Performance Management
PCS National Executive Committee election
Your ballot paper are arriving in the post to home addresses. These are the people who were nominated at the our recent branch AGM:
President: Fran Heathcote
Vice Presidents: Martin Cavanagh (Merseyside), Kevin McHugh, Zita Holbourne, Jackie Green
Members: Mark Baker, Paula Brown, Clive Bryant, Bridget Corcoran, James Cox (Home Office), Harvey Crane, David Hannah, Sarah Ensor, Felicity Flynn, Jimmy Gill, Angela Grant (Merseyside), Sam Hall, Robert Eagleton, Austin Harney, Adrian Hedley, Kris Hendry, Ros Hewitt, Tracy Hylton (Merseyside), John Jamieson, Liz McGachey, Jas McGuinness, John Maguire, Lorna Merry, Marianne Owens, Ian Pope, Steve Swainston, Steve Thorley, Karen Watts, Hector Wesley, Paul Williams.
Merseyside Branch Executive Committee is asking you to support these candidates.
As we have previously reported the department had announced that they were intent on moving to a new performance management system. The new Performance Management process was launched on 6 April when the Permanent Secretary announced details of the roll out of the policy.
PCS have been involved in the consultation process throughout; and would like to thank members who participated in the feedback meeting and shared their views with the personnel team to represent your views in our discussions.
The consultation has been a long process, but PCS would like to assure members that it has been a very productive consultation, and whilst we were not able to achieve every element we would have liked, a significant amount of our amendments have been included in the final policy.
The key elements of the new policy are essentially:
No box marking/annual ranking
No year end or mid-year. The process works on a rolling 12 month period.
Regular feedback based on light touch “Check Ins”
No year end bonuses. The reward process for good work is in year and applies when the work is reviewed.
All goals should follow the SMART procedure, and should be tailored to account for individual needs and reasonable adjustments
Regular data feedback to unions and networks to ensure that the reward data is compliant with the diversity and inclusion outcomes expected.
Goals
Goals are to be in place over the next few weeks. These goals should be relevant to the work you are undertaking, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. They should also be appropriate to realistic outputs and tailored or adapted to ensure that reasonable adjustments or individual needs are accommodated where they may affect member’s ability to produce work or hit targets.
Check Ins
These are regular (at least quarterly) light touch meetings between reporting manager and job holder to discuss progress against goals, behaviours and development. There are a number of check in templates which will outline the procedure for the meeting and also ensure that everything that needs to be covered has been. Albeit that there is not a need to discuss all of the elements listed above at every meeting.
Rewards
As members will know from previous briefings this is an area that PCS hoped to remove from the reporting process, as it is our view that the reward payments bring about unwelcome diversity and inclusion outcomes. However, as this was an area that Home Office was insistent remained part of the process. Therefore, PCS engaged on trying to ensure the fairness of the process. Rewards are paid across three tiers:
Thank you vouchers
Performance Excellence vouchers
Sustained performance awards
These awards/vouchers are made in year at the time of the work deserving the reward is completed rather than at year end. This ensures that good work is recognised, and corresponding reward feels relevant rather than anything up to 12 months after the event.
Development
It is hoped that the regular check in meetings will provide the scope for members who wish to develop themselves or their career to make the case for development opportunities and seek support in achieving the aims they have set for themselves.
The training for the new policy will take place between now and the beginning of the July 2021 with the new procedure being fully launched on that date. However, PCS are not of the belief that everything will fall into place as expected and that there will be a significant period of bedding in for the necessary cultural change to take place. PCS will be monitoring the outcomes of the new process and would urge members who find that the process is not being applied in line with policy to engage with their local PCS branches who can feedback concerns to the Personnel team.