Appraisal scheme review questionnaire

Where you conduct formal staff appraisals, you should review your appraisal scheme periodically to ensure it’s meeting everyone’s needs, and in this regard input from your employees can be valuable.

Appraisal process

There’s no such thing as a “standard” appraisal scheme or procedure, but it tends to involve a formal appraisal meeting being held between the employee and their line manager and then the completion of an appraisal form and action plan – see our Appraisal Procedure and Form. For many employers, this is an annual process, but some employers undertake formal appraisals more or less frequently. It’s good performance management to appraise your staff on a regular basis, as the purpose isn’t just to discuss performance and conduct during the previous appraisal period but also to use this information to set an agreed action plan of targets and goals to be achieved during the next appraisal period, together with discussing the employee’s future training needs and career development. The appraisal system may additionally be used to assess the employee’s suitability for promotion, for example, to the next pay grade or staffing/management level – see our Assessment of Potential for Promotion. Once the appraisal form has been written up, it should be kept confidentially on the employee’s personnel file, but should also be in continual use as a reference document by the employee and their line manager throughout the next appraisal period.

Scheme review

Once you’ve put an appraisal scheme in place, you shouldn’t just leave it at that. You should review the scheme from time to time to ensure it’s working how you intend it to and to explore whether there are any ways in which you could improve it, both for your benefit and the benefit of your staff. As the appraisal scheme is a two-way process, your employees’ understanding of the scheme and suggestions for improvement to it may be invaluable. This is where our Appraisal Scheme Review Questionnaire comes in. It asks the employee to answer a series of questions aimed at obtaining their views on your scheme, and we’ve enabled them to do this anonymously if they wish. Employees are more likely to be honest in raising negative points if they can do so anonymously.

Questionnaire

Our questionnaire has been designed in the form of simple tick box answers (with more information then requested from the employee if necessary) and it includes such questions as: (1) what the employee believes the objective of the appraisal scheme are and whether they think those objectives are met; (2) how often and when they think appraisals should be held; (3) how well their appraisal meeting was conducted and whether they’re confident any action points will be acted upon; (4) whether they use the appraisal form as a working document throughout the next appraisal period; (5) whether they discuss their performance with their line manager outside of the appraisal process; (6) whether they feel the appraisal system is adequate for determining career development and training needs; and (7) whether they have any comments on the design and content of the appraisal form or on any other aspect of the appraisal system, and any suggestions for improvement. As our questionnaire isn’t part of the appraisal process, where it’s not anonymised, it still shouldn’t go on the employee’s personnel file.