Goal Management

Getting Started with Goal Management

Goal Management

The Goal Management feature provides an alternative to traditional organizational hierarchies, one that is used specifically for goal management. In most organizations, the traditional organizational structure used for cost center management is too fine-grained for business goal management. The alternative structure enables the organization to use a simplified organizational structure for goal management. For example, an organization might have multiple cost centers for managing its call center support that might be, in turn, organized by product or geographic location.

The Goal Management feature provides the ability to define employee goals and competency goals, as well as themes, business goals, projects and project milestones.

A theme is the highest level used for categorizing goals. Themes provide support for organizations that use balanced scorecards in that they allow the categorization of goals and projects into specific scorecard categories such as Financial, Customer, and Development.
Business goals are qualitative or quantitative statements of an organization's intentions or objectives, for example, “Increase operational efficiency 5%.”
Projects are discrete efforts by the organization. Projects provide the ability to assign a project owner and to assign goals directly to employees working on the project, for example, “Evaluate, select and implement a talent management solution.”
Within a project, a milestone is an element that marks the completion of a specific set of tasks or a phase, typically marked by a high-level event such as a completion, an endorsement or signing of a deliverable, a document or a high-level review meeting. An example of a milestone is “Select talent management vendor.”

Configuration

The following product setting must be set.

Product Settings
Setting Name	Description	Location
Enable Goals Management	Enables Goals Management functionality in the application for employees. The activation of this setting does not enable business goals, which are enabled by a specific setting.	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Settings

The following user type permissions must be granted.

User Type Permissions
Permission Name	Description	Location
Performance > Goal Plans > View	When no constraint is selected, the user has read-only access to all goal plans, current or not. If restricted viewing permission is required, select the applicable constraints.	Configuration > [SmartOrg] Administration > [Users] User Accounts
Performance > Goal Plans > Manage	When no constraint is selected, the user has write access to all goal plans, current or not. If restricted managing permission is required, select the applicable constraints.	Configuration > [SmartOrg] Administration > [Users] User Accounts
Performance > Goal Plans > Access administration tools	This permission adds the Goal Plan link to the HR Administration Tools panel and entitles the user to perform administrative tasks in relation to goal plans	Configuration > [SmartOrg] Administration > [Users] User Accounts

Goal Alignment

Alignment is a loose concept, but one that allows the organization visibility into how employees are directing their efforts.

There are multiples types of goal alignment supported by the system:

Business Goal to Theme
Project to Business Goal
Business Goal to Business Goal
Employee Goal to Business Goal
Employee Goal to Employee Goal

In all of the above cases, the notion of alignment is to show that the subordinates' efforts are in support of the goal being aligned with. Alignment also provides the employees insights as to how their efforts benefit the organization. For example, for a Business Goal of “Increase Operational Efficiency 5%” a call center employee might have a Goal of “Resolve 80% of first level support calls within 5 minutes.

“Employee to Project” alignment is unique within the system. When an employee is aligned with a project, that means his efforts directly contribute to the completion of the project. In other words, the Project cannot be considered 100% complete until the Employee's goal is 100% complete.

Alignment refers to business objects (initiative, business goals, theme) on which the employee goal is aligned. Sub-goal refers to the hierarchical relationship between two employee goals. By “aligning” an employee goal to its manager goal, you not only set the hierarchical relationship between these two goals, but you also align the sub-goal to the same business objects the parent goal is aligned to. That's why the alignment library not only displays the business objects, but also your direct manager's goals.

Note: You can filter the Talent Browser to see who has or is aligned to goals, by selecting a business period and related goal. This allows business leaders to quickly see who in their organization is aligned to their goals and provides information on who is supporting a goal they have and how far down it is cascaded.

Displaying the List Mode

You can display your employee goals, business goals or projects using the list mode. The list mode is the default view for employee and business goals and provides a list of items with information on key dates and progress.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

Performance > [Navigation bar] > More dropdown > My Projects

Performance > [Navigation bar] > More dropdown > Business Goals

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

Click the list icon.

You now view all your items in the form of a list.

You can also view the items in card or timeline modes.

Displaying the Timeline Mode

You can display your employee goals, business goals or projects using the timeline mode. The timeline mode provides a timeline view of an item's start and due dates.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

Performance > [Navigation bar] > More dropdown > My Projects

Performance > [Navigation bar] > More dropdown > Business Goals

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

Click the list icon.

You now view all your items in the form of a timeline.

You can also view items in list mode and card mode.

