End of Year Appraisals

Your union can represent you in these cases too.

The guidance is long and involved so it is best to talk to your rep about your situation.

You should always raise a grievance if your box marking comes as a surprise. If the marking has changed since your mid-year review you should have been made aware that things were likely to change.

Management are raising the stakes with appraisal saying that they don’t expect people to get a “Must Improve” two years running. We are concerned that there will be more use of capability procedures to try and get rid of those of us getting Must Improve markings. Make sure you raise a grievance against these markings with PCS help.

In many cases there is a good chance you will win.

The PCS regional committee is concerned that the whole appraisal process is flawed and discriminatory. For example we learnt last year in GMCC District that full timers, non-disabled people, those from the majority ethnic group and women who are in a majority in the workforce, were all more likely to get an Exceeded box marking and with the exception of non-disabled staff, were less likely to get a Must Improve. The higher the grade, the more likely staff were, to get an Exceeded and the less likely they were to get a Must Improve.

Exceeded markings were much more common for those aged 16-24 and much less common for those over 60 and staff under 30 and over 60 were more likely to get must improves. Similar patterns are to be found in other parts of the Department.

If we are to change the system we must all challenge it by raising grievances about anything that appears to be unfair.