1. Understand How to Identify and Prioritise Work-related Development Requirements

Personal development is a continuous process to help develop a person’s potential to the fullest and also learning new skills in order to practice new things. Personal development is important. Many of us work in ever changing and competitive environments. If we don't keep up with training, we can miss key opportunities, it also makes us more marketable and efficient in delivering a quality service. It can also give us a focus so that there is motivation to carry on. Although early life development and early formative experiences within the family, at school etc, personal development should not stop later in life. (www.skillsyouneed.com 1st May 2016) Most of us are motivated by needs. Maslow 1970 suggests that all individuals have an in-built need for personal development which occurs through the process called self actualisation. Maslow developed the Hierarchy of needs in which he provided a understanding of human motivation and needs which needed to be met in the given order in order to progress. 1. Psychological Needs The need for oxygen, food, sex etc. these are the basic needs required for survival. 2. Safety Needs. These are the needs for security and safety ranging from security of home or income and physical security. 3. Social Needs. The need for love and affection and feeling if they belong and not feel loneliness. 4. Esteem Needs. If people feel respected or loved it results in them feeling good about themselves resulting in them feeling 5. Cognitive Needs. This is the need to increase inteligence and the desire for knowledge. It is a natural human need to learn, explore and discover. This gives them a better understanding of the world around them. 6. Aesethic Needs. This is the appreciation and search for beauty 7. Self Actualisation. Achieving full individual potential and to become what we are capable of becoming.
The lower needs must be met before the higher needs can be achieved. By meeting all the needs in the hierarchy it leads to the person building confidence and increased motivation and possibly unlocking other skills that the person had previously had no confidence to use. Maslow (1970) states that all individuals have the need to see themselves as competent and autonomous and that every person has limitless room for growth.
Self assessment is a good way for me to analyse my strengths and weaknesses and to show myself and employer I understand what I can improve and build on which I can then discuss in my yearly appraisals. In order to get a better understanding of my strengths and weaknesses I completed a SWOT analysis before I undertook my last appraisal which I found a useful technique to identify my strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. I have attached one below to show my results. Strengths 1. Enthusiasm to learn 2. Ability to implement new systems 3. My IT skills, confidence in setting up new IT systems and shared drives. | Weaknesses 1. Lack of confidence in certain situations 2. As I work in my own office and do not attend meetings I am not always aware of what is going on in the team. 3. Speaking in public and presenting information orally. | Opportunities 1. Confidence Skill training day 2. Diploma Management 3. Attending handover to improve communication skills and to know what is going on in the department. | Threats 1. Time needed off work, work commitments could change and work could become to busy to release me for the few hours required. 2. Time restraints and things changing in personal or work life resulting in me not being able to find time to do essays. 3. Not having cover for me to attend the meetings as can’t leave the office unattended. | Figure 1.

PDP reviews are mandatory in the AMBU Health board and must be undertaken yearly. There are many benefits to undertaking appraisals and PDP reviews which include helping me appraise what I want to do and how I can achieve it, identify any out of date skills that need updating and identifying how I can make the most of any opportunities that may arise or that I can develop. They are also important as they help to keep my skills and knowledge up to date by highlighting areas that I need to develop and plan how to do this. It gives me more self awareness and enables me to understand myself better and meet objectives by understanding what my goals are, it also serves a as a record of progress towards achieving my goals.

David Boddy (2012) described goals as providing the “reference point for other decisions and the criteria against which to measure performance”.

The following objectives are set up by the ABMU (2016) Health Board which state the Personal Appraisal Development Review process must: * Enable employees to understand ‘what they need to do’ – i.e., to understand the service that they work in, the objectives of their team (and the Health Board) and how they contribute to these. (Doing the right thing.)

* Enable employees to understand and review progress on ‘how they need to do things’- i.e. to review their performance and progress against the relevant behavioural framework that supports the Health Board values.( Doing them in the right way)

* Encourage managers and employees to work together to continually improve performance and behaviours for the benefit of the service, and to identify personal development and training needs to support the employee in achieving their objectives and realising their potential.( Doing things better)

I follow the principle of SMART .(Specific, Measurable, Achievable Realistic and Time bound) to ensure that I reach my goals whether they be short or long term, I take little steps in order to get to the bigger steps, This is done by discussing with my manager what is required of me, ensuring I ask questions so that I understand fully and if what I had planned would lead to the desired results. We would then agree a measure to enable the progress to be monitored, one way of doing this would be to agree regular supervision sessions. My objectives would need to be achievable and that the resources are available in order to complete the work. We would then discuss how realistic these goals were, I would discuss resources available and discuss if I had the skills available to do the task and if it was relevant to my development. More often than not objectives are time bound, we would discuss time frames in when the objectives needed to be me and set review dates in order to review progress. By setting SMART objectives it makes my goals more attainable.

