Development Review Policy
Development Review Policy and Procedure
Policy
The purpose of this policy is to support the wellbeing of all employees and to help them thrive in their role.
It is an opportunity for all employee members to have some time to reflect on their role. They can think about how their day-to-day work is going, what is working well and what issues there are in a constructive and held space.
It’s a chance to have someone else engage with their job, listen to them and support them in creating an action plan. So that they can grow and develop within the role.
This document has been developed based on a training run by Maria Franchi with BBP employees.
Principles
Peer to peer, non-hierarchical review meetings
Support and encouragement
Maximising wellbeing and everyone’s contribution to the coop
Ensuring everyone is doing the best role for them and the organisation
Procedure
This policy will be carried out through the process of development review meetings.
Development Review Meetings
How a meeting happens and when
The HR & Governance Coordinator (HG Coordinator) facilitates the administrative side of the development review process[1]. They keep a calendar of when each employee is due their review meeting and holds the process in terms of admin. Each employee’s first review will be at the end of their three month probationary period[2], and then yearly after that. Employee reviews will be spread as evenly as possible throughout the year.
The HG Coordinator will contact each employee via email when their review is due, giving them two weeks to choose and get consent from a Development Review Partner (see ‘who is in the meeting’ below). The HG Coordinator then needs to be informed once a development review partner has been agreed. The HG Coordinator will contact the development reviewee if this is not agreed within three three weeks or if they have not been informed.
Once the development review partner has been agreed, the HG Coordinator will communicate with both people to agree on a date, time and place for the review meeting to be held. They will also send both people the supporting documents: the development review meeting template (see Appendix A), the development review role description (see Appendix B), the reviewee’s job description and this document. Both people should look at these documents before the meeting (and the reviewee can write out answers if they like).
If the reviewee would like feedback from the team, they should ask the HG Coordinator and the development review partner to gather this at this stage.
Who is in the meeting
The review meeting is a one-to-one meeting held by the development review partner, with the development reviewee. The HG Coordinator can be present if asked, to take notes, not to hold the meeting (unless they have been chosen as the review partner).
The development review partner is someone chosen by the reviewee to facilitate their development review meeting, their six month review (held six months after their development review meeting to see how the action plan is going) and to support them with their action plan for one year from the date of the review meeting. It should ideally be someone from a different team to the reviewee’s, but that may not be possible in all cases, and the reviewee is also able to choose someone from their team if they feel that person will be able to best support them with this process. The reviewee should ask their chosen partner if they are willing to be their review partner, and must gain consent from them before putting them forward to the HG Coordinator.
Any employee asked to be a development review partner may refuse if they feel a) they are not the best person for the role in this case, b) their workload does not currently reasonably allow it. If they feel under-qualified, they can ask the HG Coordinator for mentoring and support. Any employee is not limited to being the development review partner to just one person, and may review two or more people if they have capacity.
What happens in the meeting
The meeting will last one hour and it is the responsibility of the development review partner to keep to timings. The development review partner is there to facilitate the meeting by: maintaining a warm and listening presence, encouraging the reviewee to reflect honestly on their wellbeing and performance in their role, helping them set realistic goals in their action plan, note-taking and time-keeping. If the reviewee has asked for feedback from the team, the reviewee and review partner can agree at what point the feedback is given together.
In the meeting, firstly the reviewee will reflect on how their role is going and any issues they may be experiencing.
Then the reviewee will think about what goals they would like to work towards within their role.
If the reviewee has asked for feedback from the team, the reviewee and review partner can agree at what point the feedback is given together.
After this reflection process, the reviewee will assess if their job description actually describes what they do in their role, and suggest changes that would mean the job description reflects their actual role. (These will then go through the HG Coordinator and the HR director for approval.) This should take 10 - 15 minutes.
Finally, the reviewee will create an action plan including: what support they need for any issues they may be experiencing and what actions the reviewee and review partner will take to achieve this support. (This could include training, mentoring and/or regular check-ins with the review partner).
What happens after the meeting
After the meeting, the review partner needs to send the suggested changes to the job description (if applicable), and the filled-in meeting template to the HG Coordinator. These will be stored confidentially on the drive to which only the HG Coordinator has access. The development reviewee and development review partner will be given access to their folder so that they can edit the notes as they complete the action plan.
