The job

Areas the employee should pay attention to

1

Do you like your job?

• Be precise. In what areas are you particularly satisfied, and in what areas are you not?
• Reflect on what could increase your job satisfaction
• Are there particular situations, issues or people who contribute positively or negatively to your job satisfaction?
• The following applies to virtually all questions: What can you do yourself? What can your colleagues do? What can your manager do? Be very specific

2

Do you feel well equipped to do your job?

• Make sure you clearly identify areas where you do and do not
• Then make specific agreements jointly with your manager which you immediately enter under questions 34 and 35.

3

Are your tasks challenging enough?

• Be open and give clear examples: Why? Why not? How much? What? With whom?
• Make suggestions for other challenges you might enjoy
• Use the following as a positive approach:
  • What has been your greatest success this year?
  • What made it possible (Who? Where? When? And how?)
  • What can you conclude from this to guide you in future?

4

How would you rate the quality of your work?

• It is important for you, your manager and your organisation that you both have a fairly similar view of the necessary/desired quality needed for your tasks – and the degree to which you are achieving this
• Be frank and honest in giving your personal assessment of the quality. Where is it best? Where could it be better?
• Encourage your manager to act on this information by agreeing on objectives and skills development (under points 34-35)
• In case of a gap between your assessment and that of your manager, this must be discussed and steps taken to bring the two assessments in better agreement

5

How good is your working relationship with your first line manager?

• Be very open and give clear and respectful constructive criticism as well as good advice. Make sure you don’t avoid this question
• Be ready to assist your manager by giving tips on how to improve

6

To what degree are your objectives clearly defined?

• You can only hit the target if you know what it is!
• Do not answer ‘yes’ to this question before you have explored any areas where objectives are unclear
• There are two sides to this: what your manager has tried to define for you, and what you have actually heard and understood

7

Do you feel appreciated by your manager?

• Feeling appreciated is not about agreeing on everything. It is about experiencing that you have been noticed, heard and involved, even when the outcome is not exactly what you would recommend
• This is a serious test of your perception of how your manager comes across, and must therefore be based on the most specific and objective feedback possible.

Work colleagues

Areas the employee should pay attention to

8

How good are you at building relationships within the department?

• Employees need to see themselves and their work in the light of what their colleagues are up to in the department
• Are you interested in – and have you experienced success with – building relationships within the department which help make the team stronger? Where? When? Who contributed positively? How can you draw on this elsewhere?
• Where and how can you develop your skills to see opportunities in this area by focusing on the positive?

9

How good is the working relationship between colleagues in your department?

• EDP meetings are not a place for gossip
• We recommend that it be permissible to 'name names' – but that the manager immediately commits to taking action. This avoids it becoming idle gossip and makes it constructive instead
• Therefore,  only raise issues if you are ready to see action taken

10

How well do you contribute to teamwork within the department?

• What is your own assessment of your contribution to teamwork within the department? Where? Why? Why not? How can you do better/more?
• Try to focus on your best experience of teamwork, and seek to draw connections and insight from this to tackle present-day challenges
• Focus on the necessity of teamwork, and actively set specific goals for it (which the leader must remember to enter into the agreements under question 34)
• Note that questions 10-12 have been carefully phrased to focus on your contribution and not that of team members.

11

How good are you at tackling minor conflicts within the department?

• Try to give specific examples of this - both positive and negative ones
• What do you think you can learn from these examples going forward?

12

How good are you at working with other departments?

• For many organisations, the key to success lies in the willingness and ability to work across departments and disciplines, so make sure you give this attention
• Try to give specific examples of where you have contributed in this way – both successful and otherwise
• Use the energy from successes to tackle non-successes and give them new momentum. Reflect on where the energy for this momentum comes from

13

Do you feel appreciated by your colleagues?

• This is the key to understanding daily interaction within a department. You have responsibility for providing frank, honest and relevant input to your manager. Otherwise he or she is left guessing
• Be very honest and help identify any potential lack of respect in the department so it can be addressed

14

How good is your manager at setting clear objectives for your department?

• An EDP meeting involves evaluation of the employee and their work throughout the year – as well as the manager’s effectiveness as a leader
• The manager – and the department – needs this element so be honest, in a constructive way

15

Are these objectives part of your daily work?

• In some organisations, visions and objectives are only themes that are expressed on festive occasions and in speeches. This is not good practice!
• You must always note areas where the objectives are not considered – both in the department and by yourself

Customers

Areas the employee should pay attention to

16

How good is your relationship to the customers?

• It is a strength to be open and honest, and reflect on your own practice in relation to the customers: What is working well? What could be better? Who can help you? Where and how can you develop? Where can you begin?
• Openness and honesty is required from both you and your manager to ensure a constructive dialogue, so do encourage your manager to give honest feedback
• An employee can easily face situations in daily work where the customers are a bother. It is the manager’s job, through dialogue, to create a better understanding of why we are here and what our Mission actually is! Encourage your manager to share this with you

17

How well does the organisation handle relationships with customers?

