Objectives of performance appraisal

Employees would like to know from a performance appraisal system:

 concrete and tangible particulars about their work; and assessment of their performance.

This would include how they:

 did; could do better in future; could obtain a larger share of rewards; and could achieve their life goals through their position.

Therefore an employee would desire that the appraisal system should aim at:

 their personal development;

 their work satisfaction; and

 their involvement in the organization.

From the point of view of the organization, performance appraisal serves the purpose of:

 providing information about human resources and their development;

 measuring the efficiency with which human resources are being used and improved;

 providing compensation packages to employees; and

 maintaining organizational control.

Performance appraisal should also aim at the mutual goals of the employees and

the organization. This is essential because employees can develop only when the

organization's interests are fulfilled. The organization's main resources are its employees,

and their interest cannot be neglected. Mutual goals simultaneously provide for growth

and development of the organization as well as of the human resources. They increase

harmony and enhance effectiveness of human resources in the organization.

Support staff should not be taken out of the classroom to undertake administrative

duties. The changes are intended to raise standards as well as reduce teachers' workload

and withdrawing support for pupils from the classroom could have the opposite effect.

Support Staff Responsibilities

Support staff in schools carry out a very wide range of tasks and responsibilities on a daily basis as included to the PASSAG form they are rated once a year. These include:

administrative and financial tasks;

providing direct back-up support for principals and other leadership staff;

being a ‘welcoming face’ for all parents and visitors to the school;

helping prepare school newsletters and notices and maintaining the school website;

ensuring provision of resources for use in the classroom;

developing and maintaining assessment and attendance databases and IT systems and procedures;

ensuring that the school facilities are in good order.

Support staff also:

handle a great variety of student enquiries and requests;

provide support and back-up for students and teachers both in the classroom and in the school as a whole;

maintain well-functioning library and information retrieval systems; 

ensure that science laboratories and other practicum learning areas within the school are safe and appropriately set-up and resourced for each teaching–learning situation.

As well, support staff:

care for students when they are unwell;

administer first aid;

reinforce a school’s policies and procedures for behaviour;

follow-up on students who are absent from school;

provide a link between students, parents and teaching staff;

encourage and support students in extra-curricular achievements through sports and other activities;

provide careers advice and guidance, including arranging for students to have real-life work experience take responsibility for specialised projects, according to particular needs or priorities nominated by the school.

Other Roles and Responsibilities of Support Staff.

Support staff refers to employees allocated to work in schools to assist

administrators, teachers and school counsellors to address special educational

needs within the school.

Support staff may be assigned to schools where students with special educational

needs have Individual Education Plans that demonstrate an assessed need for assistance,

beyond what can be otherwise provided by teachers and other school personnel.

Support staff must work under the supervision of school principals and the

direction of certified teachers.

Support staff must be versatile, well-trained and multi-skilled in order to

competently fulfill the requirements of their respective roles.

Support staff must continue to build capacity in knowledge and skills as it relates

to current and potential assignments.

A list of common school support staff members.

1. Administrative Assistant – An administrative assistant is one of the most

important positions in the entire school. A school administrative assistant often knows the

day-to-day operations of a school as well as anyone. They are also the person who

communicates most often with parents. Their job includes answering phones, mailing

letters, organizing files, and a host of other duties. A good administrative assistant

screens for the school administrator and makes their job as a whole a lot easier.

2. Encumbrance Clerk – The encumbrance clerk has one of the most difficult jobs in

the entire school. The encumbrance clerk is not only in charge of school payroll and

billing, but a host of other financial responsibilities. The encumbrance clerk has to be

able to account for every cent a school has spent and received. An encumbrance clerk

must be organized and must stay current with all laws dealing with school finance.

3. School Nutritionist– A school nutritionist is responsible for creating a menu that

meets state nutrition standards for all meals served at school. They are also responsible

for ordering the food that will be served. They also collect and keep up with all monies

taken in and spent by the nutrition program. A school nutritionist is also responsible for

keeping track of who is eating and for which students qualifies for free/reduced lunches.

4. Teacher‘s Aide – A teacher’s aide assist a classroom teacher in a variety of areas

that can include making copies, grading papers, working with small groups of students,

contacting parents, and a variety of other tasks.

5. Paraprofessional – A paraprofessional is a trained individual who assists a special

education teacher with their day-to-day operations. A paraprofessional may be assigned

to one particular student or may help with a class a whole. A paraprofessional works in

support of the teacher and does not provide direct instruction themselves.

6. Nurse – A school nurse provides general first aid for students in the school. The

nurse may also administer medication to students who need it or are required medication.

A school nurse keeps pertinent records on when they see students, what they saw, and

how they treated it. A school nurse may also teach students about health and health

related issues.

7. Cook – A cook is responsible for the preparation and serving of food to the entire

school. A cook is also responsible for the process of cleaning up the kitchen and the

cafeteria.

