STAFF APPRAISAL EXERCISE ⁽¹⁾

Reporting period 1 January to 31 December 2004

The appraisal exercise covering the 2004 calendar year is the third one under the new system introduced in April 2002.

On 23^rd December 2004 the Commission adopted new general provisions for implementing Article 43 of the Staff Regulations. This Administrative Notice sets out in particular the changes introduced by these new provisions, most of which result from the entry into force of the new Staff Regulations. The Notice also discusses the various stages of the appraisal procedure.

• GENERAL PRINCIPLES
• MAIN DIFFERENCES FROM THE PREVIOUS APPRAISAL EXERCISE
• SUCCESSIVE STAGES OF THE APPRAISAL EXERCISE
• FURTHER INFORMATION
• LIST OF FUNCTIONS FOR ATTESTATION AND CERTIFICATION PURPOSES
• STATISTICS ON THE 2004 APPRAISAL EXERCISE AND PROMOTIONS ROUND

1. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
   
   The appraisal exercise will be based on the career development report (CDR). You can see the layout of the report form at http://www.cc.cec/pers_admin/promotions/cdr/forms/forms_en.html
   Career development reports are drawn up using the Sysper2 computer application. Each jobholder receives merit points in the range 0 to 20.
    
   • What are the implementing rules?
     
     The annual reports for 2004 and the interim reports that have to be drawn up in 2005 are governed by the general provisions implementing Article 43 of the Staff Regulations adopted by the Commission on 23rd December 2004
     
     http://www.cc.cec/pers_admin/promotions/cdr/ex_2005_en.html#10.
     
     Specific provisions are laid down for staff in the Commission’s external service, staff paid from the research part of the general budget and staff on secondment as staff representatives.
      
   • What period does the new appraisal exercise cover?
     
     The reference period runs from 1 January to 31 December 2004.
      
   • Who has to be appraised?
      
     • All officials and members of the temporary staff who were in active service or on secondment in the interests of the service for a continuous period of at least one month in 2004 have to be appraised.
        
     • Exceptions:
       • A report does not have to be drafted for jobholders⁽²⁾ who left the Community institutions in 2004 or who are going to leave in 2005, unless they expressly request one.
       • Officials or temporary staff occupying a position as a Director-General or equivalent, or Director or equivalent, are assessed under different arrangements and are thus not covered by this annual exercise.
          
   • What does the appraisal relate to?
     
     It covers three things:
      
     • Efficiency is marked out of 10: as individual objectives matched against appraisal criteria have been set for all jobholders, your performance will be assessed according to how far you have achieved your objectives in your work.
        
     • Abilities (‘competencies’) are marked out of six. Commission-wide standards (http://www.cc.cec/pers_admin/promotions/cdr/ex_2005_en.html#13) have been established by DG ADMIN, with the help of the joint monitoring committee for staff appraisal and promotion. The standards can be applied in full or in part and can be supplemented by standards developed by each individual Directorate-General. They can be used from the 2004 appraisal exercise or from the one following; the Director General and senior management have to decide, before launching the exercise, whether to apply the common standards. In the case of those in management roles, leadership, staff management and financial resources management are particular abilities that must also be appraised.
        
     • Conduct in the service, which covers aspects such as working with others, motivation and service culture, is marked out of four. Here too Commission-wide standards have been drawn up. They can be applied in full or in part and supplemented by standards developed by a Directorate-General, in accordance with the conditions set out above.
       http://www.cc.cec/pers_admin/promotions/cdr/ex_2005_en.html#13

   If objectives could not be set for 2004 for all the tasks you perform, your performance will be evaluated by reference to factors of which you are aware, such as your job description or existing planning. Furthermore, if the list of specific abilities and other requirements for the job could not be drawn up, appraisal of your abilities and conduct will be based mainly on the common standards for ability and conduct drawn up by DG ADMIN or the standards developed by the Directorate-General itself.
   http://www.cc.cec/pers_admin/promotions/cdr/ex_2005_en.html#13
   
   Please note that the individual merit of officials who were promoted in 2004 is appraised against the merit of those in the grade to which they were promoted. This can produce a situation where a performance level identical to that recorded in 2003 can result in a different assessment of merit in the higher grade.
    

2. MAIN DIFFERENCES FROM THE PREVIOUS APPRAISAL EXERCISE
   
   The main changes introduced by the general provisions for implementing Article 43 of the Staff Regulations, adopted by the Commission on 23rd December 2004, are:
    
   • In accordance with Article 15(2) of the Conditions of Employment of other Servants, the provisions of Article 43 of the Staff Regulations concerning staff reports apply by analogy to all temporary staff. The general provisions for implementing Article 43 henceforth cover not only 2(a), 2(c) and 2(d) temporary staff but also 2(b) temporary staff⁽³⁾ .
      