Figure 2. Google images 2016

1.2 A personal development plan then results from establishing what I wanted to achieve or where I want to go, also identifying any skills, knowledge or competence I needed to improve on. It also helps me identify further training that I need to undertake in order to meet my plan. There are a number of ways that I can improve my skills and undertake further training within the Health Board. The ABMU Health Board have an internal training portal that staff can access, it provides a comprehensive list of training offered, E-Learning, handouts to read and attending classes. We also have our own personal record on the intranet indicating mandatory training that is required from us and how to access this training. At the beginning of my Diploma in Management and Leadership I completed two types of questionairres to understand my learning style. The first one was a VARK which is an acronym for Visual (V), Aural (A), Read/Write (W) and Kinetic (K). It is a questionnaire that provided me with a better understanding of my learning preferences and how best I process information. My results showed that the best strategies to use for myself was Aural/Auditory, for this Fleming states “Auditory/Aural learners have a preference for hearing and listening. These learners learn best from lectures, discussions, tapes or recorded material. Reading aloud or talking concepts through out loud is also beneficial for auditory or aural learners (Fleming, 2012). I found the outcome of the questionaire accurate as I learn best when I am participating in class discussions, listening to others and participating. I have a need to be told information in order for me to be able to retain it better. Another thing I have noted is that when I am reading any articles or books I need to read aloud in order for me to digest what I am reading. Following on from this I closely scored high on the Read/Write category. For Read/write strategies Fleming stated ,“You should put details into written form and use lists, PowerPoint, textbooks, diaries and the internet for your ideas. You are sensitive to word order and word usage, and you like to have things in print (handouts). You are also careful about recording your notes in written form, and you like to use dictionaries and other text aids (Fleming, 2012).” I prefer to take a lot of notes in the classroom so that I fully understand what is being discussed, as much as I like participating in group discussions I do not like being read too as I find I switch off and stop listening once someone is reading from a book, I prefer to read books by myself and write notes that I feel relevant to my learning.
In order to learn effectively, it’s important to be able to use all four styles, but most people have a preference for one or two. (http://www.skillsyouneed.com/learn/

I also completed the Honey and Mumford learning questionnaire, this is based on four styles of learning which I have shown in figure 3 below.

Figure 3. (Google images 2016)
The outcome of my questionnaire was that I am an Activist which I think is true. I often jump into things without sufficient preparation and often end up in the deep end unsure what to do. I get enthusiastic over new tasks but then quite often get bored when implementing it. I prefer to be more hands on and involved in order to learn new skills rather than being shown or told how to do it. 2.1 Plan and agree development activities with employment supervisor and/or learning supervisor. During my last PDR with my manager, I printed off the information for the Level 4 Diploma in Management and requested that I could enrol on it. We discussed how it would benefit the department, one of the main reasons for me was that I was a newly qualified manager in new team and felt it would be beneficial to develop these skills in order to provide a better service. We discussed the demands that the course would have on me and that I would need to ensure that there was cover in the office when I was absent. I have been fully supported to do this course and attend college twice monthly. I fully have the support of my manager for time off and have no children so am able to concentrate on essays some evenings at home. The only issue that may arise if things get busier in work or that I am unable to get cover for the office on the days I need to be at college. I also realise that for this type of learning I have to be self motivated in order to set aside the time needed to complete my work.