8. Custodian – A custodian is responsible for the day-to-day cleaning of the school

building as a whole. Their duties include vacuuming, sweeping, mopping, cleaning

bathrooms, emptying trash, etc. They may also assist in other areas such as mowing,

moving heavy items, etc

9. Computer Technician – A computer technician is responsible for assisting school

personnel with any computer issue or question that may arise. Those may include issues

with email, internet, viruses, etc. A computer technician should provide service and

maintenance to all school computers to keep them running so that they may be used as

needed. They are also responsible for server maintenance and the installation of filter

programs and features.

10. Bus Driver – A bus driver provides safe transportation for students to and from

school.

I. Occupational Competence

Are support staffs expected to meet all the standards?

The Occupational Standards describe the skills and knowledge that learning support staff needs to do their jobs effectively. Individual members or support staffs are expected to meet those related to their role.

What about standards for school support staffs that are not supporting teaching and learning?

To ensure comprehensive support for schools, the Administrative group also works closely with those sector bodies responsible for occupational standards for support staff not solely involved in teaching and learning – such as technicians, catering staff, premises staff and administrative staff.

1. Manual/Operation Tasks

1.1 Performance of duties/tasks with the use of instrument/tool/equipment/vehicle

2. Preparation Tasks

Materials management can deal with school planning and building design for

the movement of materials, or with logistics that deal with the tangible components of

a supply chain. Specifically, this covers the acquisition of spare parts and

replacements, quality control of purchasing and ordering such parts, and the standards

involved in ordering, shipping, and warehousing the said parts.

Materials management plans and designs for the delivery, distribution, storage,

collection, and removal of occupant-generated streams of materials and services. It is

usually an additional service that is offered as part of a schools planning process or a

building design project. It is most beneficial for university, health care, and corporate

environments. Materials management looks at the planning and design considerations

needed to support the efficient delivery and removal of goods and services that support

students/pupils activity. The streams of school-generated materials and activity include

mail, office supplies, lab supplies, special deliveries, custodial services, building supplies,

waste and recycling, and service calls.

A variety preparation in office tasks are available during the weekdays and can be

scheduled per your convenience. This much appreciated preparation opportunity might

involve filing, recording, checking, organizing, taking inventory of school supplies

labelling, cleaning and checking areas/equipment/vehicle before and after use.

3. Organization Tasks

Under the workload agreement, teachers should not routinely be required to

undertake tasks of a clerical or administrative nature "which do not call for the exercise

of a teacher's professional skills and judgement". Such tasks should be undertaken by

support staff, so teachers can focus on teaching.

Classifying and cataloguing is merely important. It includes coding, assorting and organizing documents, materials or any information (books, serials, audiovisual materials, computer files, maps, manuscripts, realia) according to their subject. Through classification systems materials are group together, arranged in ordered in multiple ways for an easy finding the records or materials when needed.

4. Records ManagementPeople are an important part of your agency's records management systems.

If your agency has any highly-structured work processes, it may be possible to

automate some records management tasks such as:

creation and capture

metadata allocation

access management

disposal.

The likelihood of information being captured and the quality of the information

collected and retained are liable to increase if the tasks are easy to do or are automated.

Where a process cannot be automated, such as for many policy or analytical tasks, staff

need to:

make decisions about what records to create

capture these records into a records management system.

Try to integrate records management into existing work processes to ensure ease of

use of systems for staff. You could include procedures on when to make or capture a

record as part of the guidelines for specific work areas.

Make sure your staff know their responsibilities

Staff needs to know what records management tasks have to be done as part of their

work.

This includes quality control – making sure that records management is done well

enough to mitigate the risks of the activity.

You may assign specific roles and responsibilities in information and record management

processes to:

a staff position

a work group or section

all staff across your agency.

You must ensure that responsibilities are clearly documented in policies, procedures and

guidelines to ensure accountability.

Tips for supporting all staff

Inform and train your staff in their records responsibilities – include training in

induction sessions.

Present regular training sessions in the records requirements of government, your

agency and each section.

Make sure staff have access to clear and easy-to-follow procedures.

Make systems for capturing records easy to use – both for storing and retrieving

information.

Develop specific policies and procedures for any problem areas such as email.

Make records and information management responsibilities part of performance

management agreements.

Reward good records management.

Train your staff

To fulfil their records management responsibilities, ensure your staff understand: what a record is when a record should be created what the record needs to document

how and where the record should be captured

what monitoring, auditing and reporting are required.

Make sure staff have access to training if they are not clear about recordkeeping responsibilities and procedures.

5. Maintenance Tasks

Maintenance is responsible for keeping all the physical operations of a school

running. If something is broke then maintenance is responsible for repairing it. These

may including electrical and lighting, air and heating, and mechanical issues.