It’s that time of the year (once again)
As the year flies by, aviators find themselves at the end of another performance reporting period. This means the countdown is on to finalise Personnel Performance Reports (PPRs) before the 01 Nov deadline.
The lead-up
The finalised PPR should be the culmination of a year-long conversation between an aviator and their assessor. This conversation starts with the identification of goals and goes on to include refining Career Development Plans, mid-term reviews and other ad-hoc performance chats.
But while feedback to aviators is an important component of the PPR, it is not the sole purpose of the report.
PPRs provide Career Managers and Career Management Boards with valuable information that help make informed decisions in areas such as postings, promotions, selections, performance management and honours & awards.
In this context, the quality of career management decisions largely depends on the quality of the PPRs.
Laying the groundwork
The content of the PPR should never come as a surprise to the assessed member. To this end, it can be useful for the assessor and assessed member to speak just before the end of the reporting period to align expectations, especially if the report will identify areas for improvement.
Supervisors may also invite the assessed member to send through a list of achievements to help shape the PPR. This can be particularly useful for supervisors with multiple direct reports or areas where functional responsibilities between the two parties are substantially different. This groundwork enhances buy-in and promotes the collaborative nature of the report.
Reporting for success
With the foundation laid, here’s a few tips on how assessors and assessed members can help make this year’s PPRs as useful as possible:
Assessed members
1. Lean-in. Take an active interest in your report. If you have the opportunity to provide a list of achievements, take it. Keep your CDP long-term aspirations in mind and take any opportunity you can to shape the report towards their attainment.
2. Speak up. If you don’t agree with the content of the report, discuss this with your assessor before you sign it. CMs often speak with regretful aviators after accepting sub-par PPRs that go on to influence career management outcomes. Remember it’s your career and it’s your life.
3. Be honest with yourself. If you disagree with the report, take some time to read and absorb the content before you voice any objections. Is it incorrect or a hard truth? If it’s the former, have evidence to support your point of view. If it’s the latter, it shouldn’t be a surprise. Use your PPR debrief to go over how you can address these points in future reporting periods.
Assessing Officers
Imagine this: you’re sitting in a conference room with 4-5 people who will assign a promotion code to the member you’ve assessed. You have about 60 seconds to convince those people to award the code you believe the member should receive. Outside the room is a line of a few hundred other assessors, all waiting to deliver their 60-second pitch.
What do you say? Here’s how you might put your minute to good use:
1. Cut out the fluff. You don’t have time for long preambles. Keep sentences sharp and to the point.
2. Use examples. Empty platitudes won’t resonate with board members. While you don’t have much time (character limit), use a few seconds (words) to highlight what the member actually did and how this justifies your point of view.
3. Context. Remember the line of assessors outside the door? They set the context in which your report will be read. An unfortunate reality is that a lot of reports are artificially inflated; like it or not, your assessment needs to factor this in so the member sits in the right part of their cohort.
4. Another chapter in a story. Some assessors will also be talking about your member. Be mindful of the member’s profile…is it their first or seventh report at rank? This is particularly important for people just starting a new posting, where you’ll need to balance the learning curve of their role with their broader promotion prospects.
Here we go again
Don’t forget that as soon as one reporting period ends, another begins! Most aviators and their assessors won’t kick off a reporting period until January (especially if an aviator starts a new posting); however, it’s worth taking note if the member has a PPR-worthy achievement between October and December.
As always, if you have any questions or would like to discuss further chat with your CM.
