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2025-26:

• Performance Evaluations for University Staff are due by August 26th
• Performance Planning (goals) are due by October 15th

2026-27:

• Performance Evaluations for University Staff are due by August 24, 2026.
• Performance Planning (goals) are due by TBD. (This date will be set by Central HR later this year).

CEAS expects all managers of exempt-professional staff to participate in a coaching session or feedback session during the mid-point of the performance cycle annually (sometime between January and March). Ongoing coaching sessions are encouraged and enrich our professional environment. The date(s) of the coaching session should be documented on the employee’s current planning and evaluation form (Part II Supervisor Feedback on the university staff form).
The following resources may be helpful tools in holding coaching sessions with your team:

• review these campus tips

Consistent with ,�� and the Administrative Policy Statement on , all university staff, including those who are partially or fully grant-funded, must receive an annual performance plan, a performance evaluation and an overall performance rating for each university staff position an individual employee occupies. Please visit the  for further guidance.

• In most cases, a rating of 3-Meeting Expectations is the appropriate rating. This means the employee is doing well in their role, performing all of their responsibilities to an acceptable level.
• If you feel the need to provide a 4-Exceeding Expectations or a 2-Below Expectations, please make sure to provide justification for these scores within the performance evaluation.
• A rating of 5-Outstanding  is for an employee who succeeds in an environment that was not planned for or would not be sustainable in the long-term. Meaning, a 5 should not be the standard for high performing employees as it might be asking them to accomplish too much beyond their normal responsibilities.
• A rating of 1-Fails to Meet Expectations will require a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) is initiated. This rating should not be a surprise to an employee as conversations should have been had trying to correct the performance prior to the Evaluation. If you feel this rating is warrented, please contact your HRL or CEAS HR to discuss.

Consider using these helpful tips to prepare for conducting effective evaluation meetings with your team members:

• Employee Self-Evaluation: Ensure your direct reports are clear on the goals they are reflecting on and encourage them to provide tangible examples that span the entire evaluation period. Utilize the employees’ self-evaluation in completion of day-to-day tasks and special projects as an important perspective when completing your assessment of their performance. A direct link between their individual performance and the achievement of departmental/unit goals can boost employees’ confidence in recognizing the importance of their job, especially in a challenging environment.
• Build Understanding and Clarity: Recognizing the full impact of recent years on goals, professional and personal development provides a dialogue of understanding and clarity when discussing the realistic picture of performance expectations.��Feedback and topics that are discussed should not be surprising to the employee or the first time you are discussing them. Rather, this is a time to clarify your ongoing feedback.
• Inclusion Awareness: Be mindful of valuing contributions across a variety of areas such as collaboration, mentoring, culture building, and the work the employee has done to create a more inclusive workplace. What efforts are we making to welcome and consider the ideas and views of other people? Performance reviews are a great way to recognize and hold employees accountable for continuously contributing to an inclusive culture. Using inclusive language in your delivery of feedback helps build equitable evaluations and engagement.
• Focus on how people stepped up and helped out: Reviews are about feedback, learning, growth and celebrating achievements. Take a holistic look at employee performance by focusing on the following points:
  • Ability of the employee to pivot and be agile to changing work demands
  • How did the employee contribute to college and campus values
  • How did the employee demonstrate leadership, delegation, decision making
  • How did the employee demonstrate the department or university values-based core competencies

It’s always a good time to connect with your employees about learning and development. Check out the following opportunities!

Campus HR-Led Trainings

Campus Human Resources offers a variety of training sessions for supervisors and managers throughout the year. Seminars are offered live, online or via self-paced modules to fit your schedule. Consider registering for workshops as your schedule allows during the semester:

• Crucial Conversations
• Crucial Accountability
• Emotional Intelligence
• 4 Essential Roles of Leadership
• Getting Things Done
• Employee Management Compliance and Essentials (self-paced online courses in SkillSoft are available)
• …and more!

Professional Development Funding

Any classified or university staff member employed in the college may apply for funding for exam fees, training sessions, workshops, conferences, certification programs or other activities that enhance their professional skills.��Read more about Engineering Staff Professional Development Funds.��  

Requests may be submitted at any time.��Staff members should discuss the request and cost-share with their supervisors before applying; procedures may vary across units.

