Policy

The Student Affairs Performance Appraisal Program is designed to align each individual’s performance with the Student Affairs’ and unit’s strategic goals necessary to achieve the organization’s vision and mission. The program is also to foster communication between the supervisor and staff to recognize good performance and manage underperformance.  Each status employee, including Academic Professional or Civil Service employees, shall receive a performance appraisal annually in writing from their immediate supervisor. 

Performance appraisal must adhere to the law and campus policies and procedures  and free of discrimination and biases.

Performance Appraisal Guidelines

Responsibilities

a. Supervisor responsibilities

    i. Understand the performance appraisal program policy and procedures and carry out the responsibilities accordingly. 

    ii. Conduct the Performance Appraisal program in a fair and consistent manner with a focus on employee’s achievement of Student Affairs’ and unit’s strategic goals, or job specific duties.

    iii. Ensure employees’ job descriptions are current and accurately reflect their roles. 

    iv. Ensure employees have opportunity to provide input.

    v. Offer employees resources, tools, and training needed to perform their job effectively.

b. Employee responsibilities

    i. Participate in planning and assessing their own performance goals.

    ii. Complete self-evaluation.

c. Designated HR Office responsibilities

d. Provide ongoing development of supervisors’ skills that are required to effectively conduct performance appraisal.

e. Provide guidance to supervisor with regard to performance management issues.

f. Maintain sound record keeping of performance appraisal and related documents.

Performance Appraisal Tool

a. Standardized template

    i. Student Affairs provides a standard performance appraisal template with established core competency applicable to all staff. This standardized form is required for Academic Professional and Civil Service employees in all Student Affairs units.

    ii. Employee self-reflection is required for Academic Professional and Civil Service employees and will use the same standard performance appraisal template.

b. Rating

    i. The performance appraisal process shall employ a standard rating scale including Outstanding (4), Commendable (3), Satisfactory (2), Needs Improvement (1), and Unsatisfactory (0).

    ii. Standard rating scales set for goals are Completed & Exceeding, Completed, In-Progress, Not Started, and On-hold.

c. Competency

    i. Core competency factors are identified based on the Student Affairs Strategic Plan and strategic goals. They apply to Academic Professional and Civil Service employees in Student Affairs. Core Competency shall be reviewed and updated as Student Affairs’ strategic goals are modified. 

    ii. Units may add additional critical competencies relevant to unit’s operation and employees’ job functions. 

    iii. When an overall rating of less than satisfactory is given, the supervisor is expected to develop a formal performance development plan to support the employee in making performance improvements.

d. Goal setting

    i. Goals should be linked to Student Affairs’ and unit’s strategic goals and priorities and contribute towards overall Student Affairs and unit’s achievement.

    ii. Goals should be measurable in either qualitative or quantitative terms for effective management of employee performance. 

e. Review

    i. To ensure objectivity and consistency is apparent throughout the review process and across the team, second level review and sign off is required.  

    ii. Employee is asked to sign the performance appraisal to acknowledge receiving the performance appraisal.  Employee’s signature does not necessarily indicate individual’s agreement with the performance rating.

    iii. If an employee disagrees with the performance appraisal, they may provide an addendum to be attached to the performance appraisal or provide additional information relevant to performance appraisal.   

Frequency of Performance Appraisal

a. Formal performance appraisal is to be set on an annual basis, typically conducted during the period between May and July.  

b. Should a unit establish a review process outside of the annual review, for example a six-month review, the unit needs to conduct such review with all status employees across the unit consistently. 

c. Periodic discussions and feedback with an individual employee regarding performance is encouraged and may be carried out throughout the course of the review period on an “as needed” basis. 

d. Civil Service employees under a probationary period shall follow campus required review schedule.

Record Keeping

a. Completed performance appraisal form, performance plan, development plan, and job description should be filed in individual employee’s personnel file as official documents. 

Confidentiality

a. Confidentiality must be observed at each stage of the performance appraisal process.  All information and records relevant to employee performance should be maintained and treated as strictly confidential. 

b. This confidential information will not be provided to any other party without the written consent of the employee, except pursuant to an administrative or legal procedure or process.