PaCE : Performance Appraisal and Competency system

[Weinie]

I know the Navy loves Div Notes (to the point they are beyond over-used) but weekly FN might be too much. I’ve done monthly FNs so far and keep a notes/etc on things I do outside of my expected tasks (my JD and TOAs).

In bigger sub-unit, the boss will be overwhelmed with FNs if everyone is submitting weekly ones. I can see the navy going that way because “Div Notes”…thankfully the Trent where I am at is Monthly or Quarterly.

Navy talks a good talk about Div notes, but really doesn't actually do them very well. I've never ever been presented with a good set of div notes by my superior without the CO having to do div note inspections beforehand.

I see what you're saying though. PaCE process itself recommends minimum quarterly note entry. I put a reminder in my calendar but monthly seems more bite-sized and less likely to cause issues.
For myself, I would probably keep track on a notepad and do a single data entry once a month with the highlights.

@Underway,

Noble ambition, and certainly in keeping with CAF "being better." I tried to keep a reasonable feedback loop with my subordinates, It got hi-jacked/subjugated to the churn that is a HQ/reality. Something about Ops/personnel balance that will never resolve. Good luck.

 

[Underway]

@Underway,

Noble ambition, and certainly in keeping with CAF "being better." I tried to keep a reasonable feedback loop with my subordinates, It got hi-jacked/subjugated to the churn that is a HQ/reality. Something about Ops/personnel balance that will never resolve. Good luck.

Got to set goals, even if you fail to achieve them. It says so right on the PAR.... lol But it's an open discussion like you say with your subordinates.

 

[Navy_Pete]

I think this would be a lot easier with an offline version of MM; usually logging in and connecting to the server is the biggest time suck part of that.

No idea how that will work at sea, in the field, or in a 5 star hotel.

Suspect a lot of people will just keep a PKI doc as per before and occasionally do an occasional upload, and others will just write the PARs off the top of their head.

I've got to say the last time I actually got a PDR was probably a decade ago, but generally was getting continuous feedback so wasn't really an issue. Similar to @Underway, have good intentions of doing regular div notes, and try and schedule 15-30 minutes every two weeks to do a few quick entries, but reality is I'm more likely to just do it on occasion when I'm in to approve a leave pass or something anyway.

If I only have 15 minutes, would prefer to just provide direct feedback to my subordinates, but not great for traceability or rankings if someone is expecting to be able to dig into the PAR and see more than the score at a board.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

My current Sqn, the intent seems to be a good JD will result in less need for highly detailed FNs; if I am doing my job and well and those duties are covered in my JD, I believe I can forego stating “did expected duties” for everything. It’s the above and beyond the JD that gets the details. Writing the FN, I am trying to do “action/result” brevity similar to a PER Part 4.

Time and inputs from user will make it all better and develop the SOPs/best practices (I hope).

Negative note - my trade has been part of the trial since the get go; I am going to receive my first JD this month, and I’ve only received one FN for time spent in an Acting role. It’s not all going as intended.

 

[rmc_wannabe]

Our JDs still haven't been fleshed out, so it's been hell trying to ensure things being added are applicable for a PAR.

It's also great being asked by gaining units for Posting PDRs, having to tell a Unit Adjt to just look at their PaCE module for the FN, and still being told to do up a Posting PDR because "we don't know how this works yet so...status quo."

It's a good system, until people get involved.

 

[TacticalTea]

I really like it, it's a massive breath of fresh air. @Navy_Pete is not wrong in that it's more work for supervisors. I'm planning to be entering notes myself and riding my PO's/MS to take good Div notes as well and enter them. For two reasons. First is that it helps the member well ahead of time to correct deficiencies and see how their CoC views them, second is that it reflects well on the PO's and MS PAR who are taking an interest in developing their subordinates and doing the proper admin for them.

We'll see if that plan survives contact with the enemy, but its a worthwhile goal I think (Something for the Personal and Resources Management Section )

Supervisors don't take enough div notes in the first place.

It's for the best if there's more pressure to do so.

My experience wrt to this has certainly been closer to yours than @Eye In The Sky 's

I think this would be a lot easier with an offline version of MM; usually logging in and connecting to the server is the biggest time suck part of that.

That does indeed seem like a massive chokepoint. Hand it to the CAF to make something great into yet another boring, tedious and terribly inefficient undertaking...

 

[rmc_wannabe]

I think this would be a lot easier with an offline version of MM; usually logging in and connecting to the server is the biggest time suck part of that.

No idea how that will work at sea, in the field, or in a 5 star hotel.

Suspect a lot of people will just keep a PKI doc as per before and occasionally do an occasional upload, and others will just write the PARs off the top of their head.

