Performance Conversations

Resources

Role of Supervisor

  • Understand the University’s Performance Management process
  • Communicate division, department, and team priorities
  • Establish and communicate clear annual performance expectations with each employee
  • Ensure that every employee has performance goals each year and approve them within UR Talent Web
  • Check in with each employee regularly on performance, accomplishments, and development
  • Know how to use UR Talent Web

Role of Human Resources

  • Establish and communicate the annual performance timeline
  • Manage the system to document performance evaluations and goals
  • Provide training and resources on goal setting, performance management, performance conversations and UR Talent Web

Process Steps

  1. Performance conversations should be done at the beginning of each year to establish expectations and goals (both professional and developmental) for the year ahead, at least once during the year to check in on progress, and at the end of the year to have a formal annual review conversation. Performance check-in conversations can be done more regularly and as needed throughout the year.
  2. Before any performance conversation, review the goals established for each employee, assess progress, and document examples, feedback, and input from co-workers, colleagues, and clients (this can be done throughout the year in the goals comments section of UR Talent Web).
  3. Consider what has helped the employee achieve goals and what things might be getting in the way.
  4. Schedule the performance conversation.
  5. Ask the employee to come prepared for the conversation and ready to discuss progress towards goals, input from colleagues, what helped to achieve the goals, what got in the way (if anything), and what kinds of professional development they are working on or would like to work on.
  6. During the conversation, review each goal and discuss what is going well, what progress is being made, what is helping to achieve the goals, what might be getting in the way. Share your honest assessment of the employee’s performance and provide behavioral examples. Discuss both areas of accomplishment as well as any areas that may require focus, attention, coaching, or development.
  7. If the conversation is an annual review conversation, make sure to print a draft of the review and bring it to the conversation. Review the document, share the overall performance rating and ask for the employee’s feedback. Once the conversation is complete, sign and submit the review in UR Talent Web.