The annual consultation for supervisors

Annual consultations for managers

• Annual consultations as part of the bigger picture

  An employee doesn’t work in isolation. As a manager, you’re responsible for the bigger picture, of which consultations and agreements with individuals are part.

  • As a manager, you have goals and priorities for your department, group or team based on the strategy and ambition of the faculty or division, current developments, etc. You shape and share these with employees, for example in a department meeting or plan. The annual consultation is about the individual’s contribution to this bigger picture.
  • Make sure to use the annual consultations − and other instruments − to gain an insight into the talents, ambitions and opportunities of individual employees. This allows you to take these into account when making agreements on duties and development, take opportunities and align expectations in a timely manner. Strategic Personnel Planning will help you ensure the right people are in the right place in both the short and the long term.

• Who is involved?

  The annual consultation is first and foremost a confidential discussion between the employee and their manager. Sometimes, other people are involved, if this is more effective in practice:

  Functional manager

  • In some cases, the person who is more responsible for day-to-day management, aka a ‘functional manager’, conducts (or co-conducts) the annual consultation with the employee. The hierarchical manager (formally responsible) always handles the registration of the annual consultation.
  • Some employees typically have a formal co-manager, for example those seconded internally on a structural basis. If you would like the co-manager to have access to the annual consultation form, make sure to give them access rights before you provide your managerial input. The manual tells you how to go about this.
  • Reflect on what you need to have a good annual consultation in your specific situation. For example, do you need input on day-to-day functioning or does it make sense for a third person to join? Or do you need to discuss with a senior manager which agreements you can make with the employee during the annual consultation? 

  The relevant HR Advisor and senior manager (the manager’s manager) can access outstanding and archived annual consultation forms.

• Invite

  • You invite the employee for an annual consultation. An annual consultation takes place between 1 February and 31 December.
  • Indicate what you expect in terms of preparation. For example, when would you like to receive a reflective report? Are there any topics in particular you’d like to address? Do you want the employee to ask others for feedback? You can refer them to Annual consultations for employees for a general explanation. 
  • Does your department, group or team have any goals or priorities that were shared in a department meeting or plan, for example? Draw the employee’s attention to these, because individual performance contributes to the bigger picture.
  • Ask the employee to launch the annual consultation form. They can do so by using the ‘Take action now’ button on the webpage Annual consultations for employees.

  Please note: If the employee entered employment after 1 February, it’s your job as their manager to launch a new annual consultation form for them in ‘Jaargesprek’ (self-service option for annual consultations). Use the blue ‘Take action now’ button at the top of this page to get there. The manual contains an explanation.

  Is the employee not meeting expectations?

  In the event that an employee is not performing at the desired level, then please discuss this as soon as possible and do not wait until the annual consultation to bring it up. This situation warrants a separate consultation in which you clearly address the expectations and performance of the employee, and make an improvement plan together.

• Prepare

  A good consultation starts with good preparation.

  • Optional: involve one or more fellow manager(s) Agree on your involvement in the annual consultation and clearly convey this to the employee.
  • Read the input the employee prepared, for instance in a reflective report. You can find this in the annual consultation form in ‘Jaargesprek’ (self-service option for annual consultations), as soon as the employee has completed step 1 (employee input).
  • In the event that an employee is not performing at the desired level, then please discuss this as soon as possible and do not wait until the annual consultation to bring it up.
  • The training on annual consultations for new managers goes into the role of the annual consultation in your collaborative relationship and how you can create a safe atmosphere to have an open discussion.

  Form a view of the employee’s functioning and new agreements

  • Take the agreements made in a previous consultation as your point of departure. 
  • Always look at the context. What are you looking to achieve with your department, group or team and how does the employee contribute to this?
  • If necessary, gather information to supplement and support your views, for example on concrete projects. You can also ask feedback from a colleague who can indicate which qualities are valued in the employee and what they still need to develop. One way of doing this, as explained in the manual, is through the team overview in ‘Jaargesprek’ (self-service option for annual consultations). It’s preferable to make such a feedback request in consultation with the employee themselves. The page 360-degree feedback for employees contains ground rules, possible questions and tips.
  • Reflect on the employee’s functioning and development This means not only thinking about what someone does, but also about how they do it. In what ways is the employee effective, in what ways are they less effective and what does this mean for the period ahead?
  • Think about what someone needs in order to achieve the results you’re agreeing on. This is about duties, but also about the employee’s development. What can you, as their manager, do for them? And what can colleagues or the organisation as a whole do? Examples may include a training budget, flexibility in terms of working hours, new responsibilities, and more feedback or contact moments.
  • If the employee is an assistant, associate or full professor, you will use the annual consultation to make agreements on focusing on a core domain. On the Academic career paths page, you will find a further explanation and tools such as an annual consultation report for assistant professors/associate professors/full professors.

