Performance Management System

It is the policy of the University to maintain a Performance Management System approved by the Office of State Personnel in accordance with State law and policy. Such a system includes several components:

• an agency-specific policy,
• individual employee work plans,
• development plans,
• an education/training program,
• a dispute resolution process, and
• a performance management and pay advisory committee.

The University views the Performance Management System as a communications system designed to help employees succeed. It is directed by managers and supervisors but requires active participation by employees. The Performance Management System ensures that employees:

• are aware of their principal job functions,
• understand the level of performance expected,
• receive timely feedback about their performance,
• have opportunities for education, training and development, and
• receive performance ratings and rewards in a fair and consistent manner.

Performance appraisal information is one consideration in making other personnel decisions such as promotions, performance-based disciplinary actions, and salary increases. Proposed personnel actions must be consistent with overall evaluations. Although there is a relationship between performance appraisals and determining employee eligibility for performance-based salary increases and bonuses, the System's primary focus is on managing employee performance towards the successful achievement of expectations set forth in the employee's work plan.

The Performance Management System applies to all permanent SPA employees who are regularly scheduled to work 20 hours or more each work week.

Performance functions, expectations, and appraisals are guided by the five-point North Carolina Rating Scale:

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE (O)

Performance is far above the defined job expectations. The employee consistently does outstanding work, regularly going far beyond what is expected of employees in this job. Performance that exceeds expectations is due to the effort and skills of the employee. Any performance not consistently exceeding expectations is minor or due to events not under the control of the employee.

VERY GOOD PERFORMANCE (VG)

Performance meets the defined job expectations and in many instances, exceeds job expectations. The employee generally is doing a very good job. Performance that exceeds expectations is due to the effort and skills of the employee.

GOOD PERFORMANCE (G)

Performance meets the defined job expectations. The employee generally performs according to the expectations doing a good job. The employee is doing the job at the level expected for employees in this position. The good performance is due to the employee's own effort and skills.

BELOW GOOD PERFORMANCE (BG)

Performance may meet some of the job expectations but does not fully meet the remainder. The employee generally is doing the job at a minimal level, and improvement is needed to fully meet the expectations. Performance is less than a good job. Lapses in performance are due to the employee's lack of effort or skills.

UNSATISFACTORY PERFORMANCE (U)

Performance generally fails to meet the defined expectations or requires frequent, close supervision and/or the redoing of work. The employee is not doing the job at the level expected for employees in this position. Unsuccessful job performance is due to the employee's own lack of effort or skills.

The University's official Performance Management Cycle for SPA employees begins June 1 and ends May 31. Shorter (or longer) cycles may be allowed for the evaluation of performance, depending on the employee's entry-on-duty date. The Performance Management Cycle includes the following elements:

• Work Plan
• Development Plan
• Work Planning Conference
• Interim Performance Review
• Annual Performance Review

In the Work Plan, the supervisor identifies the principal functions of each employee's position and establishes specific performance expectations, perrformance indicators, and sources of indicator data. These are defined and written at the "Good" performance level, based on the five-level North Carolina Rating Scale. The work plan includes regular and recurring duties as well as special projects, and may be developed by the supervisor alone or with significant input from the employee. The supervisor should include as many of the employee's suggestions as possible without losing sight of the unit's goals and objectives. If a department has several employees working in very similar or identical positions, entire work plans (excluding Development Plans) or selected principal functions and performance expectations may be standardized.

Supervisors must provide Work Plans to employees as follows:

• Probationary employees and other permanent employees new to the department or unit must have a work plan within 30 days of beginning employment in an existing position. This may be extended (not to exceed 90 days) if the position is new and the details of its functions are still evolving.
• Employees in trainee progressions must have work plans within 30 to 90 days of initial employment.
• Employees whose principal functions change significantly (either by promotion, transfer or other action) must have a revised work plan within 30 days of the change.
• Employees must have a revised work plan within 30 days of the beginning of a new performance management cycle. (The work plan may or may not have changed from the previous cycle.)

Required Principal Functions for Supervisors

All supervisors of SPA employees are required to have the following two principal functions included in their work plans.

Performance Management Principal Function: All supervisors, managers, department heads, directors, deans, chairs, and vice chancellors are responsible for assuring that the policies and procedures of the Performance Management System are administered fairly and consistently.

Each supervisor's work plan must have a principal function that describes the responsibility for managing the performance of subordinate employees in accordance with this policy.