All employees who resign, transfer, promote, or change supervisors during the performance management cycle must have a close-out evaluation prior to the final working day. This evaluation should be uploaded into Cornerstone. If there is a change in supervisors, the new supervisor must also receive a copy of the close-out evaluation. Please indicate the reason for the close-out evaluation in the upper right corner of the evaluation form with the appropriate dates.��

In the event that an employee has more than one supervisor during the course of the evaluation cycle, each supervisor must complete a close-out evaluation for the employee. However, the employee’s final overall evaluation score is determined by the supervisor who supervises the employee at the close of the evaluation cycle. That supervisor may take into consideration any close-out evaluation(s) from past supervisor(s) or positions for that evaluation cycle in determining the employees’ final overall evaluation score. The supervisor may choose to prorate the employee’s overall score.��

University Staff: The University Staff final evaluation task is available via Cornerstone July 1^st annually.�� If you have an employee who resigns, transfers units, or has a change in supervisor between September 1^st – June 30^th, please follow these steps to complete the closeout evaluation task since this task may not be accessible via Cornerstone.

• Work with your employee to incorporate their self-review into your final evaluation comments.
• Complete your final evaluation comments and have a conversation with your employee to share your feedback and rating score.
• In Cornerstone, you will need to create a new goal.
• For this new goal, please list the goal as “Closeout Evaluation Feedback”. As the description of the goal, you can also list “Closeout Evaluation Feedback”.�� Adjust the start and end dates of this goal to the date you conducted your closeout evaluation. The weight of the goal should be “0”. Sample below in the picture.
• Under “Attachments” upload your closeout evaluation feedback and rating score.�� These can be submitted together, or you can add feedback into the “description” box.
• Once you have submitted this goal, it will be included in your employee’s performance plan. You may choose to add comments into this goal as well once it’s been submitted.
• This goal as well as the accompanying comments will be accessible to the employee’s new supervisor if you complete this process for a transfer or a change in supervisor.

If an employee is transferring from a unit currently using Cornerstone, follow this guidance.��

All employees who transfer into CEAS or from another unit in CEAS during the performance management cycle must have performance goals put in place within the first 30 days of starting in the role.  

If an employee is transferring from a unit currently utilizing Cornerstone, the previous supervisor should have completed a closeout evaluation (see steps above). The feedback from the supervisor prior to the employee transfer should be taken into consideration as you develop goals and performance areas of focus. The employee’s final overall evaluation score is determined by the supervisor who supervises the employee at the close of the evaluation cycle. That supervisor may consider any close-out evaluation(s) from past supervisor(s) or positions for that evaluation cycle in determining the employees’ final evaluation score. The supervisor may choose to prorate the employee’s overall score.��

University Staff: The University Staff goal setting task is available via Cornerstone July 1^st annually. If you have an employee who transfers units between September 1^st – June 30^th, please follow these steps to put in place new performance goals since this task may not be accessible via Cornerstone.��

• Work with your new employee to develop goals and performance areas to focus on specific to their new role.  
• In Cornerstone, you will need to create new goals. Steps on how to create a new goal can be found on the Knowledge Base page.
• Once you have submitted the employees' goals, they will be included in their performance plan. You may choose to add comments into this goal as well once it has been submitted.
• Please note you may have to adjust the weightings of goals as applicable for a total combined weight of 100%.  

If an employee is transferring from a unit not currently using Cornerstone, follow this guidance.��

All employees who transfer into CEAS or from another unit in CEAS during the performance management cycle must have performance goals put in place within the first 30 days of starting in the role.  

If an employee is transferring from a unit not currently utilizing Cornerstone, please contact the previous supervisor for their closeout evaluation. The feedback from the supervisor prior to the employee transfer should be taken into consideration as you develop goals and performance areas of focus. The employee’s final overall evaluation score is determined by the supervisor who supervises the employee at the close of the evaluation cycle. That supervisor may consider any close-out evaluation(s) from past supervisor(s) or positions for that evaluation cycle in determining the employees’ final evaluation score. The supervisor may choose to prorate the employee’s overall score.��

University Staff: The University Staff goal setting task is available via Cornerstone July 1^st annually. If you have an employee who transfers units between September 1^st – June 30^th, please follow these steps to put in place new performance goals since this task may not be accessible via Cornerstone.