Working with Goal Plans

Employee Goal

An employee goal is any action or objective that an employee has the intent of attaining during a given business period. Employee goals are added to an employee's goal plan and can later be brought into the review process to be rated.

All employee goals are listed under the Goals tab of the goal plan, separated from the competency goals, which are listed under the Competencies tab.

Employee goals are added to an employee's goal plan by either creating them manually, from scratch, or via alignment to an existing goal. Once employee goals are added to the goal plan, their progress can be updated and they can be brought into the review process to be rated, and also to show up in the Talent Profile.

Employee goals can be added to an employee's goal plan at any time and can also be removed from an employee's goal plan if no longer needed. Depending on the configuration, the organization can determine whether employees and managers have the right to edit employee goals and their associated sub-goals. Depending on user permissions, employee goals can be added, edited or deleted. Employee goals can also be assigned by managers to direct reports. Users can also solicit and provide feedback on employee goals.

Configuration

Employee goals are enabled by default when Goals Management is enabled.

The information displayed for employee goals is dependent of the configuration of the goal plan template.

Configuration of the use of employee goals
Setting	Description	Location
Enable Goals Management	Main product setting to enable the goal management functionality for employees.	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Global Configurations] Settings
Allow Employee Goals	When set to Yes (which is the default value), the goal plan will allow the use of employee goals, which are managed under the Goals tab. If set to No, employee goals will not be entitled in goal plans; therefore, the Goals tab will not be shown.	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan TemplatesConfiguration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates
Allow subgoals	Set by default to No, this setting indicates if subgoals can be created under employee goals.	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan TemplatesConfiguration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates
Goal Alignment Settings	Group of settings indicating how employee goals can be aligned, and in which situations.	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan TemplatesConfiguration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates
Goal Assignment Settings	Group of settings indicating if employee and competency goals can be assigned and in which circumstances the assignment is possible.	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates

Configuration of standard information available for employee goals
Standard Field Name	Default Displayed Setting	Default Editable Setting	Default Propagated Setting	Default Setting for Requires Approval
Owner	Yes	Yes	No	No
Name	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Start Date	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Due Date	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Description	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Critical	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Public	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Measurement Type	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Actual Value	Yes	Yes	No	No
Target Value	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Initial Value	Yes	Yes	No	No
Progress	Yes	Yes	No	No
Stretch Value	No	No	No	No
Measurement Text	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Status	Yes	Yes	No	No
Category	Yes	Yes	No	No
Alignment	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Tasks	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Task Weight	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Comments	Yes	Yes	No	No
Weight	No	No	No	No
Manager Rating	No	No	No	No
Employee Rating	No	No	No	No
External Identifier	No	No	No	No
Include in Performance Review	No	No	No	No
System Administrator Goal	No	No	No	No

Configuration of user-defined information to be shown for employee goals
Setting	Description	Location
Employee Goal User-defined Fields	Used to create the custom fields to be used.	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates
Any selected User defined fields	Can be set to be editable, propagated and to require approval if edited.	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates

Competency Goal

Competency goals are behaviors that an employee agrees to work on over a given business period. Competency goals added to an employee's goal plan can later be brought into the review process so that rated employee goals and competencies can drive new metrics that will be leveraged throughout the application.

All competencies that are part of an employee goal plan are listed under the Competencies tab of the goal plan, separated from the employee goals, which are listed under the Goals tab.

Competencies are added to an employee's goal plan by either selecting new competencies from the list of available competencies or by automatically including the competencies from the employee's job role. Once competencies are added to the goal plan, they can be brought into the review process to be rated, to then show up in the Talent Profile.

Competencies can be added to an employee's goal plan at any time and can also be removed from an employee's goal plan if no longer needed. Depending on the configuration, the organization can determine whether employees and managers have the right to edit competencies and their associated sub-competencies. Competency definition can be edited by users and sub-competencies can be added, edited or deleted.

Like employee goals, competency goals can be assigned by managers to direct reports. Users can also solicit feedback on competency goals.

Note: When review-Goal synchronization is enabled, multi-selected Competency goals are added into the Review automatically.

Configuration

Competency goals are disabled by default.

To use competency goals in goal plans, activation and configuration must be done via the goal plan template.

