Restructuring of staff appraisals

Effective introduction of behaviours and aspirations to make appraisals shorter, forward-looking, practical (based on the 70:20:10 model of learning) and optional for all staff across 90+ sites of the organisation.

In the past we found pockets of poor practice (group appraisals, union attendance at appraisals) or no appraisals at all - the appraisal had become a task, and an end in itself, rather than a tool for spreading good practice and enabling high quality feedback and planning for the future.

This involved the training of 1,223 managers to the new approach via face-to-face and digital learning initiatives. We also needed a good communications plan to convince colleagues with poor appraisal experiences that things were changing and to give the new approach a chance to work. Both of these tasks were successful (with the help of the Executive and our union colleagues).

We turned the appraisal process from and onerous bureaucratic slog into a formally recorded two-way conversation about the future.