written by Fay-Marie Browne, Director (ag), Learning and Development Directorate

The PRDS Cycle re-commenced at the start of the financial year-April 1^st 2020. The cycle is broken down into four (4) distinct stages, with very specific activities happening at each stage:

Stage 1- Planning- March/April:

The supervisor and the employee meet to:

• review the MDA’s strategic plan, the department/ unit’s operational plan and the employee’s job description;
• discuss and agree on the objectives for the appraisal period;
• develop the officer’s individual work-plan;
• develop the objectives and performance measures in the individual’s work plan

Stage 2- 1^st Progress meeting- July/August

• the supervisor and the employee agree on a date for the progress meeting;
• supervisor and employee discuss and assess the employee’s progress in relation to agreed targets;
• feedback is provided on actual performance;
• areas for development are discussed;
• strategies to deal with problems encountered in meeting the objectives, are discussed;
• objectives can be adjusted if necessary and agreed by both;

Stage 3-     2^nd progress meeting- November/December

The 2^nd progress meeting follows the same process as at stage 2 i.e. the 1^st progress meeting.

Stage 4 –    Final Assessment/Appraisal – March of the following year

• an assessment is done of the officer’s progress since the last meeting;
• during the meeting each objective and how well it has been achieved is discussed along with comments made on the workplan form;
• a total rating is then agreed for achievement of objectives in line with the objectives rating scale at the bottom of the workplan form.

If you haven’t started your PRDS process, the time to do so is TODAY! Get PRDS-ready!