Configuration of the use of competency goals
Setting	Description	Location
Enable Goals Management	Main product setting to enable the goal management functionality for employees.	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Global Configurations] Settings
Allow Competency Goals	If set to Yes, the employee goal plan will allow the use of competencies, which are managed under the Competencies tab. If set to No, competencies will not be entitled in employee goal plan; therefore, the Competencies tab will not be shown.	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan TemplatesConfiguration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates
Add Competencies from Job Role on Goal Plan Creation	If set to Yes, all competencies that are part of the employee's job role will automatically be imported in the goal plan upon creation of a new goal plan for a given business period. If set to No, competencies will not be automatically imported into the goal plan, but might still be added if competency goals are allowed	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan TemplatesConfiguration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates
Goal Assignment Settings	Group of settings indicating if employee and competency goals can be assigned and in which circumstances the assignment is possible.	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates

Configuration of standard information available for competency goals
Standard Field Name	Default Displayed Setting	Default Editable Setting	Default Propagated Setting	Default Setting for Requires Approval
Owner	Yes	Yes	No	No
Name	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Start Date	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Due Date	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Description	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Critical	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Public	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Measurement Type	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Actual Value	Yes	Yes	No	No
Target Value	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Progress	Yes	Yes	No	No
Stretch Value	No	No	No	No
Measurement Text	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Status	Yes	Yes	No	No
Sub-competencies	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Comments	Yes	Yes	No	No
Manager Rating	No	No	No	No
Employee Rating	No	No	No	No
External Identifier	No	No	No	No
Include in Performance Review	No	No	No	No
System Administrator Goal	No	No	No	No

Configuration of user-defined information to be shown for competency goals
Setting	Description	Location
Competency Goal User-defined Fields	Used to create the custom fields to be used.	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates
Any selected User defined fields	Can be set to be editable, propagated and to require approval if edited.	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates

Goal Categories

Goal categories are now available for both Employee and Competency goals. Employees can group and organize their goals into different categories to help define each goals purpose.

Goal categories provide the ability for employees to make their goals relevant to their organizations focus areas. Now goals can be associated to categories for the purpose of grouping and relevance. Categories display as a column on the Goal Plan page and in the Goal Details. Categories are also available in subgoals.

The category feature is in addition to the existing goal alignment feature.
When a goal has a category, the subgoal will inherit that category. If that category is editable, then users may change the category in the subgoal itself.
Categories can be selected at the time of goal creation or later during goal editing.

Note: Taleo Performance is not delivered with predefined default categories.

Configuration

Goal Categories must first be created before they can be enabled.

Configuration > [Taleo Performance] > Administration > [Goals Management] > Goal Categories
Name	Description	Possible Actions
Goal Categories	Create and edit goal categories.	Create Activate Deactivate Duplicate

Once Goal Categories are created, they must be enabled in the Taleo Performance template to display.

Configuration > [Taleo Performance] > Administration > [Goals Management] > Goal Plan Template Management > [Goal Plan Template] > Goal Categories
Name	Description	Possible Actions
Employee Goal Configuration	Enables Employee Goal categories.	Displayed Editable Propagated Requires Approval
Competency Goal Configuration	Enables Competency Goal categories.	Displayed Editable Propagated Requires Approval

Goal Measurement Flexibility

Enhancements have been made to make goal measurements more flexible, in turn making goals more meaningful and accurate.

Goals are not always about increasing a value, but are often about decreasing or optimizing some value. For example, a goal's objective may be to reduce overhead costs by 10 percent or to reduce the number of escalations per quarter from 50 down to 10. In these cases, the target value would be lower than the current value. The introduction of the Initial Value field supports decreasing targets and ensures accurate calculation of goal progress. Goal progress is represented as a percentage of the difference between the Initial value and the Target value.

The table defines each type of goal measurement and the values that are allowed in those measurements.

Measurement Field	Description	Allowed Values
Initial Value	Represents the beginning state of the goal. Default value is 0.	< > 0 < > Target
Current Value	Represents the current state of the goal. Default value is 0.	< > 0 < > Target
Target Value	Represents the desired state of the goal. Default value is 0.	< > 0 < > Initial
Stretch Value	Represents a value beyond the target; over achievement. Default value is 0.	< > 0 < > Target

Configuration

The Initial Value field supports all configuration options currently available for other measurement fields.

Goal Creation through Alignment

The creation of employee or business goals though alignment provides users with an intuitive way to rapidly create goals that are in line with the key objectives of the organization or with their manager's goals and to tailor them to specific needs.

This goal creation option provides the ability to create goals in the way that many businesses work (via top-down alignment or cascading). Rather than requiring users to create goals from scratch, the creation through alignment offers the ability to select another business or employee goal and to use that goal as a “template” for creating the new goal. Key details are copied from the selected goal and the new goal is automatically aligned to the goal that was selected. The user can then personalize the goal to satisfy different objectives.

