Performance Management and Evaluations

Performance evaluations are just one part of an annual performance management cycle. Review the information below to see how evaluations fit into the whole cycle and how they can become an important tool for employee development. 

Annual Performance Evaluations

The University of Oklahoma's performance evaluation and employee development system is designed to:

  • Encourage communication between an employee and their supervisor.
  • Assess past goal achievement and levels of performance.
  • Assist an employee and their supervisor in identifying future performance goals and objectives.
  • Serve as a basis for professional development planning.

Supervisors must submit a Summary Evaluation Report by March 31 for each employee (see Step 6). For calendar year 2022 only, the deadline has been extended to April 30, 2023. Supervisors may use supporting documentation approved by their department to assist with the evaluation process (see Step 2). 

Questions? Click here to read FAQs.

Expanded Rating Scale

We have expanded the overall performance evaluation ratings from four to five categories. The main goals for the change are to 1) provide supervisors with more opportunities to recognize their top performers, 2) provide employees with more meaningful feedback, and 3) provide additional clarity to each rating category.

The five overall rating categories are:

  • Outstanding
  • Exceeds Expectations
  • Meets Expectations
  • Needs Improvement
  • Unsatisfactory

Please view this document to see the full comparison between the previous and expanded rating scales

1. Schedule Performance Discussion

Supervisor schedules the performance discussion. Allow adequate time for preparation, performance review and the feedback session. Last minute evaluations may result in ineffective reviews.

Supervisor and employee review performance data including goals, achievements, and feedback given throughout the year.

Employees should complete an employee self-assessment and supervisors should prepare to discuss performance data. Consider using these sample documents:

Sample Evaluation Forms & Employee Self-Assessment

2. Gather Performance Data

Supervisor and employee review performance data, including progress on current goals. 

Tips for submitting a Performance Evaluation Summary Report

  • Download the current Staff Performance Evaluation Summary Report from OUHR website.
  • Please be sure to open the PDF file in Adobe Acrobat, otherwise the file will not have all the features you need. Please do not complete the form in Google Chrome.
  • In the Evaluator Comments or Employee Comments section, be sure not to exceed the 500-character limit.
  • If you need more space than the 500-character limit, use a second sheet of paper. Be sure to include the employee’s name, EMPL ID, and Evaluator Comments or Employee’s Comments at the top of the second sheet in case the second sheet and the Summary Report are separated.

Once Summary Reports have been submitted to Central Human Resources, they will be reviewed and later uploaded to each employee’s Employee Records in PeopleSoft.

3. Conduct Discussion

Discuss the following topics during the meeting; the supervisor or employee may agree to discuss other topics as well:
  • Review goals agreed upon at previous performance discussions. 
  • Review developmental activities that have occurred since the previous performance discussion. 
  • Compare and discuss the evaluation forms completed by the employee and supervisor for the current year. 
  • Plan goals and employee development for the next evaluation period.

4. Obtain Signatures

The supervisor will forward the completed evaluation forms and any other documents to the department head for review, comment, and signature.The evaluation documents must be signed and dated by the supervisor, employee, and department head.

5. File Paperwork

Copies of the documents will be made for the supervisor and employee's records for future use. Originals are maintained in the employee’s departmental file.

6. Send Summary to Human Resources

While we strongly encourage you to use the templates available on this page to fully document employee performance, the only document that needs to be submitted to HR is the Staff Performance Evaluation Summary Report, via the below instructions. If a supervisor requires more than the 500-character limit on the Summary Report, an additional sheet of paper may be used. At the top of the paper, the employee’s name, EMPL ID, and the heading, “Evaluator’s Comments,” at the top. Additional documentation, such as the complete performance evaluation, should be kept in the department.

For Norman and HSC campuses, the Dean/VP office should also submit the completed electronic scoring sheet provided by Human Resources. Submit this form to Human Resources by March 31 each year.

The process for Norman and HSC campuses is:
  • Supervisor: Submit Summary Report directly to your Budget Head.
  • Budget Head: Review and sign, then submit Summary Report to Dean/VP office.
  • Deans/VPs: Submit paper Summary Reports AND electronic scoring spreadsheet provided by Human Resources to HR Employee Relations

Once the above process is complete, submit forms to the following:
  • Norman Campus: Please submit all forms to HR Employee Relations, 905 Asp Ave. NEL 242, Norman, OK 73019, ohr@ou.edu
  • OKC Campus: Please submit to your assigned HR Business Partner - HR Employee Relations, 865 Research Park, Suite 270, Oklahoma City, OK 73104
  • Tulsa Campus: Please submit all forms to the Office of Human Resources, 4502 E. 41st St., Suite 2F05, Tulsa, OK 74135

Performance Management Cycle

The annual performance management cycle helps build careers and strengthen teams. Learn more about the phases of this cycle below.

