Collection of the Documents
This step is the most important and potentially the most difficult. There are very few specific suggestions that can be made here about this step, for it will differ in scope and nature from one portfolio to the next. The portfolio consultant, however, can be particularly useful at this stage, providing the employee with suggestions, resources, personal assistance and support during difficult periods.
Formal Organization, Review and Approval of the Portfolio
If the employee and review committee have done their work through the first eight steps, the ninth will be easily accomplished. The employee organizes her portfolio documents around the categories that her committee has identified. The committee then analyzes these documents with reference to the weightings given each category. The employee may be asked to clarify or define certain documents in her self-report. The committee may request, with the employee’s approval, that other people be brought in for brief interviews in order to expand its understanding of a specific point or confirm a specific conclusion, observation or analysis. These additional requests are rarely made. Typically, the portfolio review can be completed in one session of two to three hours.
The committee should prepare a summary report and evaluation. Several copies of the portfolio, with the summary report, are then duplicated. One copy is given to the employee and one or two copies are filed in the office of the employee’s supervisor or department. The portfolio should be made available to others only with the employee’s approval. After the portfolio consultant has removed all names and identifying information, portions of the portfolio can be made available to others who are engaged in their own review process.
Revision and Documentation of the Portfolio Process
After the committee has formally approved the portfolio, it has one other brief task to perform. The committee must review the procedure that it followed in developing the portfolio. The consultant should take the lead in ensuring that the committee reviews its process: What was learned about how portfolios should be developed? What problems can be avoided in the future? How can they be avoided? What were the real accomplishments of this specific process? How can these accomplishments be incorporated in the development of other portfolios? The recommendations of the committee, together with anonymous portions of the portfolio, should be made available to other review committees and should be kept on file at the consultant’s office. In this way, the portfolio procedure can be self-renewing and the review committees, as well as the employees being assessed, can be held accountable for their decisions and actions.