Creating goals via alignment is offered as an alternative to creating goals from scratch. Therefore, when creating a new business or employee goal, the user is prompted to select whether to create the goal from scratch or to create it through goal alignment. If users selects the latter, they are provided with a dialog box allowing them to choose which business or employee goals they want to align to.

When the new goal is created from alignment to a another goal, the following information is automatically entered and can be edited if needed.

Name of the goal
Description of the goal
Start and due dates
Alignment to the goal that was selected to create the current goal

Configuration

Business goal creation by alignment is offered automatically to all users.

Employee goal creation by alignment is offered automatically to all users. However, the type of goal alignment to select from depends on the goal assignment settings defined on the goal plan template. These settings allow organizations to determine whether an employee can align to his manager's goals, his projects or the organization's business goals.

The following table lists the Goal Alignment Settings, found under Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates.

Setting Name	Description
Allow employees to align their employee goals to their manager's goals	Setting that indicates if employees are entitled to align their goals to their manager's goals.
Allow to align employee goals to projects	Setting that indicates if employees are entitled to align their goals to projects.
Allow to align employee goals to employee's business organization goals	Setting that indicates if employees are entitled to align their goals to the organization's business goals. If possible, they can be authorized to align to any business goals, in which case, no sub-setting is required. If however, employee should only align to business goals of a specific level, the definition of the sub-setting must be done.
Allow to align employee goals to business goals of business organizations that are below the employee's business organization level	Sub-setting of Allow to align employee goals to employee's business organization goals
Allow to align employee goals to business goals of business organizations that are above the employee's business organization level	Sub-setting of Allow to align employee goals to employee's business organization goals

Goal Creation by Copy

New employee goals can be created by copying goals from a previous or current goal plan.

The option to create new goals by copying goals provides users with the ability to quickly create goals by copying one or multiple goals from a previous or current goal plan. Once the new goals are created, users are able to modify the goal as needed.

The advantage of copying existing goals is that some goal information is already provided. For instance, this option allows employees who have the same goal year after year to copy that goal from a previous goal plan. The values that are copied are predetermined and not configurable. The following table indicates the copy behavior of each field in the Employee Goal detail page.

It is possible to copy any employee goal from any previous goal plan or from the current goal plan, with the exception of goals that are tagged as 'System Administrator Goals'. The ability to copy goals is not available for competency goals or business goals.

Field	Copied?	Comment
Owner	No	The value is defaulted to the current employee user.
Name	Yes	The value is copied from source goal.
Start Date	No	The value is defaulted to the Goal Plan period start date.
Due Date	No	The value is defaulted to the Goal Plan period end date.
Description	Yes	The value is copied from source goal.
Critical	Yes	The value is copied from source goal.
Public	Yes	The value is copied from source goal.
Measurement Type	Yes	The value is copied from source goal.
Measurement Text	Yes	The value is copied from source goal.
Actual Value	No
Target Value	Yes	The value is copied from source goal.
Progress	No
Stretch Value	Yes	The value is copied from source goal.
Status	No	The value is defaulted to Not Started.
Alignment	No
Tasks	Yes	The value is copied from source goal. (if Tasks is allowed in goal plan template standard fields configuration)
Task Weight	Yes	The value is copied from source goal.
Comments	No
Weight	Yes	The value is copied from source goal.
Manager Rating	No	The value is defaulted to None.
Employee Rating	No	The value is defaulted to None.
External Identifier	No	Value is defaulted to None.
Include in Performance Review	Yes	The value is copied from source goal.
System Administrator Goal	No	The value is defaulted to False.
Custom Fields	Yes	The values are copied from source goal.

Configuration

First, the goal management feature must be enabled.

Product Settings
Setting Name	Description	Location
Enable Goals Management	Enables Goals Management functionality in the application for employees. The activation of this setting does not enable business goals, which are enabled by a specific setting.	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Settings

Then, for users to be entitled to create new goals by copying existing ones from previous goal plans, the corresponding goal plan template must be configured to allow such action.

Goal Plan Template configuration
Setting Name	Location
Allow creating goals by copying from previous goal plans	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates - Goal Creation Options

Users must also have the permission to view and manage goals.

User Type Permissions
Permission Name	Description	Location
Performance > Goal Plans > View	When no constraint is selected, the user has read-only access to all goal plans, current or not. If restricted viewing permission is required, select the applicable constraints.	Configuration > [SmartOrg] Administration > [Users] User Accounts
Performance > Goal Plans > Manage	When no constraint is selected, the user has write access to all goal plans, current or not. If restricted managing permission is required, select the applicable constraints.	Configuration > [SmartOrg] Administration > [Users] User Accounts

Goal Creation using SMART Assistant

This goal creation method offers users guidelines and instructions throughout the creation process of goals.

