Hacking PDR

By Dr Kay Guccione, Head of Research Culture and Researcher Development

As part of our approach to supporting both Career Development for researchers, and good practice in Research Recognition, we have been looking ahead to how we can support researchers, and their managers, to hack the ‘PDR’ cycle, which opens later in the year. We have lots of ideas and through the latter part of this blog article, I have embedded links to other pieces of writing by the Research Culture and Researcher Development Team, so that readers can follow up any ideas that interest them. You don’t need to read them all to get the gist, but each provides practical tools for you, in case something takes your fancy, and you want to give it a go.

At Glasgow PDR stands for ‘Performance and Development Review’ and the Guiding Principles for the annual review offered by our People and Organisational Development Directorate suggest that this should indeed be thought of as a balanced process of reviewing performance (“allowing contribution to be documented and reviewed”) and development (“to support staff in maximising their career and professional development”):

Aspirations vs Reality?

The document goes on to note that the PDR meeting is a “face-to-face, two-way discussion between a staff member and their reviewer”, and offers a number of conversational pointers for what to cover in that discussion including “progress, feedback, areas of excellence, areas for improvement, forward objective setting, and past and future personal development”. I would imagine that many universities have a similar generic overview document, setting out the ideal meeting for every colleague. In practice, though, the value of the PDR meeting, the experience of the person being reviewed, and the usefulness of any ensuing work and development plan, will come down to the individual reviewer’s people skills, how they prioritise time, and their appetite for doing PDR well… or at all.

The value of a career planning session

Let’s be direct, if your reviewer does not care to do PDR well, or doesn’t make sufficient time to do it well, the PDR meeting isn’t going to add an awful lot to your working life. But that doesn’t mean that working through the PDR process won’t bring you tangible benefits. Sitting down to consider your progress and achievements, the value you have added to your project and your workplace and mapping out your next steps towards your dream job, is of notable benefit to you.

Whilst PDR offers a scheduled opportunity to reflect on ‘what next’ do remember that you don’t have to be invited to sit down and think about where you are heading, what you value, and what you need to support that transition. This can be done any time, more than once a year, as a solo activity, with your colleagues, or with a mentor, a career coach, or a friend or supportive family member. A good career conversation is a restorative tonic. A firm plan brings a sense of control and purpose. Sometime we all have to be our own careers advisor.

I also recommend you write it all down. Firstly, because seeing the extent of your contribution all laid out helps to cement how brilliant you are in your own mind and build your confidence in what you have to offer. Secondly because a completed, submitted PDR document acts as an official record that you are meeting the requirements of your role and making a valuable contribution – should you ever need to evidence that. And thirdly because you then have a bunch of text about how great you are to use in your next job application, or promotion application.

PDR as a site for trust building

Reviewing a PDR well takes work. It can be quite easily enhanced by using some tried and tested conversational techniques, but in addition to this it requires self-understanding and self-awareness from both reviewee and reviewer. More, getting the balance of the performance and development discussion right in the allocated time, needs close attention and pre-planning. Plus, PDR can be an emotive space. There are likely to be hidden hopes, expectations, and frustrations that surface when we pause to reflect on what we have achieved, and what we have been stymied by, or lost out on over the past year. PDR is inherently power imbalanced, and as such puts even the most confident, and high performing reviewee in a position of vulnerability.

This is interesting, because “The willingness for somebody to take a risk, to allow themselves to feel vulnerable, believing the other person has an attitude of goodwill towards them.” is how Veronica Hope-Hailey describes interpersonal trust, in her 2012 report ‘Where has all the Trust gone?’. It’s important to consider then, that the PDR is a prime site of trust building or breaking between reviewers and their teams. Done well, you can emerge with a strengthened and more cohesive partnership; done without thought for the reviewee’s experience, there is a risk we can create lasting tension between us.

Hacking PDR

In addition to eroding trust, a poor experience can demotivate your team, leave them wanting for ownership of the plan, or overwhelm or panic them, all of which lead to reduced performance. Below I offer some ideas for how to hack PDR to mitigate some of the pressure and intensity, to reduce the stakes and avoid any trust-breaking moves, and leave reviewees in no doubt that you are a supportive boss.

Make the timing work for you: I have a personal rule that no-one should find out new information at their PDR. It’s not the place for surprises, negative or positive. A habit of regular catch ups on how they are doing, timely feedback, and revisiting the plan throughout the year not only avoids shocks but keeps things moving forward. If you have a reviewee on a fixed term contract, little and often is also more helpful for sustained progress and development within a tight timeframe. It also builds up the self-knowledge and awareness that is so critical to finding career fit. Notes on progress, impact and career successes that are built up over the year also mean that it’s not a big chore to complete the paperwork as the deadline comes around.

Documenting a wide range of contributions: Think about using the Narrative CV format to map PDR documentation. A Narrative CV is simply a form of CV that uses a narrative (storytelling) style to explain the ‘why’ ‘who’ and ‘how’ behind the ‘what’. They are one part of the movement to improve research culture and reform research assessment. Put simply, think of the Narrative CV as a format that is more ‘open minded’ and so more inclusive to all the different kinds of contributions we have made, project, personal, societal, collegial. Here’s a full introduction to how and why to use Narrative CVs. Then you also get a 2-for-1, your PDR text can be used for your Narrative CV.

Use your PDR conversation, as a conversation: resist the temptation to use it for a quick review and sign off on the paperwork. You can use this discussion as an opportunity to help reviewees feel heard, and to make sense of things, working through different ideas for the future. As an opener try “How do you want to use the time together?”  or “What are you hoping this conversation will bring?” Sit back and hear what you are being told, focusin on the reviewee’s experiences and ideas, not on your own. If you are interested in borrowing form the coaching discipline, there is a long list of career and performance coaching questions embedded in this article I wrote in 2022.

Feedback that doesn’t sting: Giving feedback that acknowledges areas for improvement, and that doesn’t cause the receiver to feel ashamed, shut down, clam up, be upset, get defensive or start an argument, is difficult. Done well, feedback can open up thinking, promote self-evaluation and self-correction, and build up a reviewee’s confidence as well as competence. Here’s a 5min read I wrote for mentors to the UK’s Future Leaders Fellows, on how to do feedback well.

A development plan that leads to action not overload: If you have ever heard, “I don’t know what development activity to choose” (lack of critical thinking about the skills different roles require) or “I’ve done tons of training, and I still haven’t moved forward in my career” (lack of opportunities to put training into practice) or “I have so much to do and no time to do it in” (the need to prioritise opportunities, and negotiate time and permission to do them), you could benefit from a deeper conversation about how you will act in support of your reviewee’s development. As this recent fantastic post pointed out, the support of a line manager/PI/Supervisor holds special weight in building motivation to move forward and creating opportunities for the development plan to be realised.

I hope that some of these ideas will be useful to you in making this year’s PDR a trust-building, motivation-building, high performance building success.