JPA Appraisal

[mustflywillfly]

Our overworked and underpaid Dockyard Postie has just delivered the "JPA APPRAISAL" booklet onto my desk.

I can see this process being implemented and run as smoothly as JPA itself. Happy days. Sometimes I forget just how lucky I am to belong to her Majesty's Armed Services in the 21st Century.

99% of people I work with don't use JPA for anything more then checking their pay or putting in an expense. I still havn't seen any evidence that people are even recording their leave (or at least going through the correct procedure). I hope that there will be some training for this new appraisal process, very much doubt it though. Perhaps another totaly useless "online" training package.:ugh:

If I don't laugh, I'll cry.....

[South Bound]

Just a quick note of agreement, as someone who has already experienced it from both sides (RO and subject), it WILL be carnage. But, like all these things, the better prepared you are the easier it will be. Tips:

Beat up HR Flt until you get some training.
Use the MS Word version and keep a copy for when it goes wrong. Much better to cut and paste into JPA.

Shame this will cause so much heartache as it has potential to work quite well.

[Wader2]

As an RO I do not have access to JPA and have been unable to have any training due to programme conflictions.

Now had I had any training it would have been for nought anyway as I don't have access :).

Does it come with manual reversion?

Incidentally I don't have access to the present software either, it is all done on paper.

[South Bound]

Wader

the MSWord version I mentioned above was designed for your kind of situation. ACOS Manning then scan the thing in. Your friendly HR peeps should be able to get it to you, if not just ask here.

Shame you won't have it though, think of all the fun you will miss out on....

[Wader2]

Southbound.

Brilliant.

Thanks.

Anyway I get the Subject to write the report anyway - quite an eye opener.

"I only want 3s Boss, I don't want anything that leads to promotion and posting."

He then awarded himself 5s and the odd 6 (quite justified). :}

[South Bound]

Yep, great way of working out what your subordinates think of themselves, although you won't be able to do this directly in JPA - good job you don't have it!

[mustflywillfly]

Shame this will cause so much heartache as it has potential to work quite well.

Your statement is too true SouthBound. Why oh why do we keep shooting oursleves in the foot? I'm thinking the 6's P's and KISS principle should be applied by more people more often, particulalry the Lords and Masters.

[Stuff]

Things I have found out so far, I'd be grateful if those who have used it in anger can add their experiences:

The appraisal goes to the 1st RO first, not the subject. The two boxes on the old F6000 that the subject used to fill in before giving it to the 1st RO are automatically taken from your JPA preferences (You did all know you had to fill in your career aspirations on JPA didn't you?!) - in case you missed this you can add them in after the report has been raised by entering the data on JPA then asking the 1st RO to click the manual refresh button.

Copy and paste from Word into JPA will save you countless hours of pain. In my experience JPA is unbearably slow and prone to dumping you out of the report writer without saving your data. One gotcha here is if you try and paste too much text into the box nothing will appear at all, even if it is just one character over the text box size.

The promotion recommendations page is very confusing, do I have to fill in all the boxes? Eg the ones on specialist employment?

[South Bound]

The appraisal goes to the 1st RO first, not the subject
Yep, but remember,if done properly, subject and first RO should have sat down and populated a lot of the report on day one of the reporting period, filling out objectives etc...

The two boxes on the old F6000 that the subject used to fill in before giving it to the 1st RO are automatically taken from your JPA preferences
Yep, update those preferences and aspirations boys and girls. Advice from the current random posting plot is do this carefully and be careful what you ask for. If you want to stay where you are,say so!

Copy and paste from Word into JPA will save you countless hours of pain. In my experience JPA is unbearably slow and prone to dumping you out of the report writer without saving your data. One gotcha here is if you try and paste too much text into the box nothing will appear at all, even if it is just one character over the text box size.
Yes, yes, yes, please do this or you will have a mare!

The promotion recommendations page is very confusing, do I have to fill in all the boxes? Eg the ones on specialist employment?
Good question, guidance is pants! Sorry can't help, surely there is an HR professional out there that can help???

[detgnome]

I too have suffered the nightmare that is JPA reporting. It is a sad sign of the times that we are using PPrune to disseminate information on how to use this software! It took us ages just to be able to access the reporting system through JPA.

For what it's worth - another top tip is ensuring you have 'Jinitiator' installed on your machine otherwise nothing happens when you click on any of the reporting links from the JPA home page!

[snapper41]

I'm staggered by the user-unfriendly nature of the SJAR. I've spent ages trying to fill anything in under 'employee appointment preferences', but no joy. Type in 'RAF' in the search box and guess what? 'No results match your enquiry' - so there are no jobs in the Service?? I've tried under the 'employee preference' section, and after hours of head-scrathcing by me and the HR chaps, it seems that you have to fill in which county you want to be posted to (and this isn't a simple process either, believe me), and then try to find the job you want. This time, the search engine thingy comes up with a list of 310 RAF jobs, none of which relate to my specialisation.:ugh::ugh: Words fail me.

[TMJ]

The promotion recommendations page is very confusing, do I have to fill in all the boxes? Eg the ones on specialist employment?

I don't think so, but if reporting on a cpl or higher rank you do have to give a reccomendation for suitability for an instructional appointment.

[spectre150]

And another thing....

Just completed a 1RO assessment, saved it and passed it on electronically. The sofware is written, apparently, to send the report back to the subject for comment even though the report says it will go to the 2RO next. However, the report was never 'sent'. Neither the subject, not 2RO can access it. I can open it on a read-only basis but cannot amend it or re-send - it belives that I am done with the report and it is closed as far as I am concerned. The only thing we can come up with is that there was a break in connectivity around the time I forwarded it and it is hanging somewhere in the ether. With the subject now away no-one, including administratorsm HR, PSF, can access it. Great system, because like all IT, it is a time-saving device. Not.