The creation of employee goals using a wizard provides a simple, step-by-step option that allows employees and managers to easily create goals following a defined and logical process. With the SMART assistant, employees can successfully create and align their goals by following simple steps.

SMART methodology refers the following predefined principles:

Specific	This step allows the user to define a specific goal by entering the goal's name and description.
Measurable	This step allows the user how the goal will be measured.
Achievable	This step allows to user to determine whether the goal is achievable. It allows user to break goal into tasks so that it may be achieved more easily.
Relevant	This step allows the user to make their goal relevant by aligning it to a manager's goal or a business goal.
Time-bound	This step prompts user to provide realistic time constraints to successfully achieve the goal.

The goal creation assistance is offered only for employee goals. This option is not available for competency goals or business goals.

The steps included in the goal creation assistant are predetermined and not configurable. Note that the instructions fields can not be multilingual, which means that they can only be provided in one language at a time. However, the administrator may include some specific instructions and hyperlinks in the instruction area so that users may benefit from any supporting documentation.

Configuration

First, the goal management feature must be enabled.

Product Settings
Setting Name	Description	Location
Enable Goals Management	Enables Goals Management functionality in the application for employees. The activation of this setting does not enable business goals, which are enabled by a specific setting.	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Settings

Then, for users to be entitled to create goals using the SMART assistance, the corresponding goal plan template must be configured to allow such action.

Goal Plan Template configuration
Setting Name	Location
Allow creating goals using the SMART assistant	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates - Goal Creation Options

Users must also have the permission to view and manage goals.

User Type Permissions
Permission Name	Description	Location
Performance > Goal Plans > View	When no constraint is selected, the user has read-only access to all goal plans, current or not. If restricted viewing permission is required, select the applicable constraints.	Configuration > [SmartOrg] Administration > [Users] User Accounts
Performance > Goal Plans > Manage	When no constraint is selected, the user has write access to all goal plans, current or not. If restricted managing permission is required, select the applicable constraints.	Configuration > [SmartOrg] Administration > [Users] User Accounts

Batch Goal Assignment

Batch goal assignment provides the ability to assign, at one time, a set of goals to large groups of people within the organization, either by selecting individuals or organizations.

Batch assignment allows managers to assign, in one single transaction, multiple goals to an unlimited number of direct and indirect reports.

The goal assignment process is as follows:

First, the user needs to have goal assignment rights, which are indicated by the visibility of the Person icon.
The goals to be assigned must be selected using the appropriate checkboxes.
When a manager assigns any of their goals to other employees, he/she can do so by selecting specific employees or employees from specific organizations.
Following the selection, a confirmation dialog displays the number of employees to whom the selected goals will be assigned to and lets you continue or cancel the assignation.
To verify if the batch assignment was performed successfully, the Show Process History action shows the goal assignment status and a list of any errors that occurred in the process.

Goal assignment is not possible in two situations:

in the case of a system-administered goal - a pop-up window will be displayed to inform the user of the nature of the goal.
if the employee‘s goal plan is under approval - if the manager attempts to propagate goals to that employee, they will receive an error message letting them know that the plan is currently under approval.

When the goal assignment is successful, the selected goals are added to the goal plan of the selected employees and the related goal information is transferred as per the standard and user-defined field propagation configuration on the goal plan template. The goal alignment is maintained upon goal assignment, except when the manager's goal is aligned to their own manager's goal; in such a situation, the link is broken.

When a goal is assigned, most of the information can be propagated to the selected employees, as per the field propagation configuration. Some field values however are never propagated; these fields are:

Owner - which is always set to the target employee name.
Task Weight
Comments
Manager Rating
Employee Rating
System Administrator Goal - as these goals can never be assigned.

Configuration

Although batch assignment is always allowed, one setting does determine if goals can be assigned to the direct reports of the selected direct reports - Allow goal batch assignment to indirect reports.

For this feature to work, managers must be allowed to assign goals.

Changing a setting on a goal plan template affects all goal plans associated to it. There is a warning message when a user wants to edit an active goal plan.

Setting	Description
Allow manager to assign employee goals	Main goal assignment setting. This setting must first be enabled to allows managers to assign goals.
Add goal even if the employee's goal plan does not exist	Sub-setting that entitles the assignation of goals even when a goal plan has not yet been created.
Add goal even if the employee's goal plan is approved	Sub-setting that entitles the assignment of goals even if the goal plan has been approved.
Allow goal batch assignment to indirect reports	Sub-setting that entitles assignment of goals to indirect reports, meaning here that the direct reports of a selected employee will also receive the assigned goal.

