The Final Countdown

So its my final week! Had to smile this morning, started my Monday as the rest of the placement has gone – amending my plans! We’d planned a staff training session on my updated Employee Appraisal Form/Process for Tuesday afternoon but Davis’ schedule has changed so first thing this morning he asked if we could do it this afternoon – I shouldn’t have expected anything different! Apart from missing my English Breakfast Tea and Biscuits (even I know I need treats to keep staff interested), I had everything ready so rolling with it I agreed. Being prepared and flexible is one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned here!

Apollo popped in for an end of placement meeting with me and Davis. A, general chat about how things have gone, any issues / challenges, what could be improved and if there are opportunities for future placements here. All pretty constructive I’m pleased to report, so I feel there has been benefit to both sides, not just my own development. I’d hate to leave knowing I hadn’t achieved what had been agreed, or that the work hadn’t quite been what was useful to the teams here.

This afternoon an all staff lunch was arranged that lead in to my training session on Employee Performance Management! (I was warned I’d end up doing something unexpected on this placement!) 20 staff turned up and we discussed why we need individual performance management and the personal qualities needed to ensure objective and consistent performance assessment. I then took them through my updates to their previous process before assessing a series of examples in groups and sharing together at the end. Feedback was positive and the groups were engaged in the discussion and exercises, fingers crossed it’ll be put to good use after I’ve left!

Everyone here has been so welcoming and patient with me as I’ve found my way around and got to grips with life here. I’m not looking forward to saying goodbye, its even harder when they say they are used to ‘us’ leaving them.