Learning & Development Principal Function: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is strongly committed to a campus environment in which all members of the University community are encouraged to pursue opportunities for learning and professional growth and to draw on the institution's own intellectual resources as well as external sources in seeking those opportunities.  Such an environment is fundamental to staff morale and retention and to the character of a premier education institution.  While responsibility lies with the employee to seek appropriate learning activities, it is essential for this to occur within a supportive institutional climate.  The leadership of the University places a particular importance on the role of supervisors in enabling employees to achieve their educational goals and expects those in supervisory positions to support and encourage the participation of staff members in learning activities as fully as possible within the framework of an effective workplace.  Employees are encouraged to seek the assistance of their supervisors and other university employees as they develop a professional development plan.

Each supervisor's work plan must have a principal function that describes the responsibility for encouraging and supporting professional development of subordinate employees in accordance with this policy.

Principal Function for Supervisors: Support staff development.

Performance Standard:  Encourage and support professional and personal development of staff by at least annual conversations regarding professional and personal development goals with each staff member and by jointly agreeing on an annual career development plan for each employee.

Performance Indicators:  Annual conversations will be held with each staff member and an annual development plan prepared.

Sources of Data: Development plans for staff.

Every Work Plan must include a Development Plan, even if no development activities occur within the performance management cycle.

The Development Plan lists employee activities designed to provide additional knowledge, skills and abilities needed to maintain or improve performance. The supervisor must also include the means by which the supervisor and management will support these development activities.

Development activities are recommended for all employees, and may be suggested by either the supervisor or the employee. Activities may be added at any time during a cycle. If there are no development activities, a statement such as "No activities at this time" must be included on the Development Plan, and the Development Plan must be initialed and attached to the Work Plan.

Development activities are mandatory if:

• performance of a principal function or the overall evaluation is rated as "Below Good" or "Unsatisfactory" on the interim review, annual review, or in another significant period during the work cycle; or
• the employee must acquire a new body of knowledge or skill in order to maintain performance at or above the "Good" level.

The employee and supervisor both retain copies of the Work Plan to help focus the employee's efforts, and to use as a performance guideline, throughout the work cycle.

Work Planning Conferences are discussions between the supervisor and employee about the contents of the Work Plan, the Development Plan, and other performance-related concerns.

One of the most important parts of the Performance Management System is the work planning conference that takes place at the beginning of a performance cycle. This work planning conference may be a single discussion or the culmination of several fact-finding meetings designed to identify the principal functions, performance standards, and development plan activities. The work planning conference establishes a communications channel between the supervisor and the employee that will be needed if both the employee and the unit are to achieve their respective goals for the current cycle.

During this initial work planning conference, the supervisor and employee discuss the Work Plan in order to come to an understanding of the principal functions and the levels of performance expected for "Good" performance. The supervisor and the employee work to resolve any items that are unclear. Any activities included in the Development Plan are also discussed. Employee input is encouraged, however, management retains the authority and responsibility for determining the content of the work plan.

Supervisors and employees must hold a work planning conference within 30 days of the beginning of a new performance cycle (or hiring) to review the existing work plan and to make revisions as needed for the new cycle.

Throughout the performance management cycle, supervisors and employees may schedule additional work planning conferences as needed. Supervisors also manage performance through day-to-day supervision, training, coaching, reinforcing, tracking actual performance, and informal discussions with the employee.

Supervisors must conduct an interim performance review session with each covered employee no later than December 31 of each year.

For new employees who begin work with less than four months remaining in the cycle, the interim review is optional at the department's discretion. However, periodic work planning conferences are strongly recommended if no interim review is conducted.

During the interim review, the supervisor and employee discuss progress toward achieving the performance standards described in the work plan. A rating is assigned for each principal function. Successes are noted. Corrective action must be initiated for any performance standards or overall evaluation documented at the "Below Good" or "Unsatisfactory" level, and recorded on the development plan. The supervisor records the results of the interim review on "Performance Review" form. The overall evaluation must be discussed, but does not have to be recorded.

The employee, supervisor, and the next higher level supervisor must sign and date the form. The employee may indicate on the document if s/he agrees or disagrees with the evaluation. The employee is required to sign this form. The signature indicates only that the performance review session was held; it does not imply agreement with the statements or ratings contained in review. In the event the employee declines to sign, the supervisor may add the comment, "Employee declined to sign" and proceed with the signature process.

Supervisors must conduct an annual performance review session with each covered employee no later than May 31 of each year.

The supervisor and the employee meet to discuss each principal function and the employee's actual performance results as documented on the "Performance Review" form. A performance rating is assigned for each principal function based on the comparison between the performance expectation and the employee's actual performance. An overall evaluation is also assigned.

Determining the overall evaluation is an important decision. There is no simple mathematical formula with combinations of some number of functions rated at one level and other functions rated at other levels dictating a specific overall evaluation. Rather, the determination of the appropriate overall evaluation requires consideration of all available performance information and the application of sound judgment on the part of management.