Sub-Goal Functionality

Sub-goal functionality provides the ability to use sub-goals within employee goals.

With the introduction of tasks in goals, a change of functionality was required due the similarity between sub-goals and tasks. The primary difference between sub-goals and tasks is that with tasks, the progress of the goal is calculated based on the sum of the tasks. With sub-goals, this is not the case - the progress of the parent goal has no relationship with the progress of its sub-goals.

It is important to know that only one level deep of sub-goals is allowed, meaning that a goal can only have one level of sub-goal and that a sub-goal cannot have additional sub-goals.

When sub-goals are enabled and one is created, the sub-goal is automatically aligned to the parent goal; this default alignment can however by overwritten at any point.

The following list indicates the alignment behavior for all possible sub-goal actions:

Creating a sub-goal - The sub-goal is auto-aligned to its parent.
Updating the alignment of a sub-goal to a manager's goal - The sub-goal is moved as a main employee goal.
Updating the alignment of a sub-goal to a business goal or project - The sub-goal is moved as a main employee goal.
Removing the alignment of a sub-goal - The sub-goal is moved as a main employee goal.

Configuration

By default, sub-goal functionality is disabled. A setting on the goal template determines whether the user has the ability to create sub-goals. This setting can be enabled/disabled at any time. If a given user already has sub-goals and the template is modified to disable sub-goals, the existing sub-goals will not be affected and still be displayed. However, the user will be prevented from creating any further sub-goals.

Setting	Description	Location	Path
Allow subgoals	Enables the ability to create sub-goals.	Goal Plan Template	Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates

Goal Related Tasks

Goal related tasks provide the ability to measure the progress of a goal by the completion of a series of tasks within the goal. Tasks are different from sub-goals in that the completion of the parent goal is calculated by determining the completion of the tasks.

Tasks provide the ability to split a goal into activities and to measure the goal progress based on the average progress of its tasks. Tasks also help to define how the goal will be achieved. Tasks can only be created as part of a goal and do not exist on their own. The fields displayed for Tasks are based on the display of fields in the goal detail. For example, if the Measurement text field is not displayed for goals, it will not appear for tasks either.

On the goal details page, the tasks are displayed in the Measurement section.

When a goal contains tasks, it is the progress of the tasks that need to be updated, not that of the goal, which will be updated automatically upon the progress of the related tasks. For example if there are four tasks in a goal and one is marked at 100% complete, the goal would be 25% complete. Tasks can also have weights, so the above example assumes that all tasks are weighted equally. If the completed task was weighted at 50% and the other three tasks at 16.66%, then the goal progress would be 50% complete.

When a goal plan is printed, the tasks it contains can be part of the printout if the task related print option is selected.

Note: It is important to know that when sub-goals are also offered, their creation is done via the pull-down menu available for each goal, in the main goal plan page

Configuration

The visibility of tasks in goals is dependent on the configuration of the Tasks field in the goal plan template.

Behavior of the Tasks standard field:

Displayed	Editable	Propagated	Requires Approval
Main setting that needs to be set to Yes for the other settings to be available. If this setting is set to Yes, the Tasks section is available for viewing.	If set to Yes, tasks can be viewed, added, edited and removed.	If set to yes, the tasks will be propagated when the related goal is assigned.	If set to Yes, the goal plan will go under approval whenever a task is added or deleted.

The following table lists all the standard fields that can apply to tasks.

Standard Field in the Goal Plan Template	Applicable to tasks	Applicable to goals
Name	Yes	Yes
Description	Yes	Yes
Status	Yes	Yes
Progress	Yes	Yes
Actual Value	Yes	Yes
Target Value	Yes	Yes
Stretch Value	Yes	Yes
Measurement Text	Yes	Yes
Start Date	Yes	Yes
Due Date	Yes	Yes
Task Weight	Yes

Note:

It is important to know that sub-goals are still supported. However, it is not recommended to use both as it could be confusing for the users. By default, the ability to create sub-goals is disabled. In addition, the goal plan template contains a setting that controls the availability of goals - Allow subgoals.

Goal Plan Approval

Goal plan approval is always required whenever a goal plan is created or when certain information is modified. The approval is performed according to the approval workflow defined on the corresponding goal plan template.