  Think about what you want to discuss

  • Together, the employee and you decide which topics you want to discuss during the annual consultation. For example, if you have similar views of the employee’s functioning, there is no need to talk about this in depth.
  • Think about what you definitely want to discuss with the employee. For example, how do they experience working together with colleagues or with you, and how are things in terms of work/energy balance, development, long-term employability and ancillary activities?
  • Are you struggling to address anything? Try not to avoid the topic but to reflect on the effect you want to achieve and how you can best go about this. One thing you can do is discuss the message you want to convey with another manager or HR advisor, while ensuring the employee’s privacy of course.

  Ensure a good start

  • Make a list of the topics each of you suggested. Consider the order and the distributions of the topics, given the time available. If you briefly discuss this at the start of the consultation, this will create a calmer atmosphere and prevent misunderstandings.
  • Share your discussion points with the employee in advance if you expect them to want to prepare for these.
  • Decide how you’ll start the consultation. Whether you do so in an appreciative, informal or more businesslike tone, it will have a decisive impact on the mood and the consultation itself.

• Conduct annual consultation

  In the annual consultation, you and the employee discuss their functioning and performance, and look ahead. This is an important moment to discuss topics that influence the employee’s work and development and make agreements.

  Guide and allow room

  • Be aware of the hierarchical relationship between you. It’s difficult for an employee to speak their mind, even if this relationship is a constructive one. This is why you should explicitly invite them to express their personal opinion in the consultation. Also ask for feedback: is there anything in your own behaviour that positively or negatively affects work? Give a constructive response to this, even if you don’t agree.
  • At the start, take some time to agree on (or confirm) the topics you’ll discuss and the time allocated to each of them. This way, you’ll avoid mismatched expectations or running out of time with something important left undiscussed.
  • Be open to the employee’s ideas and needs and explicitly ask them for these. This isn’t the same as saying ‘yes’ to anything. Ask follow-up questions, for example about the concrete solution envisioned by the employee. If they don’t have a clear-cut answer, ask them what they think is most important in coming up with a solution. This will allow you to find feasible alternatives.

  A conversation about performance

  You can only have a meaningful conversation about development and talent if you have the same view of the employee’s current functioning.

  • Discuss to what extent you have the same view of the performance level, based on the reflective report (amongst other things). If the two of you have different views, what is the cause of this and which adjustments could you make to resolve the situation? Are the expectations clear? For example, does the employee ask and receive enough feedback?
  • Discuss the agreements from the previous annual consultation. Have the goals been reached? If they haven’t, what’s the reason for this and what does that mean for future agreements?

  Development and career wishes

  Here, you also look back and ahead. How did the employee’s functioning develop? What’s needed to start/keep doing a good job, to take a next career step (if applicable) and/or to enjoy the work? Needless to say, what you discuss depends on the situation.

  • Development comes in many shapes and forms. Besides training courses, options include a temporary project, a job-shadowing placement, and transferring knowledge and experience.
  • Be sure to also look at talent and what’s going well. Focusing on what employees are good at tends to lead to better performance than working on weaker areas. How can the employee grow in this regard?
  • And which main duties best suit the employee? As a manager, one thing you can look into is whether a temporary or permanent redistribution of duties in your department or team is a better way of using talent.

  Some employees may aspire to climb the career ladder, but a career wish for others may consist of a shift of emphasis in their work or focus area, or of staying in the same position for the time being.

  • Discuss the possibilities with regard to the desired career step, and to what extent the employee is on course to get there. If you think a next step isn’t feasible and it’s time to adjust expectations, you should also say so. In this case, it’s sometimes good to bring up career options within or outside VU Amsterdam. Also discuss how you can support the employee in making the right choice in this regard.
  • Use criteria and frameworks such as the university job ranking system, faculty yardsticks, the Educational  Performance Framework, the Management framework or other agreements within your unit for conversations about career and personal development goals.
  • Some positions or career steps will be subject to an assessment opportunity, for example at the end of a tenure track or PhD. You can use the annual consultation to discuss if the criteria are clear and to find out if the employee is on the right track towards making a successful career step. 

