Adventure Bike Rider Forum

Personal Development Assessments
Anyone else get these at work?

Yesterday I had a meeting with my manager (a slimy toad with Teflon shoulders) & he went through a new assessment form sent by HR called the "Talent Matrix". His job was to assign me to a category & without any discussion he'd already decided I was "core staff" that needed further development.
He explained I would be given objectives that took me to the upper levels of "superstar".
I told him I didn't want to be a superstar, I was happy doing my job & having once been an IT manager, I didn't want another career path.
Apparently that attitude isn't good enough. I'm supposed to be ambitious & seek stardom.
It's all bollox, the company is on its knees & I spent a lot of time on the Internet.

I'm on the train for a meeting in Manchester & pondering all this, I realise my RTW desire isn't because I really want to do that, it's because I really don't want to do this.

Thanks for listening

The experiences you will encounter on your journey (both good and bad) will provide more personal development than the latest in-vogue skills matrix

Elle wrote:

I'm on the train for a meeting in Manchester & pondering all this, I realise my RTW desire isn't because I really want to do that, it's because I really don't want to do this.

Well penned Elle & realizing the truth about an aspiration/dream. (thumbs)

I've started to realize that FOR ME there's plenty of adventure on MY doorstep without going to the life upheaval & megga cost of a full RTW.

It just aint gunna be on my CV. :whistle:

Hi Elle,

I sympathise with you. I’ve been there too, useless Management Training Courses that I came out of less motivated than when I went in – job creation for the HR team – yearly Assessments and Action Plans, SWOT Analysis a boss that didn’t have a clue but whose face fit and all the other bollox. But, I got a shed load of money every month so carried on. In the end I gave it all up, and got a job that allowed me to work from home, because I was sick of pretending to be something I wasn’t and toeing the company line. I now earn pretty much the same as I used to pay in tax but I’m a lot happier.

Elle wrote:Personal Development Assessments
Anyone else get these at work?

Welcome to my world...

Every 3 months we have them.... 3 months ! Performance Management they call it, and there are a number of managers who's job it is just to run it.

I've been in Comms all my life, it comes pretty easy to me so I'm lucky I don't have to spend weeks training to pick stuff up. I've climbed my way up successes ladder, and got to a point where I was managing a team of well trained, professional and extremely capable enigineers, every one of them could do their job blindefolded. One or two were wanted more, most were happy to do the job, take the pay and enjoy life.

My company (and it's a well known one) don't have a bell curve that everyone doesn't fit into - so we don't have a small number of weak staff, large number of average staff and a small number of strong staff. So my team has to fit into this spread of capabilities (that doesn't exist). Now while statistics may show that companies have a spread of staff, fitting staff into that spread for performance purposes struck me as , well, not quite legal. So it doesn't exist, but we must look at staff carefully to see how they are really doing....

The below average mark is a development mark, it means the person needs to improve, and were are told it is not punitive, but for staff development... Only two of these marks in succession will put you on a development plan with HR and the first step into the departure lounge. This is what Performance Management is really about, managing under performers out of the company, or streamlining staff numbers without the need to pay redundancy.

Back to my team, every one of them is a better engineer than most other teams - yet, I have to distribute marks over the range, so the guys at the bottom of the scoring (who are better than many others in the company) are being prodded and poked for no real valid reason, other than complying with a statistical curve.

Sounds fair, doesn't it...... No it's utterly vile.

If I were not to 'fairly' distribute the markings, it's my head on the block. So self preservation dictates I do what I have to, grow a thick skin and get on with it. In practice what happens, is everyone of the team take it in turns to get a down mark, and a strong mark, so everyone ends up equal, but the guys who do a really great job get nothing more. It stinks, and I hated it (notice the change in tense)

I took a sideways move in the same company, so now I have no staff, but I still have the same Performance Management crap to deal with. It's a game invented by HR staff to justify their own positions, after all HR are a liability to any company, they bring in no income and cost £££, all they can do is be seen to save ££££, by shedding staff - it is the only real purpose of HR, because they sure as hell don't support them...