Goal fields identified as requiring approval can be read-only when a goal plan is under approval. Trying to edit them leads to an error message being displayed. To avoid that, if the required configuration setting is enabled, the current approver for the goal plan can make changes to those fields without affecting the approval process.

The current approver can also add and delete goals from the goal plan in this instance. In a single approver workflow this removes the redundant step of the approver effectively having to restart an approval process for a change he made, which will only return him to the same stage in the process, but with additional steps added.

When a change is made to an already approved goal plan and if the change requires the plan to be approved again, the status of the plan may automatically go from Approved to Not approved, and thus go through the entire approval workflow again.

A change to the following fields constitute a goal definition change and requires the goal plan to be reapproved if it was already approved:

Goal Name
Owner
Due Date
Description
Critical
Measurement Type (Qualitative or Quantitative)
Measurement Text
Target Value
Stretch Value
Weight
Alignment

The information regarding approval status is front and center. The user can clearly see the current status and why it is in that status, along with what actions will progress it along the approval workflow. This includes identifying whether parts of the goal plan can be edited and how it affects its current status.

The actions are dependent on your relationship to the goal plan. For instance, if you are an approver and the goal plan status is Approval in Progress, then you will have Approve and Reject options displayed. Conversely, if you are the goal owner, and the goal plan is under approval, you are informed of the date the goal was submitted for approval. It also informs you of any limitations related to editing the goal plan during the approval process.

Printable Goal Plan

A PDF version of an employee's goal plan is offered to provide a printable version of the goal plan for a given period. The printout can show all the information about the goals in the plan or just the some of the goal information.

The printable version is offered to employees to print their own goal plan as well as to managers to print their employees’ goal plans by simply clicking on the print icon.

Print options are available to specify which information is to be shown on the printout - Employee Information and Goal Details are always printed and cannot be defined otherwise.

The available print options are dependent on the fields that are set to be displayed on the goal plan template. For instance, if the Comments standard field is not set to be displayed, the Comments print option will not be available for selection.

Print Options	Description
Employee Information	Always printed and includes the name, the ID and the manager of the employee, which are taken from the Talent Profile.
Goal Details	Always printed and includes the name and the description of the employee goal or competency goal, as well as its start and due dates, status and related options (Critical, Public, Included in Review).
Measurement	Shows the actual, target and stretch values of the progress of the goal, the progress percentage as well as any specified measurement text, provided the Measurement text, Target value, Stretch value, Actual value and Percentage complete standard fields in the goal plan template are set to be displayed.
Tasks	Shows the tasks that are associated to the employee goal, with their respective start and end dates, weight, and progress percentage, provided the Tasks and Task Weight standard fields in the goal plan template as set to be displayed.
Alignment	Shows the goal the employee goal is aligned to, provided the Alignment standard filed in the goal plan template is set to be displayed.
Additional Information	Shows all the user-defined fields selected to be displayed in the goal plan template for employee goals, along with their corresponding values.
Comments	Shows any comment provided about the employee or competency goal, provided the Comments standard field in the goal plan template is set to be displayed.
Rating	Shows the employee and/or manager rating given to the employee or competency goal, provided the Manager rating value and the Employee rating value standard fields in the goal plan template are set to be displayed.
Sub-competencies	Shows the list of sub-competencies associated with the competency goals in the goal plan, if there are any.

Creating an Employee Goal

Creating an employee goal provides the ability to define a goal plan on which to work on and to later align those goals to the business goals of your organization and to include them, if desired, in performance review to be evaluated.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

If a goal plan has never been created for the selected employee and business period, click Create to create the goal plan. Note that the Create button only appears the first time a plan is created.
In the Goal Plan page, select the Goals tab and click the plus icon.
In the Create a new goal window, specify how you want to create the new goal:
- If you select Create a new goal through alignment to an existing goal, click Next to select the goal to align to.
- If you selected Create manually, click Next to enter basic information about the goal.
- If you select Create a goal by copying from a previous goal plan, click Next to select the goal to be copied.
- If you select Create a goal by using the SMART assistant, click Next to go through the assistant by specifying the requested information for each step.
Click the Disk icon to save when complete.

The new employee goal is displayed on the Goal Plan page, under the Goals tab.

Once the goal has been created and defined, the related goal plan usually needs to be approved.

You can quickly create another goal right from the current goal page, by clicking the plus icon and repeating the enumerated steps.