Begin the process of performance management by clearly communicating with the employee the expectations for the evaluation period. Include clear descriptions of objectives and performance expectations. 

Objectives

In the Planning Phase, the manager establishes the objectives or expectations for the coming evaluation period, often in collaboration with the employee. Objectives:
  • provide an up-front, mutually understood and accepted basis for reviewing and discussing performance results.
  • reduce misunderstandings between the manager and the employee about what performance results he/she is expected to achieve.
  • specify each employee’s role in accomplishing things that are important for the work unit and the organization.
  • help the employee to self-monitor progress by providing clear performance targets.

Types of objectives

Consider what types of objectives are most appropriate for the employee’s specific job for the upcoming performance period.

  • Short-range objectives can be accomplished within the performance cycle.
  • Long-range objectives might require a full performance cycle or longer to complete, (and will probably have to be divided into two or three objectives, or spread over several “milestones”).
  • Routine or maintenance objectives will help you maintain performance at currently acceptable levels, or keep things at a minimum standard.
  • Organizational objectives contribute directly to the wider organization (such as establishing a new procedure within a unit).
  • Problem-solving objectives can be set to improve performance that has slipped below acceptable levels.
  • Innovative objectives are created to stimulate creativity or new thinking, or take a fresh approach.
  • Personal development objectives are meant to enhance the employee’s development and his/her long-term performance results.

S.M.A.R.T. Objectives

Specific: Make the accountability or goal clear to the employee so that they know what’s expected.

Measurable: The supervisor needs to be able to determine whether the activity took place and how well it was done.

Attainable: The employee will be frustrated if they are supposed to be responsible for activities that are beyond their control or that cannot be achieved in a reasonable amount of time.

Relevant: Each task should be related directly to the job, a personal developmental objective, or organizational mission or strategic plan.

Time-based: The supervisor and employee should be able to track progress against specified target dates and timeframes.

Performance Expectations

Managers must clearly communicate expectations to employees. Clear, direct expectations help employees focus on their performance and can lead to the results you have outlined. Check in with your employees frequently to reconfirm they are working towards the right goals and to identify possible opportunities for improvement.

Performance expectations are the “how” or “how well” the objective was achieved. They describe the ways you can measure if objectives have been reached and how well activities have been performed. When specific expectations are discussed, the employee knows exactly what they need to do and you can objectively determine how well the employee has done it.

Performance expectations generally fall into one or more of the following categories: 
  • Quality: How well an activity is performed or to what standard the task is completed. This includes accuracy, appearance of work, usefulness and effectiveness. The measure may be expressed as an error rate or a percentage of errors allowable per specific unit.
  • Quantity: How much or how many of the results are produced or performed. Numbers or percentages may be used to measure quantity. The manager must have a system to ensure that quantity standards are accurately tracked and measured.
  • Timeliness: How fast a result is produced or performed.
  • Manner: The way or style in which a task is performed or produced.
  • Method: The policies, procedures and technical considerations that are applied to complete the task.
  • Cost: The effective use of resources including human, organizational and physical resources to complete a task.

 

This phase of performance management - the time when performance actually occurs - is often overlooked and undermanaged. The following information and forms can be used to ensure that managers and employees talk about performance and performance expectations throughout the year.

In many instances, this phase is the most overlooked: supervisors and managers who fail to communicate performance expectations, to monitor performance, and to provide feedback and coaching for improved performance miss the opportunity to fully engage employees in the work of the university.

Employees also have the opportunity - and responsibility - to be active participants in the performance management process. 

Record of Meetings
Feedback and Coaching Log

Employee Responsibilities

Committing to goal achievement

A manager's desires and requirements do not become goals until employees or teams choose to expend the time and effort to achieve it. When goals are clear, worthwhile, and challenging, the greater the chances that the employee will be motivated to achieve them.

Goals are not tasks, but results – Outputs.  Goals shift focus from tasks and work habits to work outcomes.

Soliciting performance feedback and coaching

Actively seeking feedback and making use of the data to improve performance. Example: reviewing plans with manager in advance, describing actions to be taken and soliciting assistance. Manager should have something to contribute: prevents surprises and helps eliminate the possibility of the manager’s later complaining that an obvious problem was not anticipated

Communicating openly and regularly with manager

Schedule times to just “visit” to discuss performance and projects – put them on your calendar, if it helps, at regular intervals

Collecting and sharing performance data

As projects are completed and goals are achieved, the individual needs to advise the manager of the current status of the objectives that were set at the beginning of the period.

Preparing for performance reviews

The review meeting is a dialogue. Employees are expected to prepare for the meeting and to be an active participant.

Manager Responsibilities

Creating conditions that generate motivation

The results of high motivation are job satisfaction, drive, enthusiasm, and achievement.

What motivates your employees? Ask them. Motivators usually deal with job content and demotivators deal with job context. 

