STAFF JOB PERFORMANCE EVALUATION PROCEDURES
(1) At the time of hire you should review the position
description with the new staff member to clarify
their job responsibilities.
(2) At the one-year anniversary of the date of hire
you will receive two forms. One of these is used
to evaluate the staff member based on the original
position description. The second is to plan for the
next year. Coinciding with this planning you should
review the position description to determine if any
changes are needed. This evaluation, planning, and
position review process is then repeated every year
thereafter.
(3) Once you have written up your evaluation and
planning document, those should be sent to the Associate
Dean for Administration and Research for review.
Also send to the Associate Dean recommendations for
revision of the position description. If you wish,
you can meet with the Associate Dean for this review.
This is especially useful if you are dealing with
a difficult case or if you want help creating criteria
for exceptional performance. If you send the Associate
Dean the documents and he/she has any questions about
the employee or planning for the next year, he/she
will contact you. Note that this step is required
prior to your meeting with the staff member.
(4) Once the Associate Dean is satisfied with the
documents, they will be returned to you. You should
then have a meeting with the staff member to discuss
the evaluation of the previous year and planning
for the next year. If you and the employee wish to
propose any changes, you can send those to the Associate
Dean for approval. The staff member should sign both
documents at this meeting.
NOTE: Whenever you indicate that a staff member "exceeds" or "substantially
exceeds" a job requirement, this should be supported
by data describing why this is the case. You may
use the extra space provided on the evaluation form
or attach additional pages to do this.
(5) Return the completed evaluation and planning
documents to the Associate Dean's Administrative
Assistant in the Dean's Office. The Administrative
Assistant keeps a copy of these for the COE files
and sends a copy to the Human Resources Division.
The evaluation form is available at http://hr.sc.edu/forms/nonsup.pdf .
The most important feature of the evaluation process is that it should be an honest evaluation of strengths and weaknesses as well as a meaningful time to plan for the next year. This
is a chance for both the supervisor and the employee to address
perceptions, beliefs, and expectations. This can be accomplished
if a supervisor makes both the planning documents and evaluation
comments as specific as possible.
Every planning document should include some expectations for professional development. That is, each of us should be striving to enhance our skill set and increase our performance. Even the most exceptional employees can have improvement goals.
Note that the evaluation form has several pages at the end for supplementing the standard form requirements. These pages are perfect for developing criteria that are office-specific and that may not be listed on the first pages of the form. Also, these pages can be used to provide examples of standard and exceptional performance and to set professional development goals.
The Human Resources Division has a page of additional tips for evaluating staff members. This can be found at http://hr.sc.edu/relations/erempevl.html. One fact you will find on this page is that evaluation training sessions are held on a regular basis. This would also be an excellent way for long-time supervisors to get new ideas for evaluation as you think about ways to improve your current system. Remember, a strong evaluation is validated by a strong evaluation system. By clearly specifying criteria, by providing honest appraisals that distinguish between standard and outstanding performance, and by encouraging professional development you will be assisting the members of your staff in demonstrating their productivity and propensity to improve.