   • If a jobholder is transferred to another institution, an interim report must always be prepared, regardless of the period it covers.
      
     • An annual report covers a period necessarily ending on 31 December. An annual report must be drawn up for all jobholders, even if part of 2004 has already been the subject of one or more interim reports. There is one exception, however: an annual report does not have to be prepared if the jobholder was not in service or was seconded in the interests of the service between the end of the period covered by the most recent interim report and the end of 2004.
        
   • If you are unable to use Sysper2, you must lodge an internal appeal in writing with the human resources manager in your Directorate-General within 20 working days of being informed of the Decision in your case. You can ask in your appeal for the appraisal procedure to be suspended and you must justify the request.
      
   • The Career Development Report Form – which is annexed to the general implementing provisions adopted by the Commission - has been amended: two new sections have been added under “Potential”, for the purposes of the certification and attestation procedures. The attestation procedure is intended to offer certain C* and D* officials in service before 1 May 2004 the chance to be promoted beyond grades AST7 and AST5 respectively. The purpose of the certification procedure is to allow certain AST function group officials to be appointed AD function group officials. The sections added to the CDR are only to be filled in if you, the jobholder, explicitly ask for them to be in your self-assessment. If you do so ask, the reporting officer must say whether the C* or D* official has the potential to take on B* category duties or whether the B* official has the potential to take on A* category duties. The officer must also specify the occasions when the official showed this potential. To this end, a list of A* and B* category duties has been distributed with a view to offering reporting officers guidance and to standardising the approach (see annex).
     LIST OF FUNCTIONS FOR ATTESTATION AND CERTIFICATION PURPOSES

   A number of changes have also been made to Sysper2:
    

   • As mentioned above, by clicking on a box in the self-assessment part, the jobholder must indicate whether he or she wants the reporting officer to complete the new sections on attestation and certification.
      
   • A drop-down menu listing all the joint evaluation committees has been installed to collate in a standard fashion information on membership of or chairing a committee. You must indicate the number of days you spent on additional duties carried out in the interests of the institution, the list of which is given in Annex I to the general provisions for implementing Article 45 of the Staff Regulations. http://www.cc.cec/pers_admin/promotions/promotions2_en.html . To this end the promotion committees that met in 2004 agreed that points in the interests of the institution could be awarded to an official only where the time spent on the committee in question (including the time spent on preparing meetings) amounted to 1.5 days or more. Please note that jobholders who undertook additional duties in the interests of the institution in 2004 cannot ask for their previous report to be carried over because the information relating to those duties would not be considered in any carry-over. DG ADMIN will cross-check the information in each CDR against the information sought from EPSO in the case of competition selection boards, and from each JEC chair in the case of committee membership.
      
3. SUCCESSIVE STAGES OF THE APPRAISAL EXERCISE
   
   In most DGs the appraisal exercise for 2004 will begin in early January. The annual CDRs must be finalised by the end of April at the latest, including those for which appeals have been lodged with the Joint Evaluation Committee. There are special deadlines and procedures for staff in the external service. A separate Notice will be issued for them.
    
   • Who acts as reporting officer, countersigning officer and appeal assessor?
     
     As a rule the reporting officer is your head of unit, the countersigning officer the Director, and the appeal assessor the Director-General.
     
     The reporting officer will be the person who was your head of unit on 31 December 2004. The duties of countersigning officer and appeal assessor are performed by the Director and Director General at the time they are called upon to play a role in the procedure.
      
   • What are the stages in the appraisal procedure?
     
     As in the previous exercise, the appraisal procedure will be managed by the Sysper2 computer application. If you are unable to access Sysper2, you may use other forms of written communication.
     
     The stages of the appraisal procedure are as follows:
      
     • Statistics relating to previous appraisal exercises and promotion rounds
       
       The statistics for the 2004 appraisal exercise and promotions round are attached to this Administrative Note: they show the distribution of merit marks by grade for officials and temporary staff, and the distribution of DG priority points for each Directorate-General and grade eligible for promotion.
       
       Staff should note the following:
        
       • The cohort taken into account for the statistics on merit marks is the staff assigned to the Directorate-General in question on 31 December 2003.
          
       • The cohort taken into account for the statistics on priority points is the staff assigned to the Directorate-General in question at the end of the promotion committees' work, in grades qualifying for priority points.
          
       • In the interests of confidentiality the statistics are not published if there are fewer than three staff in a given grade or where the distribution of merit marks makes it possible to identify the merit mark obtained by individual members of staff. For example, if all the staff in a given grade in a Directorate-General have been awarded the same merit mark, each person in that grade is thus in a position to know what the others got. The same is true if an individual is awarded X while all the others are awarded Y. The person with X can work out the merit mark awarded to the others.
          
     • Expected merit mark average per grade
       
       In the light of earlier appraisal exercises, the expected merit mark average for each Directorate General is fixed at 14.25 for 2004.
       
