Handbook - prior to January 2019

Performance Appraisal Procedures [edit]

Annual performance appraisals are conducted each year for all office, physical plant and administrative staff. Both the employee and the supervisor participate in the completion of the appraisal form. See Performance Appraisals in the appendices.

Purpose

To manage and assess the performance of each employee by giving constructive feedback on how well an employee has met the specific job requirements and reinforcing the employee’s role in contributing to the mission and vision of Christian higher education as expressed and carried out by Eastern Mennonite University. The appraisal process gives the employee opportunity to contribute ideas for enhancing his or her performance and productivity by setting and assessing goals.

Policy

It is the policy of Eastern Mennonite University to provide annual written appraisals of employee work performance for the purpose of:

• documenting and detailing employee completion of assigned responsibilities and general job performance
• providing feedback to employees about their work and progress within the university
• highlighting achievements or deficiencies for the purpose of affirmation or improvement
• identifying training needs

Procedure

• Training sessions for supervisors will be offered annually prior to annual evaluations.
• Employees normally are reviewed after the first three and six months of employment using the three/six month performance appraisal. The annual performance appraisals are completed during the months of March through May. Some flexibility will be considered in scheduling performance appraisals for 9-10 month employees. The university reserves the right to conduct unscheduled reviews in the event of drastic changes in performance or for other reasons deemed appropriate by the supervisor.
• The Human Resources Office is responsible for initiating the performance appraisal process by notifying the respective supervisor at the appropriate time. Performance Appraisals are available on MyEMU under the “Employee Info” tab.
• The employee’s job description needs to be evaluated and updated so that it accurately reflects any changes in work load, employment hours, specific responsibilities, title, or general editing. An updated, signed job description is to be returned to the Human Resources Office with the completed performance appraisal forms.
• Completed performance appraisals are filed in the respective employee’s personnel file in the Human Resources Office.

Guidelines

• Conduct the performance review in private with minimal interruptions.
• Emphasize positive aspects of the employee’s performance.
• Focus criticisms on performance, not on personality characteristics.
• Stay calm and do not argue with the person being evaluated.
• Identify specific actions the employee can take to improve performance.
• Emphasize your willingness to assist the employee’s efforts to improve performance.
• End the evaluation session by stressing the positive aspects of the employee’s performance.

If an employee feels a supervisor has been unfair in the performance appraisal process and a satisfactory agreement cannot be reached between the employee and supervisor, the employee may request the assistance of the director of human resources.