In addition to employee performance issues, matters of employee conduct also should be considered when determining the overall evaluation. Depending on the nature of the conduct, an overall evaluation may be raised or lowered from the level that would have been assigned absent the conduct. In order to be able to adjust an employee's overall evaluation due to personal conduct, management must be able to document a relationship between the conduct and the performance of the individual and its affect on the larger organization.

As with the interim review, the annual performance review session is intended to be a dialogue between the supervisor and the employee. The employee should be encouraged to respond to the supervisor's assessments and to add comments to the "Performance Review."

The employee, supervisor, and the next higher level supervisor must sign and date the form. The employee may indicate on the document if s/he agrees or disagrees with the evaluation. The employee is required to sign this form. The signature indicates only that the performance review session was held; it does not imply agreement with the statements or ratings contained in review. In the event the employee declines to sign, the supervisor may add the comment, "Employee declined to sign" and proceed with the signature process.

No information may be added to the Performance Review form without the employee's knowledge. Changes to the form must be initialed and dated by the employee, supervisor, and next higher level supervisor.

Management must provide a copy of the completed and signed "Performance Review" that includes all comments and signatures, as well as notification of the appeals process.

Following the annual performance review, work plans are revised or rewritten as needed for the next cycle.

An employee should not maintain an overall evaluation of "Below Good" for more than six months (one-half of the cycle). This six-month period can begin at any time during the cycle after the supervisor advises the employee that performance deficiencies exist, and outlines in the development plan the steps to be taken to restore performance to at least the "Good" level. Corrective action can include, but is not limited to, training opportunities, job restructuring, employee transfer to another position, demotion, or other actions appropriate for the circumstances. If, after six months, the employee fails to correct the deficiencies so that performance reaches at least the "Good" level, the supervisor must then rate the employee's performance as "Unsatisfactory."

If an employee maintains an overall evaluation of "Unsatisfactory" for six months or does not reach the "Good" level, the supervisor must begin corrective, progressive disciplinary action immediately following the end of the six months. If an employee receives two consecutive overall evaluations (at least six months apart) of "Below Good" and/or "Unsatisfactory," the second such evaluation requires the issuance of a formal written warning.

Performance management is an integral part of the management process. Decisions reached for certain other personnel decisions must be consistent with performance documentation. As provided by State policy, management must ensure that employee performance has been recently reviewed before any of the following personnel actions may be taken:

• promotion,
• performance increase or performance bonus,
• performance-based disciplinary action, or
• layoff.

An interim review, annual review, or other documented performance review satisfies this requirement. For new employees, a summary rating of their performance to date satisfies the intent of this policy.

Management must ensure that any of the above actions is consistent with the overall evaluation recorded on the employee's performance review. For example, it would not be consistent to promote an employee whose documented performance is at the "Below Good" level. Likewise, it would be inappropriate to propose a disciplinary action based on poor performance if documentation shows performance at or above the "Good" level. If a proposed personnel action appears to be inconsistent with an employee's overall evaluation, the Office of Human Resources may request additional information from management to justify implementing the action.

Under State policy, sanctions may be levied by the Chancellor or appropriate department head or dean against any supervisor who does not follow the provisions of the Performance Management System. Examples of sanctions include:

• denial of a performance increase/performance bonus for a supervisor who receives a rating of less than the "Good" level for the principal function that addresses performance management responsibility;
• appropriate disciplinary warnings, up to and including dismissal, for failure to carry out State and University policy;
• transfer or demotion from a supervisory position following a second warning.

Completed and signed Annual Performance Reviews must be maintained by the department for three years and then destroyed. All performance review documents are confidential.

Annual Performance Rating Data Entry: After each performance cycle, overall ratings for each employee must be entered into the Human Resources Information System (HRIS). Each department's HR Facilitator is responsible for this data entry.

Employee Transfer: Before an employee transfers to another State agency or another position outside his/her department, the supervisor must complete "Performance Review Summary Transfer Form." The completed form and the employee's work plan for the current cycle are forwarded to the employee's new supervisor.

Supervisor Transfer: Before an supervisor transfers to another State agency or another position outside his/her department, the supervisor and the next higher level supervisor must document the progress of unit employees toward achieving their performance expectations. The "Performance Review" form may be used to document this evaluation, and a copy of the documentation must be given to the employee.

The University's Performance Management and Pay Advisory Committee, made up of nine members (managers, supervisors, and employees) appointed by the Chancellor, assists the Office of Human Resources in monitoring University compliance with State and University policy. The committee meets twice a year to review the administration of the System, and reports to the Chancellor findings of program successes, problem areas, suggestions for System improvements, and other related information.

If you have questions about this policy, contact the Employee & Management Relations Specialist in the Office of Human Resources assigned to work with your department.