  Make agreements

  After discussing a topic, make a concrete agreement about it: about duties, results, development and other areas. Include these in the report.

  • Decide how to word the agreement. Wording something in a SMART way can help if a specific result is required. Sometimes it might be better to word an agreement a bit more abstractly, for example if the circumstances are changing quickly or if you’re setting the bar higher for an ambitious employee.

  Make sure to discuss:

  • The desired outcome, for example a specific result or observable behaviour;
  • What kind of support is available, for example from a manager or colleagues;
  • How you both monitor progress and how often.

  Difficult messages

  A good preparation prevents surprises, but we still find certain messages difficult to deliver. For example, the employee has made a claim or asked a question you don’t agree with. Or you receive a request or proposal you can’t go along with. Or maybe you have to give an unwelcome assignment.

  • Be clear, transparent and empathetic at the same time. If you tone down the message or don’t deliver it at all, this will damage your working relationship.
  • Ask what the employee needs in order to accept the decision. There may be something you can do in this regard. This way, you’re concentrating on what can be done.
  • If you don’t manage to make concrete agreements in the consultation, agree on how and when to do so.

• Make a report and register agreements

  It is important for you and the employee to record a summary of what you’ve discussed and agreed.

  • Typically the consultation report is drafted by the manager, outlining functioning, agreements made and any other topics discussed. You can enter this information into the fields of the annual consultation form or into an attachment.
  • In step 3 (annual consultation), the employee can view the information you entered. If the employee has any questions or comments about the report, these should be discussed. As a manager, you can still make changes to the text or attachments at this stage.
  • Both the employee and the manager can also provide an additional written response in step 3 (annual consultation).
  • Finalise the registration after filling in the date of the annual consultation. Once it’s finalised, you can no longer edit the annual consultation form.

  All of the information in the annual consultation form in Jaargesprek’ (self-service option for annual consultations) – both the text in the fields and the attached documents – constitutes the report of the annual consultation, which is saved. The retention period is five calendar years after creation. The employee, manager, relevant HR Advisor and senior manager can access annual consultation forms.

• Achieve

  The employee starts working on the agreements made. As a manager, you may also need to take action based on the agreements made.

  • If either of you notices something has changed with regard to the work or to professional or private circumstances that affects the implementation of the agreements, discuss the ramifications of this with the employee.
  • You can record any revised agreements in the interim by email and use them in preparation for your next annual consultation.

• Frequently asked questions

  Below, you will find the answers to frequently asked questions. Detailed information on registering the annual consultation can be found in the manual.

  How can I add an attachment to the annual consultation form?

  In the top right corner of the annual consultation form, you see a little paperclip above the word ‘Ondersteunend’ (Supporting). Click on this to add an attachment. Both employees and managers can upload an attachment.

  What do I do if an employee is not meeting expectations?

  In the event that an employee is not performing at the desired level, then please discuss this as soon as possible and do not wait until the annual consultation to bring it up. If you haven’t talked about the level of functioning yet, then it is too early to ask the employee to reflect and the employee might have the wrong expectations of the annual consultation.

  • Plan a meeting first, in which you focus on discussing the subpar functioning. Clearly address the expectations and performance of the employee. Make an improvement plan together.
  • If these actions do not result in the desired improvement, start an improvement programme.

  When do I start an improvement programme for an employee?

  An improvement programme is intended for a situation in which an employee with an employment contract for an indefinite period is not performing properly and the previous discussions held about this have not led to the desired result. Such a procedure is not intended for the situation in which an employee with a fixed-term employment contract isn’t performing properly, unless the poor performance is of such a nature that, if there is no improvement, it could lead to interim termination. In a situation where an employee with a fixed-term employment contract within the meaning of Article 2.3, paragraph 1 of the collective labour agreement proves to be unsuitable for the position, it suffices to discuss this unsuitability with the person concerned in a timely manner and – preferably – confirm it in writing. 

  How do I start an improvement programme for an employee?

  Contact the relevant HR advisor about the situation, in case you haven’t done so already. An improvement programme must be registered using the improvement plan. This covers all of the aspects that are important in this programme.

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