Technical Competency
Working with People of Diverse Genders, Abilities and Ages
Performance Review
Often performance reviews will be founded both on a job description or Terms of Reference (see the Anchoring section for suggestions) and on annual work plans or objectives (which can include soft skills or values). It is important that concrete criteria and expectations are set. Here is a reminder of the job description/Terms of Reference provisions suggested for this competency:
“Apply an inclusive and person-centred approach, recognising and addressing barriers and tailoring engagement, and activities to the unique needs and strengths of individual survivors.”
“Respect and respond to diversity, adapting methods, communication, and support to ensure accessibility and inclusion across different ages (including children under 18), abilities, SOGIESC, and cultural or social backgrounds.”
“Adapt program design, assessments, and delivery to meet the needs of individuals across different genders, ages, abilities, and backgrounds, ensuring inclusive participation.”
“Identify and address accessibility barriers, risks, and diverse pathways of support for participants of varying abilities, age groups, and intersectional identities.”
“Uphold the principles of inclusion, accessibility, and respect in all professional interactions and programmatic work.”
These could be incorporated into an annual plan or review using the Deep Dive table and a scale such as:
Exceeds Expectations: proactively adapts approaches, models universal design and includes reasonable accommodations in planning and methodology, develops creative solutions to individual needs and realities, proactively consults and uses a participatory approach to ensure solutions meet needs, builds in survivor feedback to understand if support not accessed, consistently puts in extra effort to ensure inclusion, accessibility and diversity in programming and results.
Meets Expectations: consistently adapts approach to the individual before them, maps and vets services from perspective of gender, age and disability, considers barriers to accessibility, works to find solutions, referrals for services based on informed consent and generally accessed by the survivor. (See relevant Deep Dive columns.)
Needs Improvement: struggles to adapt to individuals – mostly one approach for all, does not recognise barriers for others, limited efforts around inclusion and accessibility. (See relevant Deep Dive columns.)
You can choose to focus on specific aspects or tailor the expected behaviours specifically to the job or tasks and include these more specific expectations in an annual work plan or job description.
It is important to include free-narrative boxes for evidence-based assessment and explanations both for a person’s own self-assessment of their work, and for the line-manager’s/supervisor’s constructive comments.