I'm allot happier now, out of the management crap, but I use what I learned to keep my marks in the average band. As I say, it's a game and you either move on (but in all likelihood this system will catch you up) or learn the rules and get on with it.

In short, your manager may well be a t.....t but he is under pressure too, and he may not be strong enough to stand up to his manager(s).

For my part, I now ask some customers (with grand sounding job titles) to write to my manager thanking me (especially Americans, they love this stuff) - sounds cheesy, yes it is, but the same managers think it's pure gold. One 2Hr simple job a few months ago, followed up by an email from the customer got me a £50 reward from my company - OK it's only £50 but it paid for a meal out for me and the missus, and got me a good marking last quarter.

As I say, It's a crock of steaming exit fumes, but it looks like it's here to stay for a while, so learn the rules, do the least you can to comply, take advantage of the cheesy loopholes and then get back to your day job.

These things are a bit of a catch 22 for me. I have a little over 100 staff working for me and if we miss the 'one to one' which we call it half the staff complain. "i need to know how I'm doing" the other half have the attitude of "i'm sure you'll tell me if I have a problem". For me, the meeting, chat, catchup is important to keep in touch with your staff. Good for them to know you're there and more important they know that you know they are there. But red tape HR forms are painful, but some like them. From a management angle though, they are invaluable for the heal draggers. Not talking about the people that like there job, turn up, put the hours in and are happy with that... I have plenty of those and they are all good at what they do and if one day they want to step up I will help them. I'm talking about those that come in late, do half a job and have 20 days sick per year. Sadly we need to monitor manage and eject fairly, in a very small number of occasions you find the person is struggling through the process and a re position is what they need if you can.

There is a lot to be said about people in the middle of the company that want to just get on and do their job. They add something that is very hard to buy. Stability! So because you don't want to move on, you shouldn't be frowned upon but supported.

The only pitfall is, pay review time... Gets very hard to keep increasing a salary infinitely staying in the same position. And everyone wants more money these days.

APD did you have/do you have Investors in People
(I have been retired for a few years so dont recall if its superceded )?
One of its criteria was appraisals every x months, Q & A, etc. I could see both sides.

Think this is a great thread Elle has started and some interesting responses.
Thanks all.
:-)

Elle wrote:Personal Development Assessments
Anyone else get these at work?

Yesterday I had a meeting with my manager (a slimy toad with Teflon shoulders) & he went through a new assessment form sent by HR called the "Talent Matrix". His job was to assign me to a category & without any discussion he'd already decided I was "core staff" that needed further development.
He explained I would be given objectives that took me to the upper levels of "superstar".
I told him I didn't want to be a superstar, I was happy doing my job & having once been an IT manager, I didn't want another career path.
Apparently that attitude isn't good enough. I'm supposed to be ambitious & seek stardom.
It's all bollox, the company is on its knees & I spent a lot of time on the Internet.

I'm on the train for a meeting in Manchester & pondering all this, I realise my RTW desire isn't because I really want to do that, it's because I really don't want to do this.

Thanks for listening

'Talent Matrix'...................what a load of total and utter bollox

APD_660Ten wrote:These things are a bit of a catch 22 for me. I have a little over 100 staff working for me

'for you or with you'

The difference and the mindset is MASSIVE & is transmitted down the chain. B)

corbine wrote:APD did you have/do you have Investors in People
(I have been retired for a few years so dont recall if its superceded )?
One of its criteria was appraisals every x months, Q & A, etc. I could see both sides.

Think this is a great thread Elle has started and some interesting responses.
Thanks all.

No but I am aware of the scheme. Our scheme is advised at quarterly one to ones. But we tend to take a steer from the teams on their preference. One team has them monthly, while at the other end of the spectrum they do them annually and prefer a more informal quarterly one to one. They all have monthly team meetings while the development team are moving to daily and sub 10 mins. Then you have sales who think a team meeting has to involve copious amounts of beer