The development review partner should check in with the development reviewee (or vice versa) according to what was arranged in the action plan, throughout the course of the year.
The HG Coordinator will contact both people to let them know when the six month review is due.
The six month review
This is a meeting between the development reviewee and development review partner six months after the initial development review meeting to check in on the progress of the action plan. There is a section for this in the development review meeting template which should be filled in with comments about how each action is progressing. This should be sent to the HG Coordinator after the meeting.
What happens if performance expectations are not being met?
People usually know if they are not reaching expectations. It is the role of the review partner facilitating the review to honestly reflect on this, and support them not to be too self-critical or, on the other hand, too self assured.
If the expectations in the job description are not being met, this should be reflected in the development review notes and clear actions outlined to support the reviewee to be able to meet these expectations. The reviewee and review partner should set a reasonable time-frame within which the actions are to be achieved. This could be things like training, finding a mentor on the team, and/or continued support from the development reviewer.
If BBP has done everything possible to provide an employee with everything they need to fulfil their job description, and they are still not fulfilling the expectations outlined, this becomes poor performance.
This falls into two categories.
Not (i.e. ‘won’t’) fulfil your job description → disciplinary route
Unable (i.e. ‘can’t) fulfil your job description → capability route
In both these cases we would get advice from Coops UK and have an external person come in to hold the proceedings. For more information on the disciplinary procedure and the various categories of poor performance, see the Disciplinary Policy.
Confidentiality
All parties involved will be asked to maintain confidentiality. The contents of the meeting will remain confidential to attendees of the meeting and anyone involved with HR processes within BBP, or external people asked by BBP to provide support in cases of poor performance. The information needs to be accessed by HR to support the procedure and the responsibilities of the organisation i.e. to check that an action plan has been made and that it is being followed. The people who need access to development review information will have access to it but the information is owned by the person being reviewed.
BBP retains the right to breach confidentiality (and will discuss this with the employee) should it be believed the employee is going to cause serious harm to themselves or others.
Definitions
Development Reviewee
The person who is reviewing themselves.
Development Review Partner
The person chosen by the development reviewee to conduct their review (who has consented to be the development review partner). The development review partner will: facilitate the development review meeting, the six month review and support the reviewee with their action plan for one year from the date of the review meeting. It should ideally be someone from a different team to the reviewee’s, but that may not be possible in all cases, and the reviewee is also able to choose someone from their team if they feel that person will be able to best support them with this process.
Poor Performance
Poor performance is when BBP has done everything possible to provide an employee with everything they need to fulfil their job description including, support, training, mentoring, etc., and they are still not fulfilling the expectations outlined.
Appendix A
BBP development review Meeting Template
Name of reviewee:
Name of review partner:
Date of review:
Review Questions | Answers/notes |
1 Reflection How is your role going/what’s going well? | |
Are there any issues? | |
What support do you need to work through those issues? | |
Can you see how your work relates to the overall objectives of BBP? | |
2 Goals What new goal(s) do you want to work on? | |
Are there any issues with that/what will get in the way? | |
How does what you want to do fit in with the overall objectives of BBP? | |
What support do you need to work on your goal(s)? | |
3 Review job description: Does it accurately describe what you do in your role? If not, please suggest changes that include as much detail as possible. (The edited JD needs to be sent back to HR & Governance Coordinator along with this filled in meeting template). | |
4 Action plan What are my next steps? | |
Action | Time-frame |
5 Feedback from the team (if requested by the reviewee) Add feedback in this box. | Add comments/thoughts/reactions/feelings about it in this box |
6 month review check in How is the action plan progressing? (Record comments on each action - add new rows if needed) |
Appendix B
Development Review Partner Role Description
*to be written collaboratively during review partner training
Written on 10/03/2022 by Lucia Thompson with support from Maria Franchi. Updated 23/11/2022 by Drew Rose.
The admin of the HG Coordinator’s own review process will be facilitated by the Community and Comms Coordinator ↑
This process is replacing the three month review structure ↑
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