Understanding Document Templates
Document templates store information that is used to generate specific document instances for use by participants in the evaluation process. Options on the document template define:
The roles that can participate in the review process.
What activities each role can perform.
The steps in the review process.
The items that are evaluated.
Image: Relationship between ePerformance tables between core ePerformance tables, document templates, and generated performance documents
This diagram illustrates the relationship between the core ePerformance tables, document templates, and generated performance documents.
The decisions you make and the options you select when you define templates influence the way the evaluation process is conducted in an organization. Organizations often define a high-level template and then successively clone and modify this template for the appropriate levels of the organization. For example, an organization might want a set of goals and initiatives for all employees. Each business unit clones this template with the common goals and initiatives and modifies it to add goals and initiatives that apply only to their business unit.
Before defining templates, consider:
Which features are appropriate for the types of documents that are used in the organization.
For example, some organizations use documents to enhance communication between managers and employees, and do not assign ratings. Others assign a single overall rating, or rate each individual item (such as goals, responsibilities, or competencies) that is contained in the document.
Ease of use and reuse when you design document templates.
Limiting the number of templates that you create for each document type makes it easier for users to select the correct template when they generate performance documents and simplifies template maintenance.
Making the basic content in a template as generic as possible so that templates are flexible enough to meet the needs of large groups of employees.
You can then use job profiles to include job-specific competencies and responsibilities for all employees in a particular job, job family, position, or salary grade. By doing so, each employee's annual performance document has the same general appearance and instructions, but includes the competencies and responsibilities that are relevant to the particular job.