My Performance Appraisal How to write SMART objectives

1. My Performance Appraisal How to write SMART objectives

2. The Golden Thread ‐ Alignment with Business Planning Having performance objectives ensures that everyone is clear what is expected of them and know what their contribution is. Through My Performance Appraisal, your individual performance objectives directly relate to the service or team plan for your area, through into the councils business plan and ultimately to our priority outcomes and our vision, so work with your line manager to gain this clarity if unclear. The service or team plan will describe the outcomes (or goals) that need to be achieved. Your individual performance objectives are derived from these outcomes in the service or team plan and are clear statements of something that you need to accomplish over a specific period of time in order to achieve the outcome or goal.

3. Shropshire Mission and Values Service Plans Shropshire Business Plans My Performance Appraisal

4. Your Performance Objectives • Your performance and objectives are agreed with your line manager at the beginning of the year and progress/achievement reviewed formally at least twice during the year, once at mid‐year and once at the yearly My Performance Appraisal. However, they should also be reviewed and amended as necessary whenever you and your line manager agree it is appropriate ‐ for example, if the circumstances relating to the objective change. Identify Tasks – Have a Plan to Deliver your Performance Objectives • Once you have agreed your performance objectives, you will need to identify what tasks you need to undertake, by when, in order to achieve each objective. Tasks can be defined as the actions or activities you will undertake – it’s helpful to include measures and performance standards against each task to ensure you keep on track to delivering your best performance all year round. These tasks form your plan – what you need to achieve, by when, in order to deliver against your performance objective. • Typically only the objectives and not the tasks are recorded in My Performance Appraisal paperwork, though you may use some of the measures of each task to show progress towards full achievement of the objective. Review Regularly • If performance objectives are longer term and last beyond the year, it’s important to agree the long term requirements as well as milestones that will be achieved within this performance year. This makes the objective more manageable and allows you and your line manager to have more effective My Performance Conversations .

5. An Introduction to SMART Objectives • To make it easier to assess progress against objectives, make them SMART: • Specific – a clear definition of what is required. • Measureable – numbers or outputs are stated ‐ this could include how you will demonstrate completion of each of the key tasks that need to be delivered to achieve the objective as well as the overall measure of achievement – to help be really clear on measures, there is a separate column in the paperwork where these can be recorded next to the definition of each objective. • Achievable – stretching but realistic – can the objective be accomplished in the proposed time frame, by you, with the available resources and support? • Relevant – aligned to priority outcomes through the service or team plan and relevant for your job role. It’s important that we are all doing the right things and this may mean we stop doing things we’ve always done and start doing new things, however they should still be the right things for your role. • Time bound – timescales are defined and understood, so that you are clear when the objective will be completed by. Again, it may be useful to identify key tasks or milestones and when each of these will be completed by, especially if the objective will take longer than a year to achieve.

6. Specific • Outline in a clear statement precisely what is required. The statement should specifically describe the result in a detailed, well‐defined way. It may define a target group or a specific accomplishment. • To help make objectives specific, use action‐orientated language, such as analyse, apply, change, create, determine, differentiate, identify, perform • Avoid jargon, or any words and phrases, which could be seen as ambiguous such as be aware of, have an awareness of, be prepared for a variety of, know or have knowledge of, understand • Your performance objectives should focus on the results you need to achieve ‐ avoid writing objectives which describe what you are going to do, e.g. tasks or activities that you will complete to achieve the objective. • Use plain English and consider whether someone not connected with your team, or the work you do, would be able to understand the objective.

7. Measureable Include measures so that you can monitor progress and know when the objective has been achieved. There is a separate column on the paperwork to record these. Measures can be quantitative and/or qualitative. Examples of quantitative measures include volumes, cost reduction, revenue generation, in what timeframe, define the amount of change expected such as a percentage change in a specific period or against a period last year, or against specified benchmarks Examples of qualitative measures include to what standard, Perceptions, opinions and feedback from key stakeholders When identifying measures, think about: • How will I know that the change has occurred? • Can these measurements be obtained? (It is worth noting that if it can’t be measured now, the chances are that it won’t be possible to measure it in the future either).

8. Achievable Objectives need to be achievable. They should be stretching but not unattainable. Check whether, with a reasonable amount of effort and application, the right support and resources, that the objective is achievable. An objective is achievable if: • you know that it is measurable • it is in principle possible (it is clearly not unachievable) the necessary resources are available, or there is a realistic chance of getting them • the limitations have been assessed It may also be that others have been able to achieve this before, either within our organisation or outside it, though this may not be true in every case.

9. Tips • Line managers should recognise that by declaring an objective to be achievable, you may be making a commitment to provide a level of resources (e.g. people, time, money) without which the objective would not be achievable. This implies that if circumstances changed, the objective would no longer be SMART for the individual, team or organisation, in which case you should both meet to review and revise the objective – don’t wait for a mid‐year or yearly My Performance Conversation. • Agreeing objectives that are unachievable will reduce motivation and lead to you applying little or no energy or enthusiasm to what you see as a futile task. Setting objectives at too low a level can be just as dispiriting. Consider and agree what learning and development support is required.

10. Relevant • Make sure that the objective will deliver what is in the plan, and the link between the objective and the plan is clear. Line managers need to make sure that the objective is something it is reasonable to expect their colleague to do in their role. As well as being clear what it is that is to be achieved, it is also important to be clear about any work or actions that may now need to stop or be adapted if they are no longer the right things to be doing.

11. Timebound • A deadline, date or time when the objective will be accomplished or completed is necessary and must be included to make the objective measurable. • Deadlines help increase focus and motivation on the work that needs to be done to achieve the objective. • Ask yourself if the objective can be accomplished within the deadlines which have been established, bearing in mind other possible competing demands which may cause delay. • If you have established milestones, then it is often useful to determine the date or deadline by when each milestone will be achieved also, to help keep motivation and ensure that performance in on track. • Time frames can be recorded in the measures column on the My Performance Conversation paperwork.