There are a number of training opportunities available to staff in the ABMU, for any training to be effective it must be appropriate to the department objectives which are set in my yearly PDP. I have inserted a copy of my mandatory training requirements below. a) Statutory & Mandatory Training (identify such training which is considered pertinent to the role and which remains outstanding at the time of this review) The following are the minimum requirements for all staff (which should be added to in accordance with the requirements of the role, area of work and professional standards): | * Statutory / Mandatory Training | * Date Completed | * Time Scale | Fire Safety | * 1/02/2016 | * 2 years | Safeguarding Children Level 1 | * | * 3 years | Safeguarding Adults Level 1 | * | * 3 Years | Standard Precaution Infection Prevention & Control Training | * | * 3 years | Mental Capacity Act Level1 | * | * | Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Basic Awareness | * N/A | * 3 years | Manual Handling Modules A & B | * | * 2 years | Violence & Aggression Module A | * 19/09/2015 | * 1 year | Risk Management Training Level 1 | * N/A | * 1 year | Improving Quality Together (IQT) Bronze Level | * N/A | * | Information Governance | * | * 2 years | Resuscitation Level 1 | * N/A | * | Health, Safety & Welfare | * N/A | * | Carer Aware Level 1 | * N/A | * | The blanks in the date completed columns are training needs that have been identified and I have not yet undertaken the training which is mandatory. Each have different time scales in which to undertake and refresh the training. In my PDP we indentified their priority and timescales in which to complete. The way in which we identified these were by using short, medium and long term objectives. In the case of times scales above short term objectives are anything between a few months and a year, medium term can be between one to two years and long term anything between two and three years. Another way we set objectives is by identifying any development needs required in order to improve my workplace improvement. Below is a copy taken from my PDP which shows how we have done this and also shows that we have recognised any potential factors that may get in the way of training and how we will get around this, it also shows we have discussed how we will monitor the outcomes and in what timescales we will monitor them. As you can see from the table below we have set myself goals using the SMART principle in order to give them meaning which also results in my task becoming clear and a timeframe in which I need to complete it Objective Setting | Work-based Objective: | * Target Achievement Date: | * Action Plan – How will achievement be measured? | * Comments | To develop management skills. commence Level 4 diploma in Management . | * To complete by September 2017 | * 6 weekly supervision in college and 6 monthly with manager | * Emma to arrange cover for time off work and to protect time to write essays. | To free staff up to do more clinical work by attending handover meetings in order to assess what admin will be able to take over. | * To commence straight away | * By Emma attending handover daily and relieve staff from admin pressures. | * * Emma to arrange cover to attend handover | To take over setting up business meeting dates, agenda and minute taking. | * 3 months | * By setting up meeting dates and emailing staff agenda. | * Emma to attend a minute taking course in order to be more effective | To undertake admin staff annual PDP’s | * 1 month | * Emma to attend a Lean PDP training course in order to be able to effectively undertake PDP’s. | * Emma to find cover to undertake course | |

After undertaking my PDP my short term goals were identified as undertaking a training course in order so that I could effectively undertake staff PDP’s, the required time frame for this was one month. My medium term goals were identified in the mandatory training requirements in which they have a number of different timescales, my long term goal was to develop my management skills. In order to do this I identified that myself and the department would benefit from me attending the Diploma in Management and Leadership which would take 18 months to obtain.
“A long-term goal is something you want to accomplish in the future. Long-term goals require time and planning. They are not something you can do this week or even this year. Long-term goals are usually at least several years away. Sometimes it takes many steps to complete a long-term goal. These smaller steps can be your short term goals.”(https://www.iseek.org/mymncareers/english-learner/long-term-goal.html 16th May 2016)
Section 3
There are a number of techniques that can be used in gaining feedback on performance.
“Feedback is a process that requires constant attention. When something needs to be said, say it. People then know where they stand all the time and there are few surprises. Also, problems don't get out of hand. This is not a once-a-year or a once-every-three-month event. While this may be the timing of formal feedback, informal, simple feedback should be given much more often than this – perhaps every week or even every day, depending on the situation.” (https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_98.htm)
My main source of obtaining feedback on objectives and goals is by having regular supervision with my manager following on from my PDP to discuss my progress.
Within my PDP we also discuss the previous year objectives that have been set and if they have been achiveved and how this has benefited my development and the department, Review of Previous Objectives | Previous Work-based Objective: | * Target Achievement Date: | * Comments on Achievement | Complete NVQ 3 Management Support Admin in improving Excel skills | * 2014 * * * To source training for admin staff to improve skills | * Training completed and qualification attained. Brought new skills into the workplace and now a more confident manager. * * * I trained admin in the basic skills and also sent them on a one day refresher and monitored progress. Staff are now fully confident in using Excel so have been given the role of updating the ABM database. |