The issue of how to carry out appraisals and personal reviews comes up as a common theme among worker co-ops. Reviews can help us to:
- ensure that our worker-members are adequately skilled, suitably trained and capable to perform their duties
- identify issues that are making life difficult for members so we can provide support or training
- identify opportunities and untapped skills/potential within our co-ops
- ensure that the day to day job role reflects what people want to do with their life or ties in with their career progression so we don’t lose members
- identify weaknesses and risks within the team
Personal reviews should be able to feed into or draw upon a “global view” of the whole co-operative, enabling it to assess whether or not it has sufficient skills, and spread of skills, among its worker-members to provide the goods or services that produce its income, and where risks to the business lie (such as reliance upon the skills of one member). Reviews can also reveal weaknesses and gaps such as the jobs that are being carried out that aren’t actually anyone’s responsibility but are crucial to success.
If you are interested in reading more, we have gathered some information on different approaches we have come across which can be viewed on this page. We also offer consultancy services to help your co-op design a process or get it right. Check out our Appraisals and Reviews service.