ABSTRACT: The annual appraisal is, for many veterinary staff, quite a nerve-racking experience. They may spend days worrying about it beforehand and afterwards thinking about all the things they should have said, or the things they did say that they now wished they hadn't! It's not uncommon to hear comments such as, "It's just a waste of time, nothing ever happens after my appraisal,” or "The CPD they promised never materialised,” from staff who are disillusioned about the appraisal system in their practice.

It shouldn’t be like this and it is the nursing managers’ or team leaders’ role to can do more damage than having no make sure appraisals work for everyone.

Why do we need appraisals?

Appraisal systems are central to both human resource management and performance management. They improve organisational efficiency by ensuring that individuals perform to the best of their ability and develop their potential. This in turn leads to improved practice performance. A well-organised and conducted appraisal will benefit staff, team leaders and the practice. But beware. A badly organised appraisal can have disastrous effects on staff motivation, morale and commitment and can do more damage than having no appraisal at all!

Appraisals are intended to be positive meetings between a senior member of staff and a more junior member. In the case of nurses, it may well be between the head nurse or nurse manager and the nurses in the nursing team for whom she or he is responsible. The aim of the meeting is to discuss the staff member’s performance and professional development since their last appraisal and to look at their training and development needs over the next year.

The appraisal helps to establish the key results that an individual needs to achieve within a time period, while also comparing the individual’s performance against a set and established standard. This last point is a very important one with regard to appraisals. There must be a series of standards and expectations to enable any sensible form of measurement of a member of staff’s progress and development. This means that there need to be job descriptions, practice standards and rules, protocols, health and safety rules and behaviour guidelines set within the practice.

Appraisals are important for staff because they all need reassurance about how well they are doing their work, what is expected of them and whether they are meeting the standards expected. Most nurses want to improve their skills and knowledge and to progress; and properly conducted appraisals will help them to improve their performance and develop their strengths and skills.

Appraisals are important for the team leader or manager because they provide a window into the success, development and needs of their staff. The appraisal enables them to plan not just the training they need to provide, but how they will be able to use this person to the best of their abilities in the team. They find out:

•   how well the employee is doing

•   if there are any problems

•   whether or not they are getting the best from their staff

•   how their work could perhaps be improved, and

•   the best way that they can help the member of staff to do this.

It is an opportunity to talk in depth to their staff about their job and their future with the practice and it not only gives the manager a much better understanding of the staff, but also tells the staff that “Yes, the manager does care about them”.

Secrets of successful appraisals

There are some key elements that are essential to the success of appraisals.

One of the most important is that appraisals should be for everyone. It can be a big mistake to just appraise a section of your staff.

It’s tempting when starting an appraisal system to “Just try it out on a few of the staff”, but this simply serves to cause divisions and misunderstandings.

Everyone should be appraised if the scheme is to be seen to be fair.

It is probably inevitable that a good appraisal is likely to have some influence on financial rewards. However, appraisals should not be tied in directly with pay and it’s important to keep appraisal meetings separate from salary review time. The easiest way to do this is to spread appraisals throughout the year and not carry them all out, for example, in the same month. If staff think their appraisal is going to influence their salary review, they are unlikely to give totally frank answers to questions, or be particularly relaxed at the interview.

Preparation

Careful preparation and understanding is required if the appraisal process is to be successful, worthwhile and relevant.

Make sure all the paperwork is organised so that staff receive sufficient notification and have all the forms they need. Gather the relevant information and records needed to carry out the appraisal and arrange the time and place well in advance.

Unless it is absolutely unavoidable, do not change the time of the appraisal. Most staff see the event as very important and may be apprehensive about it, even though they may know that there are no real problems. This being the case, it is vital to hold the interview at the time that has been set. Good planning should enable this to be achieved, even in the busiest of practices.

Changing the time – or worse the day – says to the employee, this interview is not important to us. He or she will feel demoralised and undervalued and their level of worry or apprehension will increase by several notches.

The interview

Conduct the interview in a professional and organised manner. This involves holding an objective and positive discussion about the employee’s role within the organisation, his or her work abilities, needs and professional development, as well as asking the right questions, listening carefully and setting objectives and targets for the following year. Be very careful to prevent the appraisal turning into a moaning session.

This is easy to say, but not so easy to do, and most managers have been there. For example, this may occur when a member of staff has strong feelings about an issue and uses the appraisal to voice his or her feelings about it. This may be constructive up to a point, but it’s vital to halt this flow of conversation early on and point out that the appraisal is for positive discussion and for looking forward.

If there really is a problem, then it should be discussed at a different time. And do make sure it is discussed!

The whole appraisal will fail if the follow- up process is poor. This includes good feedback to ensure that promises are kept and targets are met and any support needed during the year is provided. Do not promise what you can’t deliver. It’s very easy to make off-the-cuff remarks at the appraisal interview about providing more training, giving more responsibility, or allowing a staff member to develop a particular interest. This is fine so long as you are able to deliver what you have promised. The commonest criticism of appraisals from staff is that they are promised things that never happen.

At the end of the appraisal draw up an action plan listing what you and the employee have agreed to. It is then vital to follow up this plan, which should include a deadline for the actions for both you and the employee. It’s too easy in a busy practice to just put away the appraisal notes and forget about them until the next appraisal tim
e, so make diary notes about action plans and keep checks on the progress of all those agreements.

The best advice for people who manage staff is “Don’t do appraisals if you can’t do them properly”. If you do not have the time or the inclination, if you don’t have the support of practice partners, if you can’t spend time explaining to staff what appraisals are all about, if you are not going to put the effort in to managing all the paperwork, then don’t do appraisals.

A badly run appraisal system is far worse than no appraisal system and simply serves to achieve the opposite of what you desired.

Summary

So, there is no doubt that appraisals are important for all the reasons given above. However it is even more important that they are not seen as the token concession to discussing problems and issues that may arise on a daily basis.

Woe betides the nurse manager who decides to leave all issues with a member of staff until his or her annual appraisal. The appraisal is a formal opportunity for staff members and their manager to sit down together and have a positive discussion about their progress and development. This does not replace the informal day-to-day support staff need or the requirement to address real problems, as and when they arise. 

" The best advice for people who manage staff is “Don’t do appraisals if you can’t do them properly”

Author

Maggie Shilcock BSc(Zool) (CMS)

Maggie graduated from London University with a Zoology degree and worked for a while in the biochemistry department of Leeds University before gaining a Diploma in Librarianship and Information Science. In the 1980s, she began work as a practice manager for a mixed practice in North Yorkshire and during the last 10 years she has acted as a consultant and course provider for Animus4vets Ltd. She has contributed management articles to the major UK veterinary journals, has spoken at many conferences and meetings, has written three veterinary management books, and was Veterinary Practice Management Association president in 2003.

Veterinary Nursing Journal • VOL 25 • No3 • March 2010 •