Faculty Development

Much of the previous two sections has been to do with your preparation as the line manager (the appraiser), and we will say a bit more on this shortly, but what about the other person concerned? How will you encourage and support the appraisee to prepare in a similar way for ‘their’ appraisal discussion? After all, we want it to be a two-way process.

Simply telling them the date and the time is not enough. The Department of Health website and appraisal toolkit provides many examples of preparatory activities, including the need to start thinking about the appraisal and collecting evidence from as much as a year in advance.

In addition to collecting the evidence against the principles in Good Medical Practice, it is useful for the appraisee to think about evidence around more generic requirements within their current post, so other reflective activities might include:

• looking through their job description
• reviewing their current work and personal development objectives and noting down how they feel they have performed against them
• considering how they have developed personally and professionally over the review period
• looking back at any formal training or development they have undertaken and how it has helped their job performance
• considering what their future objectives should be and any related development needs
• carrying out significant incident analyses or keeping a reflective journal or log.

Another framework for considering broad aspects of personal review is the following grid.

Thinking through things they are proud of or have achieved, things they have found difficult, things that have helped and things that have hindered can be a helpful way for the appraisee to think about some of the thoughts and observations they would like to bring to the discussion. The NHS Appraisal websites include many practical ideas around preparation, including having ‘reflective’ away days, planning your portfolio and becoming familiar with all the forms and process requirements.

Coming back to your own preparation, a question that is always worth re-asking (assuming you’ve considered it before) shortly before any appraisal discussion is ‘what am I trying to achieve?’ And this brings us back to the points made at the beginning of this module.  An answer along the lines of helping, encouraging and supporting the job holder to improve or enhance further their future job performance will help to set the mental scene very nicely.