The review window is from July to October every year.

Yes, it is important for every member of staff to have the opportunity for an annual meeting. The meeting provides a valuable opportunity to formally discuss your career aspirations, development plans and to reflect on your achievements and objectives.

If you are due to leave the University, you can choose whether or not to have a PDR. If you would like a PDR discussion your manager will facilitate this. You may decide there is value in having a more informal reflective conversation on your achievements and development needs to help with your onward career journey. Equally, you may prefer not to be part of the PDR process this year. Please speak with your line manager to let them know your preference.

All colleagues should have the opportunity to have an annual review, regardless of their FTE. It is an important opportunity to discuss their contribution to the university and to talk through any concerns and development needs they may have. For staff on very low FTE's (0.1) a more informal chat may be more appropriate than the full structured PDR meeting.

No, in many areas your reviewer is defined by your management structure and would be your line manager. However, in some areas the HoD will need to identify appropriate reviewers.

Professors (and those on professorial equivalent grades) may have a PDR meeting with their HoD, Deputy HoD or the Director of Departmental Research Committee. In academic departments with a large number of professors, the role of reviewer may be delegated to another senior professor. If you are in any doubt speak to your HoD.

Your completed form will be seen by you and your reviewer. It may also be seen by your reveiwer's line manager and the Head of Department.

Performance ratings data will be collated centrally by the HR team. This is solely for the purposes of an equality impact assessment and participation monitoring. This will require use of employee number data, but all reporting will be presented anonymously.

The administrative practicalities of this means that each HoD may nominate a trusted individual to assist with the administration involved in providing this information to the HR Team. This individual may also assist the HoD with collating a picture of the training and development needs within the department.

During the consultation it became clear that colleagues had concerns about how PDR data was processed and shared for the purposes of University Oversight. The oversight/quality assurance will be on anonymised data as outlined above. Also, each reviewer's line manager will undertake an oversight/quality assurance of the PDRs to ensure consistency of approach. We will still ask Heads of Department to let HR know who has completed a PDR. This will just be for the purposes of Equality and Diversity monitoring and for ensuring that all staff are being given the opportunity to have an annual review.

The recommended method for sharing a PDR form is to store it in Google Drive and ensure that sharing permissions are correct.

Using Google Drive rather than email will overcome the issue of deciding when to apply ad-hoc encryption and password protection. It will also minimise the risk associated with information being sent to the wrong recipient as it's much easier to amend sharing permissions than retrieve an email sent in error.

Using Google Drive can also help to avoid there being multiple different copies and versions of the form.

As the Reviewee, you are the owner of the PDR form. It is up to you how you choose to store and retain this information and for how long.

As a Reviewer it is recommended that you retain completed PDR forms for the most recent three PDR cycles. These should be stored securely and in line with your departmental guidelines on GDPR.

All departments should use the standard forms. The forms were carefully shaped after consultation with staff and union members, and are designed to provide an in depth and holistic template for a meaningful PDR discussion.

You are encouraged to consider all areas of the form. PDR is about more than objectives and the additional areas of the form encourage conversations about development, career progression and the approach to work.

Reviewees should populate the grey shaded boxes in preparation for the meeting, and can make notes in other sections if they feel this is useful. Following the PDR discussion they should write up the other sections of the form.

The five point rating scale was developed as a result of the consultation. In previous years ratings were specifically aligned to objectives. The new rating scale allows for a more holistic assessment of performance, taking into action values and approach to work as well as achievements against objectives.

See rating definitions page

The PDR should be an honest, open, two-way discussion between the reviewer and the reviewee. The opportunity to provide your own evaluation of your performance is an important part of this and acknowledges the reviewee's perception of their own performance. It aims to stimulate a meaningful and productive conversation.

Ratings will stimulate an open two-way discussion, and provide an opportunity for reviewers and reviewees to give an objective commentary on performance.

It is expected that both parties will reach a consensus following discussion. In cases where a consensus cannot be reached, record this difference of opinion in the commentary on the PDR form.

Members of staff in the probationary period are not covered by the PDR process. For these staff, performance should be managed and reviewed in line with the existing probation and policy procedure. On passing probation, staff will move under the new PDR process.

The line manager/reviewer may use information gathered in the review to celebrate good performance. If an employee has exceeded overall or in respect of a particular objective, the reviewer may decide to acknowledge this further via the Making the Difference scheme. If the line manager sees that the individual has performed consistently over and above their objectives, for a sustained period, they may decide to celebrate this via the the Rewarding Excellence Scheme.

It is important that these celebratory conversations take place during the course of the year, so it is not necessary to reference PDR outcomes if the timings don't align.

The PDR is an annual opportunity to take stock of achievements, objectives and development needs. The PDR is not a mechanism to trigger other performance management processes. There should be no surprises at the annual meeting as individuals should be supported throughout the year with regular 1-1 discussions. Any concerns about performance should be addressed when they arise and not put off until the annual meeting.

PDR is the opportunity for you to talk about your development and future career aspirations whether that is within or outside the department. It is the opportunity to identify future learning and development in order to enhance skills and put you in the best opportunity to make your next career move. If you are considering applying for promotion you can use the PDR meeting as an opportunity to discuss your performance and achievements against the promotions criteria.

There is no direct link between PDR and promotion; however where relevant, the Head of Department may reference things such as capability and conduct as part of a promotion application.