Annual Update Questions—Performance Management
2013
The institution's responses should be direct and factual to provide a clear picture of its progress,
accomplishments, and challenges.
A. Describe the past accomplishments and the current status of this Action Project.
Describe concrete achievements: meetings, data gathered and analyzed, plans made or
implemented, changes in processes, and measured results. If the institution hasn't made much
progress, explain why things are moving slower than planned.
The new eAppraisal system has been in place for two full years.

All fulltime employees and supervisors are using the system as planned.
o
The employees appreciate the conversion to an online instrument.
o
The supervisors appreciate the usefulness of the library of definitions and the
calibrated suggested terminology and phrases based on the appropriate ratings.
Both employees and supervisors appreciate the ability and flexibility of the system in allowing them to add
narratives, comments, documentation throughout the year in an easy to enter format. This helps ensure
that qualitative data is an integral part of the eAppraisal process, and that more than just ratings are used
in evaluating employees, thereby preserving the ‘human element’ in the process.
o
The eAppraisal process provides a ‘two-sided” appraisal – the employee rates
himself or herself, and the first level supervisor provides a rating. During the
coaching session both sets of ratings are discussed, and consensus is created
between the employee and the supervisor. After carefully considering last year’s
comments, we have revised the process so that the second level supervisor also
reviews both sets of ratings and has the opportunity to provide additional
comments, helping to ensure that the review truly reflects the performance level of
the employee. The employee has a final opportunity to make additional comments
at the end of the process. The process allows for triangulation of data through input
from the employee, the first level supervisor, and the second level supervisor,
increasing the likelihood of a valid review and increasing confidence in the final
result.
o
There are multiple opportunities in the eAppraisal process for documenting
comments, both by the employee and by the supervisor. Employees work with
supervisors to set goals in July. The optional journaling feature provides the
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potential for a year’s worth of documentation, and can provide a validity check on
the employee review. In addition to the required coaching, optional coaching can
also provide additional documentation. Rather than merely relying on rating
numbers, the system has the potential for rich, robust, multi-faceted documentation
of employee performance.
o
The system allows for a more systematic and formalized approach when an
employee needs to be counseled for improvement. Required coaching sessions in
January/February provide a schedule for monitoring employees, and in situations
where improvement is needed a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) is completed. The
CAP specifies areas of improvement, performance expectations, how performance
will be measured, and how feedback will be provided to the employee.
o
All supervisors received specialized training on coaching employees in the first year
of the implementation (March and April 2011).
o
Ongoing advanced coaching is being provided to senior directors based on needs
and requests.

Scheduled monthly training sessions on the use of the system are held conveniently
throughout the year for all new hires, current employees and supervisors. One purpose
of this training is to increase inter-rater reliability such that all managers will be using the
rating scale and opportunities for comments the same way.

Various members of the Human Resources Department meet regularly to review
processes and procedures and recommend changes as appropriate.
o
For the second year’s implementation, definitions were modified to reduce
confusion in the interpretation of the overall ratings category.

Meets Expectations caused confusion because the interpretation of some
of the descriptors led supervisors and employees to believe that this was a
negative classification. Therefore, they tended to overrate the employee by
moving to Exceeds Expectations when it was not really deserved.

A change to final status of reviews was implemented in May, 2013. Formerly the process
allowed the immediate supervisor to finalize the review before submitting to the second
level supervisor. The process now does not consider the review finalized until the
second level supervisor signs off.
o
Second level supervisors sometimes modify an employee’s eAppraisal. This
process no longer takes intervention of the Human Resources Department.

To date, data has only been analyzed on an individual basis. Now that two complete
years of data are available, Human Resources will begin working with the Research
group in reviewing the data for trends, employee needs, specialized training needs or any
type of modifications necessary. Plans are underway to form focus groups of users of
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the system for the purpose of obtaining feedback on the equity and fairness of the
process.
B. Describe how the institution involved people in work on this Action Project.
AQIP wants information about motivation and communication: how this project was kept on the
institution's priority list, how general awareness of the importance and progress of the project
was maintained, and how those working on it directly were kept active and motivated.
The committee that has overseen this project is representative of all non-faculty full-time
employee groups and has played an active role from conceptualization of the project through
the inaugural implementation of the new system. After the inaugural year, focus on the
instrument moved to supervisors and employees. For example, in order to ensure continued
high level support staff participation in the process, the Staff Senate was brought into the
training process, thus providing peer training to hourly employees. The Human Resources
office staff members have continued to serve as a point of contact for employee questions as
the system is fully implemented. All full-time non-faculty employees will continue to
participate in the system and continue to provide feedback on all aspects of the system.
C. Describe the institution's next steps for this Action Project.
Be specific about the next critical steps the institution is planning to move the Action Project
ahead. If planning is vague or there is no planning at this point, explain why.

Step 1 is to solicit reflective input from employees and supervisors through survey and
focus groups.


Step 2 is to work with the Sinclair research unit

In designing, launching and interpreting the data from the survey

In interpreting the data available from the built-in report tools within the system

In creating focus groups to provide feedback on the eAppraisal process
Step 3 is to re-convene the committee for a thorough review of the data described
above and of the progress to date.

Some of the planned activity of the AQIP Action Committee was delayed due to the
immediate need for the creation and implementation of rules regarding part-time
employees as defined in the Affordable Care Act mandates. In this ACA initiative,
cross-college teams representing all divisions and all employee categories (total of 41
faculty, staff and administrators) were called upon to review current part-time work
hour data, create new rules for part-time employment, and create and implement a
process for monitoring work hours and ensuring that part-time employee hours of work
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met the mandates of part-time employment in the Affordable Care Act. The review and
planning process began in October, 2012, included Board Resolution Action in May,
and implementation of all regulations beginning on July 1, 2013.
D. Describe any "effective practice(s)" that resulted from the institution's work on this Action
Project.
One important result of the implementation of the eAppraisal system has been a much better
connection between employee appraisal and annual compensation actions.

Employee evaluations are required by May of the Academic Year. The
compensation process follows directly in June.

Supervisors are authorized to set individual pay increases based on employee
performance. The two systems now mesh seamlessly and the direct impact of
performance on compensation is more accurately understood.
However, it should be noted that while the eAppraisal system informs annual compensation actions
for employees, it is not the sole determinant of changes in compensation. Institutional performance
also plays a role in employee compensation changes, as does consideration of where employees
place in their pay range relative to the midpoint. The eAppraisal is one of many factors that
influence changes in compensation for an employee.
E. What challenges, if any, still face the institution regarding this Action Project?
This is an opportunity to get constructive, actionable feedback and advice from AQIP's review
process. Use this question to specify blocks, gaps, sticking points, or problems. If the institution
has already fashioned strategies to deal with any challenges it faces, share both the challenges
and strategies for meeting them.
The most difficult challenge still apparent following the implementation of the eAppraisal is what
Organizational Development/Human Resources refers to as “performance reporting inflation.”
Employees overinflate or under-document the overall ratings they provide in their self-appraisal.
Some less-effective and/or less confident managers avoid the tough conversations that are
needed to work with employees on realistic appraisals. They go along with the employee
evaluation and do not address issues that appropriately belong in coaching and appraisal
sessions.
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The change in the final approval flow is somewhat addressing this issue. The second level
manager reviews the appraisal and, when appropriate, either sends it back to the first level
supervisor with suggested/required edits or directly inserts himself/herself into the appraisal
process.
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