Recommendation 19

Further, most departments do not monitor or report what happens to staff identified as underperforming. Monitoring outcomes for underperforming staff is essential if departments are to understand how effectively their performance management systems are supporting people to move out of underperformance or identifying alternatives for those individuals, such as changing roles.42 The Cabinet Office noted there is a balance to be struck between the time departments spend on collecting and reporting data and the time they spend on supporting managers and teams to improve performance.43 However, this is slightly at odds with the Cabinet Office’s own civil service performance management framework, which sets the expectation that departments “must track and be able to report on the progress being made with each individual” identified as underperforming.44