25 June 2024

From 1 September, your annual Performance & Development (P&D) interview with your manager will have a new format and also a new name. With the acronym GROW (Gesprekken over Resultaat, Ontwikkeling en Welzijn), it will be changing to Conversations on Performance, Development and Well-being.

Our aim is for everyone to make optimal use of their talents and to achieve development. GROW therefore offers the opportunity to speak openly with your manager, several times a year, about your work, development and well-being. This will involve both looking back and looking ahead.

What will we discuss in the GROW interviews?

Everything that’s relevant to you as both a professional and a human being. Because your well-being, development and happiness are just as important as your performance. We will discuss these topics on a regular basis: not only on the formal occasions of the start interview and annual interview but also in the interim interviews. You – as a staff member – are also welcome to take the initiative to arrange these.

Easier reports using a new form

Writing reports of your GROW interviews will be simpler and faster. The online form for the report is shorter and clearer. And you will receive a descriptive assessment of your performance, instead of an assessment using scores. This means we are moving from a discussion about norms and standards to an open conversation about performance, development and well-being. With GROW we are also introducing the 360 Degree Feedback form, which you can use – if you wish – before your GROW interview, to ask your colleagues for feedback on how they feel about working with you.

More focus on your role in the team

The focus is not only on your own performance and development; we’re also interested in everyone’s efforts for the organisation and the team. GROW will help us to strengthen our organisation culture by ‘recognising and rewarding’ the knowledge, experience, talents and contributions of all our staff members. In fact, this Recognition & Rewards perspective forms the basis of the university’s Academia in Motion programme.

Working with GROW from 1 September

Until 1 September the current Regulations on Performance & Development Interviews will still apply; after that, the GROW Regulations will be in effect. There will then be a special GROW tile on the Service Portal, with an online form you can use for writing reports of your GROW interviews.

Discover GROW and experience for yourself how this new approach to interviews can offer added value for both you and your work environment! You can start now by taking a look at the GROW toolkit, where you will find many different tools that can help you with this; and we will soon be adding 10 short e-learnings on a variety of topics related to GROW. Explore the updated Let's Connect! toolkit with 40 practical tools for participating in discussions. Or sign up now for one of the training courses in the GROW development menu:

• Workshop Grow in conversation: Free half-day workshop for staff members (can also be followed as a team, by arrangement). Start dates: 8 October, 14 November and 12 December 2024 (Dutch and English)
• Skills Lab A good conversation: One-day training course for managers. Start dates: 15 and 23 October 2024 (Dutch and English)
• Skills Lab Use your strengths to communicate: Training course (2.5 days) for managers and staff members. Start date: 24 October 2024 (Dutch)
• Skills Lab Influencing without authority: Training course (3 half-days) for managers and staff members. Start date: 22 October 2024 (Dutch)