Faculty Development

Perhaps the biggest single factor causing poor, ineffective or just plain bad appraisals is a misapprehension of what they are for and what they should achieve. Close on the heels of this is a similar misapprehension of who should benefit and how. So, let’s begin with a simple answer to both points before we expand further. First, the purpose of appraisal is to improve future clinical, managerial and educational performance. So lesson one is not to spend 95% of the time available purely reviewing past performance. Second, the person who should primarily benefit is the person being appraised: the ‘job holder’ or appraisee. How should they benefit? Well, essentially through discussing feedback on their job performance in a way that is constructive, motivational and results in an action plan for future performance and development. So lesson two is to involve the appraisee fully in the discussion so that they can get the maximum benefit from it.

The history of appraisal, certainly in large organisations, has suggested a rather bureaucratic procedure in which subordinates are told ‘how they are doing’ by superiors who expect them to passively accept their judgements. Fortunately, much has changed, and as the role of the manager moves away from ‘command and control’ and heads towards ‘lead and coach’, the nature of appraisal has been similarly transformed. It is now recognised as:

• a piece of ‘two-way’ rather than ‘one-way’ communication
• a process rather than an event
• a tool more for development than abstractly rating performance (although rating performance is still be an important element of NHS appraisal).

The regular appraisal discussion, formerly a monolith in the organisational calendar relished by those expecting to do well and resented by those not, has become – where managed well – an opportunity to draw together the threads of an active work-based dialogue that has been ongoing throughout the time under review.

It is also important to be clear on a couple of things that appraisal is not. First, appraisal is not a disciplinary process or a disciplinary discussion. There are other, separate processes for addressing serious issues to do with a job holder’s conduct or capability, which should be followed and used appropriately. Second, it is not a discussion you ‘save things up for’. Whether praise or criticism, merits or mistakes, timely feedback is really the only sort of feedback that has value. So there should essentially be no surprises in the appraisal discussion, but rather a review of performance that highlights the feedback previously shared and looks at trends and developments more broadly.