Motivators
Demotivators
  • opportunity to achieve
  • chance to accomplish
  • recognition
  • feedback
  • ‘real’ responsibility
  • learn and grow – stretched
  • discretion
  • autonomy
  • stimulating and worthwhile work
  • out of date policies
  • administered unfairly, haphazardly
  • inept or incompetent supervision
  • inadequate salary
  • working conditions
  • bad benefits
  • interpersonal relationships

Managers have control over the motivators by delegating tasks valued by the organization, increasing opportunities for achievement, increasing the number of decisions an employee is allowed to make, and assigning projects that will cause learning and growth.

Observing and documenting performance

Make a brief and informal note, recording date, the facts and details of the incident, the specific behavior or the employee and the effect on the work or the people involved. 

Update, revise initial objectives, performance standards, and job competency areas.

Successful performance management must be dynamic: conditions change over the course of the performance cycle, standards of performance expected of managers and individuals also need to change.

Providing feedback and coaching

"Feedback is information that has the ability to assist the performer to make midcourse corrections that increase the probability of goal attainment.” Dick Grote

Without an objective and standards that define success in accomplishing the objective, feedback is useless data or opinion.

Performance problems require examination of objectives, standards, and feedback the individual is using to assess his or her performance; if one is defective then it is impossible to achieve a good result.

Coaching for improved performance is critical.

Providing developmental experiences    

Individuals are responsible for their own development, although managers can make developmental opportunities available. Developmental experiences can range from participation in workshops to opportunities “in place” that offer occasions for genuine development.

Reinforcing effective behavior and progress toward objectives

We seek information concerning what activities are rewarded, and then seek to do those things, often to the virtual exclusion of activities not rewarded.

“For an organization to act upon its members the formal reward system should positively reinforce desired behavior, not constitute an obstacle to be overcome.” S. Kerr

Both employee and supervisor are active in this phase of performance management as each has the obligation to assess performance against goals and objectives. Assessment can happen periodically throughout the year and should be done in the first step of preparing for annual performance evaluations (see tab above).

In this phase, the manager should draft the performance evaluation and review it with their department head or other designated person and HR, if needed. The manager should also schedule and prepare for the review meeting with the employee.

The employee should complete the self-assessment below, include documentation, and provide a copy to their manager.

Employee Self-Assessment form

Supervisor and employee meet together to discuss performance. They discuss the results achieved (what), the performance effectiveness (how), the summary performance rating, and discuss plans for the next year. This can be done throughout the year and should be included in the annual performance evaluation process (see tab above). 

Performance Review Checklist

Closing the Loop: Renewal

Step 5 should include the planning in Step 1 for the upcoming year. This can be done throughout the year and should be included during the annual performance evaluation process (see tab above). Incorporate the additional data and insights gained during this previous appraisal process. The manager and employee revise any of the objectives that may have changed over the year and set new objectives and standards for the upcoming performance period;  finally creating the ongoing and continuous nature of the performance management cycle.

Goal Planning form

 

For best results, download the Performance Evaluation Summary Report form and edit in Adobe Acrobat.

Also, if you need additional writing space, you may use a separate sheet of paper. Please be sure to write the employee's name, EMPL ID, and supervisor's name on the additional page.  

Evaluations
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION SUMMARY REPORT - REQUIRED
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
 
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION GUIDELINES
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
   
SAMPLE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION - NON-EXEMPT (HOURLY) STAFF
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
 
SAMPLE PERFORMANCE EVALUATION - EXEMPT (MONTHLY) STAFF
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
 
EMPLOYEE SELF-ASSESSMENT
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
 
ANNUAL PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS FAQS
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
 
7 Results Results

 

Ongoing Performance Management
PERFORMANCE & GOAL PLANNING
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
   
RECORD OF MEETING
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
   
FEEDBACK AND COACHING LOG
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
   
EMPLOYEE SELF-ASSESSMENT
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
 
PERFORMANCE DISCUSSION CHECKLIST
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
   
9 Results Results

To assist with the evaluation process, the HR Business Partner team has developed these aids:

 

Document Search Results
TIPS FOR WRITING ANNUAL PERFORMANCE EVALUATIONS
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
 
TIPS FOR WRITING YOUR ANNUAL SELF-ASSESSMENT
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
 
JOB AID- INDIVIDUAL TRAINING HISTORY
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
 
TIPS FOR DELIVERING A REVIEW
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
 
TRAINING REPORT JOB AID FOR PEOPLESOFT
Campus: HSC, Norman, Tulsa
 
5 Results Results

Contact

  • Norman: HR Employee Relations, 405-325-1826, NEL 242 
  • OKC Campus: HR Employee Relations, 405-271-2194, Suite 270 
  • Tulsa: Office of Human Resources, 918-660-3190, Room 2F05

Policies

University of Oklahoma Staff Handbook
Section 3.19 - Performance Evaluation