Q. What is Calibration?

A. Calibration is a process for ensuring that evaluations are awarded fairly and consistently within
and across Divisions in Departments. It involves managers meeting to discuss the performance of
their Jobholders with the aim of ensuring that similar standards are applied to all jobholders.

Q. How can the HR Unit and leadership in Departments ensure that calibration results in fairness
and consistency of evaluations across the organisation?

A. A number of actions can be taken:

 All calibration meetings must have a facilitator. This person has a key role in ensuring that
the meetings they facilitate are held in a professional way that lead to fair outcomes for staff
and managers.

 The HR Unit can gather managers’ provisional evaluations prior to the calibration meetings
taking place.

This approach should enable HR Units to have an overview of evaluations and to identify
areas in which the patterns are skewed towards the higher or lower categories and are out
of line with the trend across the organisation as a whole. Identifying these inconsistencies in
advance of the calibration meeting means they can be dealt with at the meeting.

 Alternatively, the HR Unit can gather the evaluations decided at the calibration meeting
after the discussions have taken place.

This approach will mean that evaluations have been discussed and agreed by the managers
present at the calibration meetings. If inconsistencies are identified, it may be too late in
practical terms to address them and the opportunity to achieve a fair and consistent
outcome of the final ratings will be lost for the evaluations for that year.

 A further option is to adopt a completely ‘hands-off’ approach and let each calibration
meeting decide the standards evaluations, each manager proceeding to End-Year Review
with the evaluations decided at the meeting.

This approach will not support a fair and consistent outcome to the process.
Q What is the role of the facilitator?

A. The facilitator’s role is to:

 set the context and approach to be taken in the meeting, for example, to ensure there is a
discussion on what excellent performance and poor performance look like
 to ensure that all managers get equal opportunity to speak
 to ensure that the participants follow the calibration process in a professional and objective
way
 to ensure that all staff being calibrated are given evaluations that are agreed by the group
 to ensure that these evaluations are recorded

Q. Who should facilitate the calibration meeting ?

A. It is recommended that HR facilitate the calibration meetings. The benefits for HR and the
organisation should be:

 knowledge and understanding of the calibration process so that HR understands how

calibration can work best in your own organisation
 ability to ensure fairness and consistency across different meetings in support of managers
and staff
 preparation for wider rollout of calibration to all of the organisation in subsequent years
 knowledge of poor performers and top talent in the organisation
 potential to train other facilitators in future years once HR has experienced facilitation of
calibration meetings first hand.

Q. Who facilitates calibration meetings if the HR Unit does not have the resources to do so?

A. If facilitation by HR during the pilot phase is not possible, other suitably-qualified staff members
from outside the HR area could undertake the facilitation as long as they have the skills and
expertise to undertake the role. HR should provide support and guidance to these staff and ensure
that there is fairness and consistency across calibration meetings.

Q. Our organisation is too small and we have no suitable facilitators. What do we do?

A. The HR Unit should consider if there is practical value in approaching other organisations of
similar size, structure or business activity to explore a joint calibration process.

Q. What happens if a calibration meeting has been facilitated by an Internal Reviewer and a
request for Internal Review is subsequently received?

A. This may arise where a facilitator is chosen from within a Division or Unit rather than HR. This can
be avoided if HR facilitate the meeting or suitably-qualified people from outside the Division.
However, if either of these options is not chosen and a request for an Internal Review is received
from a jobholder who has been calibrated at a meeting facilitated by the person who would
normally be the Internal Reviewer, another person must be chosen as the Internal Reviewer.

Q. Can the manager meet with the jobholder in advance of the calibration meeting?

A. Yes. As part of their preparation for the calibration meeting, it is recommended that the
manager have a preliminary meeting with the jobholder to discuss the self-assessment. The
purpose of this is that the manager has a clear understanding of the jobholder’s performance so that
s/he can participate fully in the calibration meeting. Where a performance review meeting is held
before the calibration meeting, no evaluation should be awarded until after the calibration
meeting i.e. the evaluation should be awarded at the End-Year Review meeting between the
jobholder and the manager.

Q. What should happen if a jobholder goes out on sick leave and has not returned in time to
submit their self-assessment to their prior to the calibration meeting?

A. HR Units should pay particular attention to giving good advance notice of the timing of End-Year
Reviews to minimise the numbers that might fall into this category.

However, if a jobholder has not submitted their self-assessment to their manager, the jobholder
should normally be calibrated at the meeting, based on the evidence of the manager’s assessment of
performance throughout the year.

Q. What should happen if a manager is absent when the calibration meeting takes place?

A. Again, the instances of this can be minimised by scheduling the calibration meeting well in
advance and advising managers that attendance is mandatory.

If there is a sudden unforeseen absence of a manager, a number of options can be considered:

i. the calibration meeting could be postponed

ii. the second supervisor - who should be familiar and have discussed the performance of
the jobholder with the manager and the jobholder - could attend

iii. the Head of Division could nominate the appropriate person to attend in place of the
manager.

Q. Can a manager change a jobholder’s evaluation after the calibration meeting?

A. No. The whole purpose of the calibration meeting is to promote fairness and consistency of
evaluations, and for calibration to work, all managers need to have confidence that the evaluations
agreed in the calibration meeting are adhered to by all present. Therefore it would not be
appropriate for a manager to change an evaluation to which they committed as a result of the
discussions at the calibration meeting.
Q. How can HR ensure that the evaluations agreed at the calibration meeting are adhered to?

A. HR should consider gathering the provisional evaluations of managers in advance of the

calibration process. Following the calibration meeting, the facilitator should forward the evaluations
agreed at the meeting to the HR Unit. This approach will enable HR Units to compare the pre- and
post- calibration evaluations to identify where any differences arise.

Q. What information will be subject to FOI?

A. If a jobholder makes an FOI request, only those records which relate to their own evaluation of
performance should be released.

Q, Is there a minimum number of managers required to attend a calibration meeting?

A. No. The number of managers attending should be decided by each Department, based on the
size and structure of its business units, as the most effective way to conduct the calibration process.

Q. Where can I get more information about calibration?

A. Further information is contained in the following documents:

Performance Management and Development System 2013 – Phase 2 Changes:

 Overview of Revised System November 2012

 Protocol on Calibration of Evaluations of Performance November 2013
 Manager’s Guide to Calibration of Evaluations of Performance November 2013