I've got to say the last time I actually got a PDR was probably a decade ago, but generally was getting continuous feedback so wasn't really an issue. Similar to @Underway, have good intentions of doing regular div notes, and try and schedule 15-30 minutes every two weeks to do a few quick entries, but reality is I'm more likely to just do it on occasion when I'm in to approve a leave pass or something anyway.

If I only have 15 minutes, would prefer to just provide direct feedback to my subordinates, but not great for traceability or rankings if someone is expecting to be able to dig into the PAR and see more than the score at a board.

That does indeed seem like a massive chokepoint. Hand it to the CAF to make something great into yet another boring, tedious and terribly inefficient undertaking...

This is both the risk and reward of using an online, SQL database software. You lose a lot of the "offline" flexibility in favour of centralized availability.

I agree MM is a bit of a bandwidth hog, but I praise the hell out of it every time someone reminds me of stripping out shadow files, UERs, and having to print out a new version of an MPRR off EMAA.

The FNs have a great feature in which you can attach files to them. If Bloggins does great on exercise and you can't connect, throw it into a Word document and attach it once you're online. I have done this with LoAs, BZ Emails, hell even a PDF certificate for a non-DLN course.

Soldiers, sailors, and hotel dwellers hate 2 things: change and the status quo. There will be growing pains, but this system is a lot more user and supervisor friendly than CFPAS ever was.

 

[Underway]

but I praise the hell out of it every time someone reminds me of stripping out shadow files, UERs, and having to print out a new version of an MPRR off EMAA.

Completely agree. Don't need to have the member fill out yet another random irritant document (silver cross or whatever) because it's all in their MM, just tell them to ensure it's up to date. Among other things.

 

[Navy_Pete]

This is both the risk and reward of using an online, SQL database software. You lose a lot of the "offline" flexibility in favour of centralized availability.

I agree MM is a bit of a bandwidth hog, but I praise the hell out of it every time someone reminds me of stripping out shadow files, UERs, and having to print out a new version of an MPRR off EMAA.

The FNs have a great feature in which you can attach files to them. If Bloggins does great on exercise and you can't connect, throw it into a Word document and attach it once you're online. I have done this with LoAs, BZ Emails, hell even a PDF certificate for a non-DLN course.

Soldiers, sailors, and hotel dwellers hate 2 things: change and the status quo. There will be growing pains, but this system is a lot more user and supervisor friendly than CFPAS ever was.

I found CFPAS pretty user friendly for what it was, and the recent change to doing all the PERs via email was pretty easy. If they let us sign it electronically would save a whole lot more time as well and would be less LOE than what we experienced with the PARs.

With MM I find it's becoming the default tool for a lot of things that it does okay, but really not great. The workflows are counterintuitive, the buttons don't look great and the layouts are a pain in the ass on a 15" screen.

Some of the issues are also with the system; our PERMON board wanted us to provide MPRRS from EMMA, PDRs part 3/4s and personal learning plans (PLPs). Find the MM MPRR much more useable and easier to read so that was annoying, and the other parts have nothing to do with the PER/PAR itself. Going forward not sure what they are going to want next year, but the pilot on PARs hasn't been great in terms of having any real understanding of the unit requirements and figuring out the permissions.

Sure a lot of that is growing pains, but aside from getting told to take the DLN course wasn't really any further direction provided, so was a lot of clicking things to see if the instructions actually worked (sometimes they didn't).

Lot easier to not resist change when you have time to do things properly; when already doing a few jobs and don't have time for routine tasks getting a new IT system and process dumped on you isn't great. Sure that will figure it out, but personally found it took 2-3 hours plus some trial and error to get the PAR drafted, where the PER took about 45 minutes then some edits. Imagine will eventually be able to process the PARs faster, but that kind of time demand isn't insignificant once it scales up outside the pilot, and not typically given extra time etc to get it done.

 

[Navy_Pete]

Simple question, is there anyway to make the icons and text bigger within the PACE module? You can use a mouse trackwheel to zoom in, but it goes away when you are editing.

In all seriousness they really dropped the ball and looking forward to the first accessibility complaint from a civilian. Even with glasses and a bigger screen it's killing me, but it's unnecessarily shit. They seem to have things fixed against the resolution, so it's unbelivably small text on my screen, and estimating it's about 6 pt font.

 

[dapaterson]

Monitor MASS is every bad user interface design decision ever, rolled into a single product.

 

[Navy_Pete]

Monitor MASS is every bad user interface design decision ever, rolled into a single product.

For sure, but they are supposed to meet the actual accessibility requirements for the interface if they want civvies using it, and it's genuinely terrible. Some of the icons are small enough it's hard to click on the right one, and the text is so incredibly small I have a headache now after spending a while trying to edit it.

Having to zoom in to read it, then try and edit it when it jumps back to size 6 pt font is killing me, especially when PARMON is correcting things that were verbatim from the writing guide example.