• It would be very valuable for you to comment on how successful you think the organisation is at this. Be prepared to provide specific examples, episodes, complaints, etc. so there is substance to it. This can be used very positively
• Ideally action should be taken in response to create value to the entire organisation, so be very specific and forward-looking

18

How would you rate the quality of the department’s services?

• Question 4 deals with your own quality. This question refers to the department
• Try to be very specific and forward-looking. What will it take to improve quality in the short, medium and long term?
• What can you do? What can your colleagues do? What can your manager do?

The organisation

Areas the employee should pay attention to

19

How proud are you of your workplace?

• In many organisations employees lack pride in their workplace. We need to change this and promote it wholeheartedly as it brings along positive energy
• All of questions 1-30 are given a score from 1 to 6 (with 6 being the best score). In all cases you should encourage a specific response in the case of lower scores. What will it take to raise this score next year?
• Remember to link it to a specific action point. Go to question 34 and enter the details

20

Does the organisation fully exploit your skills?

• This is a crucial question. People may complain about a 4-5 per cent budget cut for their department, but what if it is true that your department only utilises 65-70 per cent of employees’ competencies? If so, there is huge potential for growth right before your eyes!
• So be tenacious: identify precisely which skills the employee feels they have which you’re not utilising and make an action plan in response
• Note that there will often be 5-10 per cent which your department is unable to make use of. But don’t worry. Start with the 15-20 per cent you can utilise!

• Try to think of any situations where you felt well informed of decisions made in your organisation or department. Why?
• Likewise, think of situations where more information would have been beneficial – why?
• How can the company improve on the dissemination of information to staff? Think of concrete examples.

22

Do you have appropriate responsibility in your job?

• You need to consider this carefully as ‘appropriate responsibility’ has to match your specific competencies
• Make an effort to offer ideas and suggestions, and be aware that some development of your competencies may be required. Enter agreements directly under point 35

23

How would you rate the physical environment?

• The physical working environment can have a major impact on your perception of satisfaction in your daily work, so give this some thought

24

How satisfied are you with the organisation’s top management?

• This gives you the opportunity to discuss with your line manager how you see the organisation’s top management
• Be ready to provide specific examples and suggestions for improvement

25

Are you familiar with the strategy and core values?

• It is important that employees give serious thought to strategies and values. Are you fully aware of them?
• Why? Why not? What else could be done? How can we all have better ownership of the strategy and values?

The future

Areas the employee should pay attention to

26

Do you have the necessary skills to face the challenges of the future?

• It is important that you and your manager both have roughly the same view of the future. Where are we going? What impacts will this have on our work and methods? What skills will be necessary?
• Comment on how you see your situation and skills in light of the future
• Be conscious of making agreements about the future to keep the process meaningful and maintain hope looking ahead

27

Is your manager good at preparing the department for the future?

• Now focus is on your manager who must listen in order to learn. You need to be very honest, so that you pass key messages that will help carry the department into the future
• What do you think your leader can do better in this regard? Where? Towards whom? When?

28

How good are your opportunities for development within our organisation?

• If they want to, most organisations can normally create genuine development opportunities using only modest resources. Where? With what? Towards whom? When? What needs to happen?
• You should be ready for self-reflection, in order to have a realistic picture of your future within the organisation

29

How interested are you in new responsibilities?

• The previous question may lead directly into this one
• Be very specific

30

Are you able to take on more responsibility?

• Be very specific and direct in your response
• You also need to develop your social skills so that you show empathy towards colleagues under pressure

Private life

Areas the employee should pay attention to

31

Are there conditions in your private life that have impact on your work?

• This question is not about putting your private life on show
• The focus is on any private factors that have an impact on your work situation. These factors could be divorce, family illness, psychological problems and/or drug abuse problems, etc. Openness is essential!
• Ensure you make agreements covering these issues

Advice

Areas the employee should pay attention to

32

Try to give your manager 2-3 tips

• This point gives the employee the opportunity to freely give advice to the manager. If I was in your shoes, I would focus on…

Annual focus area

Areas the employee should pay attention to

33

Discuss a focus area the department or organisation has selected for the year

• Each department can decide on this focus area from year to year. It should be decided and notified before the EDP meetings begin.

Agreements for the future

Areas the employee should pay attention to

34

Your own skills development. Specific agreements:

• Points 34 and 35 are crucial points throughout the entire EDP meeting. They are the manager’s responsibility, but each employee has co-responsibility. Consider carefully which areas  you can make agreements on
• Skills development does not necessarily have to be courses or continuing training. It can include desk training by colleagues or putting skills the employee already has into play in new areas

35

Your goals for next year. Specific agreements:

• See above