the job. In commercial organisations, the appraisal evaluation often determines promotion prospects and future salary.
Nurseries need to be run in a business-like way and appraisals have their place. But nurseries are a particular kind of business - even the most positive staff appraisal will not bring a hefty bonus.
As a manager, the appraisal interview is your formal time to summarise and talk about the past year with individual members of staff. There is definitely a sense of evaluation:
* How well is this person doing?
* What has been the focus for development and improvement?
* What has happened over the year?
* What would be appropriate plans for next year?
How do appraisals fit in?
Appraisal interviews alone will not support staff development and a well-run nursery. Evaluation through appraisal has to operate as part of your whole work as a manager:
* You support individual staff through clear communication and constructive feedback. Nothing in the annual appraisal should come as a complete surprise - pleasant or unpleasant.
* Your staff should already be aware of the ways in which you think they are working well. Nursery managers need to use 'managing by wandering about' as a way to notice and compliment staff on good practice.
* Or else you have already used supervision sessions to identify areas in which individual staff need to improve, and you have been clear about what and how.
* Individual appraisals link with a clear vision and goals. What are the shared priorities? What are the non-negotiables in our practice for everyone?
* Sometimes you will reflect on a series of individual appraisals and realise that the team needs help to focus. For instance, perhaps staff are muddled about how an anti-discriminatory approach works in practice.
* A clear job description should give a framework for the competencies needed for each nursery post. Evaluation within appraisal, and supervision throughout the year, should relate closely to that job description. A person specification gives more detail for some posts.
* Any setting needs clear disciplinary procedures that are to be followed.
You should give specific evaluation through appraisal, support through supervision and, when necessary, clear warnings, spoken and written.
Conducting an appraisal An appraisal interview, like supervision, should be scheduled and run without interruptions. You will need at least an hour per person in order to review the year and encourage a proper dialogue. You should refer to the practitioner's folder with written notes from last time, of which they have a copy.
There are two broad types of appraisal: 1 You discuss the member of staff's practice against specific competencies that are part of the job description. Competencies include knowledge, skills and attitudes and need to be anchored in behaviour.
2 Appraisal can address objectives, set for the previous year, that were more personally specific, but still directly relevant to the needs of their job. The appraisal then considers how far the objectives have been achieved.
Evaluation against the competencies will be part of every appraisal. But the first option is central for practitioners new to their childcare career or your setting. Less experienced staff need to build firm foundations for practice with the children and partnership with parents. But even these staff may need some personal objectives set, with their involvement, at one appraisal and evaluated at the next.
An experienced practitioner might need some of the first option, and updating. But otherwise the appraisal could be weighted to the second option. For example, a member of staff could be ready to learn presentation skills to represent the nursery at a local forum.
Within the appraisal interview draw on communication skills that are part and parcel of being a good manager. Offering constructive feedback is especially important. You need to:
* Be specific about the details of practice for this member of staff, whether you wish to highlight outstandingly good, fair or poor practice.
* Be ready to give examples of what you mean and avoid vague generalities.
If you cannot produce instances of what, when, who and how, then you need to question the reliability of any evaluation.
* Balance positives and negatives, but without making the overall message inaccurate. The tone of the appraisal interview needs to be constructive, but there will be no progress if you skate over the less easy observations.
* Avoid a set pattern of positives followed by negatives.
Your staff will soon know your style. They will listen less to the positives, because their mind is on the negatives they believe are waiting.
Follow the order of the competencies or personal objectives that were set last time.
You can make comments in the most constructive way possible and provide time for the practitioner to reply in turn. You cannot ensure that your staff will always accept and never become argumentative or distressed by the contents of the appraisal.
Regular supervision should reduce the element of surprise. But some practitioners may have blocked even clear communication from you about less good practice. The appraisal interview will sometimes be the time when you underline the seriousness of poor teamwork or an offhand approach to some parents.
Goals within appraisals
The appraisal interview is also the time to look forward and set goals appropriate for this member of staff. You use the same criteria for workable goals that are relevant for other planning in your setting. Goals need to follow the SMART pattern and be developed with the practitioner:
* Specific - a goal needs to be clear enough that you and the practitioner can tell if it has been achieved. For instance, 'being more punctual' is too vague; what does it mean in practice for this person?
* Meaningful - it makes sense for this practitioner and the team that the goal is set. You want the practitioner to see and feel that there is a point to working on this goal.
* Agreed - the practitioner needs to feel involved and committed. A manager may need sometimes to press for a particular goal, when it is crucial to improve this person's practice. However, find ways to engage the practitioner in a genuine 'yes'.
* Realistic - for this practitioner, given her or his current skills. Too big a step will be disheartening, because it will take too long or the practitioner is likely to fail. Set smaller steps in a sequence that will be checked through supervision.
* Time bound - useful goals do not stretch into a distant future. Part of this planning is for the next appraisal interview in a year's time. But these goals need to have some shorter time spans.
The discussion then has to cover how the practitioner will work towards a small number of key goals for the year.
* Some practitioners may be confident to express ways and means to meet a goal; others may need specific advice.
* Staff can address specific goals through guided tasks within your setting. They could be supported by you or another experienced colleague.
* Some goals may be supported by attendance at a training day or short course. Check the details of any training outline, to ensure it is relevant.
* But training will not work magic, especially if practitioners are reluctant. Any external training needs to be followed up in the nursery in order to link with the person's practice.
Before the end of the appraisal interview, you need to have reached agreement with the practitioner and made short written notes. The practitioner also makes notes or you provide a copy soon after the interview.