       This expected average should not be seen as an instruction or a factor diminishing in any way the reporting officer’s independence and discretion when appraising a jobholder against the applicable standards.
        
     • Definition of appraisal standards
       
       As mentioned above, DG ADMIN, with the help of the joint monitoring committee for staff appraisal and promotion, has established service-wide common standards for appraising ability and conduct. You can consult them here:
       http://www.cc.cec/pers_admin/promotions/cdr/ex_2005_en.html#13
       
       These standards can be applied in full or in part and can be supplemented by standards developed by each individual Directorate-General. They can be used from the 2004 appraisal exercise or from the one following; the Director-General and senior management have to decide, before launching the exercise, whether to apply them or not. The staff is then informed of them. Their purpose is to standardise appraisal within an individual Directorate-General.
        
     • The self-assessment
       
       When asked to do so by your reporting officer, you have to write your self-assessment within eight working days. Your are strongly recommended to refer to the appraisal standards at this crucial stage.
        
     • The formal dialogue
       
       Not more than ten days after you communicate your self-assessment, the reporting officer will hold a dialogue with you to discuss your performance in 2004, set objectives and agree your training map for 2005 and possibly later.
       
       The self-assessment and the appraisal standards set for the Directorate-General must be systematically discussed during the dialogue.
       
       The reporting officer must indicate the merit mark you are to be awarded, to within one point.
       
       The objectives that are set for 2005 must reflect your working conditions (taking factors such as part-time, secondment, etc. into account) and must be consistent with the work programme of your Directorate-General and unit.
       
       The reporting officer will then draft your report.
        
     • The two concertation phases
       
       As mentioned above, once at least two thirds of the CDRs have been drafted for a given grade in a Directorate, the countersigning officer has to meet the reporting officers to compare and harmonise the merit marks proposed.
       
       The Director-General also meets the countersigning officers to perform a similar check at Directorate-General level.
        
     • The career development review is drawn up
       
       After these concertations, the reporting officer and the countersigning officer finalise the CDR. You are then informed of it. You then have five working days to accept the report without comment, to accept it with the addition of comments or to reject it, giving your reasons for doing so.
        
     • Appeal channels
       
       If you refuse to accept your report, the countersigning officer must hold a second dialogue with you, within ten working days. You may be accompanied at the dialogue by another official. The jobholder, the reporting officer or the countersigning officer may also request that the reporting officer be present at the second dialogue. After this dialogue the countersigning officer confirms the report or amends it within five working days. You will be notified of the report and will have ten working days in which to indicate whether you accept it. If you do not accept it you are required to give your reasons.
       
       Refusal to accept your report at this stage automatically means that it will be referred to the Joint Evaluation Committee. There is a Joint Evaluation Committee (JEC) for each Directorate-General⁽⁴⁾ . The committee considers appeals within ten working days. It does not replace either the reporting officer or the countersigning officer but checks that the procedure has been complied with and that the report has been drawn up in accordance with the appraisal standards laid down for the Directorate-General concerned.
       
       The JEC's opinion will be notified to the jobholder, the reporting officer, the countersigning officer and the appeal assessor. If it was voted on, the notification will state how many votes there were for and against. Within five days the appeal assessor has to confirm or amend the report. The appeal assessor must give reasons for a decision that departs from the recommendations contained in the JEC's opinion.
       
       The report is then closed and the jobholder notified. If at this stage of the procedure you still do not accept the report, you can make a complaint to the appointing authority under Article 90 of the Staff Regulations.
        
     • Special provisions for jobholders of the same grade as their reporting officers
       
       Where the unit head shares the same grade as the jobholder, the countersigning officer will take part in the dialogue if the jobholder, reporting officer or countersigning officer so requests. The countersigning officer must indicate his/her remarks in the appropriate place on the report. The Joint Evaluation Committee pays particular attention to appeals lodged by jobholders of the same grade as their reporting officer. If, following such an appeal, the Joint Evaluation Committee fails to issue an opinion or to issue a unanimous opinion, the appeal assessor must hold a dialogue with the jobholder before confirming or amending the report.
        
4. FURTHER INFORMATION
   
   Further information can be found at:
   
   http://www.cc.cec/pers_admin/promotions/cdr/index_en.html
   
    

____________________
FOOTNOTES

⁽¹⁾ Other than officials or temporary staff occupying the positions of Director-General or equivalent, or Director or equivalent.

⁽²⁾ The term ‘jobholder’ covers both officials and temporary members of staff.

⁽³⁾ Article 2(b) of the Conditions of Employment of Other Servants: “staff engaged to fill temporarily a permanent post included in the list of posts appended to the section of the budget relating to each institution.”

⁽⁴⁾ The new general rules for implementing Article 43 allow for a Joint Evaluation Committee common to a number of Directorates-General to be set up, subject to certain conditions.