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EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION POLICY 1 Amended 6/18/2019 INTRODUCTION Completing performance evaluations is a best practice that affords both supervisors and employees time to review job performance, share successes, establish goals, discuss professional development, and open lines of communication. Employees typically both want and need feedback on their performance in order to feel successful at their job. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION FORM Given the variety of tasks performed throughout the City, departments have the freedom to adopt and utilize their own evaluation forms once approved by the City Administrator or designee. Appraisal forms should clearly provide performance ratings on categories involving essential job duties and general work ethic such as punctuality; attendance; customer service; communication; and efficiency and accuracy. A standard evaluation form is also available through Human Resources. EVALUATION CYCLE Probationary Employees – the immediate supervisor, after establishing probationary goals & objectives, should provide the probationary employee with a written evaluation every 90 days during the probationary period, with the final evaluation occurring two weeks PRIOR to the conclusion of the probationary period and to include a recommendation as to whether the employee should be converted to permanent status Permanent Employees – employees shall be evaluated annually with new goals & objectives mutually agreed upon with the immediate supervisor. Department heads are in-charge of the overall employee performance evaluation program within their departments. It is the department head’s responsibility to ensure all employees are evaluating within the prescribed cycles and that performance ratings issued by the immediate supervisor reflect the employee’s actual performance. Department heads may charge immediate supervisors with the task of completing timely performance evaluations on those employees to whom they provide at least 50% oversight and who fall within their supervisory purview in their current job description. Department heads, with the City Administrator’s approval, may withhold the immediate supervisor’s pay adjustment until the annual evaluations are completed. EVALUATING PERFORMANCE Performance evaluation results should not be a surprise to the employee as open communication with clear expectation between employees and supervisors should occur throughout the year. The selected performance scores by category should be fair and reflect the year-long effort made by the employee in the area measured by the scoring criteria. Examples should be provided to affirm the ranking selected, and supervisors should outline specific areas where the employee can ---PAGE BREAK--- EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION POLICY 2 Amended 6/18/2019 improve as appropriate. Supervisors may, at their discretion, request employees to complete a self-evaluation and/or develop a series of professional goals. Employees will have a clearer understanding of expectations if reasonable goals and objectives are agreed upon annually with the immediate supervisor. This step establishes the framework of future evaluations targeting areas where changes are needed to improve performance. The City encourages all supervisors seek initial and refresher training on completing evaluations, coaching/mentoring employees, and improving communication skills. Additionally, supervisors should avoid the following rating pitfalls: • The "Halo Effect": Employees that are liked are seen as excellent in every area; if disliked, deficient in every area. • Overweighing of Recent Occurrences: This includes either favorable or unfavorable ones. • "Central Tendency": Supervisor, reluctant to rate an employee either high or low, rates the employee average to avoid the need for justification. • The "Sunflower Effect": All employees are rated high in order to look good to the supervisor's boss. EVALUATION MEETING In advance of the evaluation meeting, the supervisor and employee should select a meeting time and place when a relaxing, uninterrupted, private discussion can take place. Supervisors should use discretion to avoid outlining areas needing improvement in an overly empathic manner and should attempt, when possible, to offer strong or positive examples to provide a balanced review. Additionally, employees should feel comfortable providing the supervisor feedback and/or discussing potential inaccuracies in the performance evaluation. Employees should be granted the latitude to provide a timely written response if desired, and such response is to be attached to the evaluation form. An employee’s signature on the evaluation form documents that the evaluation was completed and reviewed with them; it does not necessarily indicate agreement. If there are items that are left open for whatever reason, the Supervisor should make every effort to follow-up and close the item in a reasonable time period. WORK PLANS When behavior and/or performance fall below the satisfactory rank, supervisors may implement a specific work plan for the employee. Work plans focus on current behavior, why it’s unacceptable, and what the desired result should be within a clearly established timeframe. Work plans should be both objective and measurable. The plan may specify the consequences for not meeting stated objectives within the prescribed timeframe. ---PAGE BREAK--- EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION POLICY 3 Amended 6/18/2019 Communication between the supervisor and the employee should be more frequent in order to provide direct feedback during the duration of the work plan. FILING Once completed and executed, employee performance evaluations and work plans are to be sent to Human Resources and incorporated in the employee’s personnel file.