Setting objectives: more than a New Years resolution
11 February 2025 | Dr Ruth Adams
Given the recent bumper releases of the White Paper, the new Planning Framework and the imminent financial settlement, 2025 is set up to be unbelievably busy. Against this backdrop of sectoral change and continuing service delivery demands, the requirement for Chief Officers, Senior Leaders and their teams to develop and understand outcomes and priorities, through well-defined objectives has never been more crucial. |
The potential in 2025 is for Chief Officers to be consumed in external affairs, linked to the opportunities and requirements of the policy direction set out in the White Paper. My experience of working in South Yorkshire in the set up a Combined Authority and then a Mayoral Combined Authority is that it takes an inordinate amount of time to develop the partnership, the protocols, and tireless engagement to secure political and organisational alignment. All tasks which require Chief Officers to steer.
With this as a likely priority, more of the internal organisational requirements; continuing to deliver services, capital programmes, statutory requirements and managing the internal operation will fall to other senior leaders.
In a period of change clarity over their objectives, outcomes and performance standards is essential.
Recent national reviews and surveys illustrate that more organisations are moving away from the traditional format of performance reviews. Concern are that often performance reviews lack inconsistent in evaluating performance, are too retrospective and late in providing recognition for good performance and try to cover too much ground in a single conversation. HR Magazine conducted an employee survey and found over half of respondents dreaded the annual performance review and claimed it lacked value for them.
Whilst it is undeniably true that the overly pro-forma / tickbox system can be a turnoff for all engaged in the process, a meaningful two-way conversation exploring the contribution all employees can make to the priorities of the organisation is essential. This conversation facilitates a greater understanding of the essential outcomes and priorities of the organisation, individual teams and the expectations for them personally. It enables a discussion on the behaviours required to be successful, aligned to corporate values and for the employee to outline their views on any support or development they need to be successful.
The risk is that poor appraisal protocols or formulaic paperwork act as a barrier to ensuring all can discuss and understand their role and contribution. Which is an essential platform for performance success and performance management.
Over the last year SEE has worked with Councils to support Chief Officer appraisal, including the development of new policies, 360 degree feedback approaches, and Councillor training. For employees we have developed new SEE Toolkits to support managers to provide feedback, manage performance and set objectives. All toolkits are available to download from our Partner Hub. Early in the new year we will be recording some of these toolkits into bitesized modules to provide additional support and resources for SEE members.