Creating an Employee Goal from Scratch

Creating an employee goal from scratch provides the ability to entirely create a new goal manually.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

If a goal plan has never been created for the selected employee and business period, click Create to create the goal plan. Note that the Create button only appears the first time a plan is created.
In the Goal Plan page, select the Goals tab and click the plus icon.
In the Create a new goal window, select Create manually and click Next.
In the next window, enter at the least the name of the new goal. You can also enter a description. The start and end date of the goal are by default set to the first and last day of the current year. The dates can be changed by simply selecting other dates.
Once the basic goal information is provided, click OK to be taken directly to the goal detail page, where you can enter additional goal information.
If you make any information change, click the Disk icon to save.

The new employee goal is displayed on the Goal Plan page, under the Goals tab.

Once the goal has been created and defined, the related goal plan usually needs to be approved.

You can quickly create another goal right from the current goal page by clicking the plus icon and repeating the enumerated steps.

Creating an Employee Goal via Alignment

Creating an employee goal by alignment provides the ability to duplicate a goal that will be automatically aligned to another goal.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

If a goal plan has never been created for the selected employee and business period, click Create to create the goal plan. Note that the Create button only appears the first time a plan is created.
In the Goal Plan page, select the Goals tab and click the plus icon.
In the Create a new goal window, select Create a new goal through alignment to an existing goal and click Next.
In the next window, specify the type of element you want to align to, either a business goal, a project of one of your manager's goals.
Once the alignment category is specified, select the specific goal or project you want to align and copy from.
Click OK to be taken directly to the goal detail page, where you can enter additional goal information or edit the information copied from the alignment.
If you make any information change, click the Disk icon to save.

The goal detail page will show that the goal is automatically aligned to the selected goal or project and the new employee goal is displayed on the Goal Plan page, under the Goals tab.

Once the goal has been created and defined, the related goal plan usually needs to be approved.

You can quickly create another goal right from the current goal page by clicking the plus icon and repeating the enumerated steps.

Creating an Employee Goal by Copying Another Goal

Goals can be created by copying other goals; you can create one goal at a time, or copy multiple goals from one goal plan.

You need to have view and manage access to goals, with the proper constraints. A goal plan might already exist. The related goal plan template allows this action.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goalsor Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

From the Goal Plan page, click the Plus icon.
In Create a new goal window, select Create a goal by copying from a previous goal plan and click Next.
In the Goal Selector window, specify the business period of the goal plan to choose from and click Refresh to load the related goals.
Select the goals that you want to copy by placing a checkmark beside each one.

If the list of goals scrolls over multiple pages, you can select goals on various pages and they will all be added.
Once the selection of goals is complete, click Select.

The system creates the goals, adds them to the current goal plan and populates their content based on the selected goals. If you selected only one goal to copy, the system navigates to the goal details. Otherwise, you are brought to the goal plan.

Edit the newly added goal information as needed.

Creating an Employee Goal using the Assistant

You need to have view and manage access to goals, with the proper constraints. A goal plan might already exist. The related goal plan template allows this action.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goalsor Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

From the Goal Plan page, click the Plus icon.
In Create a new goal window, select Create a goal by using the SMART assistant and click Next.
In the SMART Goal Creation window, go through the assistant by specifying the requested information for each step.

If any field in the assistant is grayed out, it means that the related goal plan template does not allow users to edit this information. As the Name, Start Date and End Date fields are mandatory to create a goal via the assistant, if any of those three fields are not editable, the creation process will be blocked and only canceling the creation will close the assistant window.
1. In the Specific step, you must at least provide a name for the goal. Click Next when done.
  The following fields can be displayed.
  - Name - Always displayed no matter the standard field configuration. In order to complete this step, since the Name is mandatory, you need to fill in at least this field in order to go to the next step.
  - Description - Displayed if the standard field configuration indicates Displayed AND Editable.
2. In the Measurable step, specify the target measure you wish to attain with this goal. The required fields differ depending on the goal measurement type (qualitative or quantitative). If no target values are needed, uncheck the option selected by default. Click Next when done.
  
  If the goal is qualitative, there is no mandatory field. However, if the goal is quantitative, the Actual and Target values are required when configured to be displayed and editable in the goal plan template. The Measurement Text is never required.
3. In the Achievable step, decide whether you want to break the goal into tasks. If so, click Add Tasks and enter at least one task. If not, just go to the next step. When all task names are entered, click Next.
  
  Only the name of tasks are entered via the assistant; the details are provided once the goal is created. If the Tasks field is configured not to be displayed and/or not to be editable, the Add Tasks button will be disabled and you will not be entitled to break down the goal into tasks.
  
  In you decide that you don't want tasks after all, you will need to delete each task you created.
4. In the Relevant step, decide whether you want to specify how the goal relates to other goals by aligning it. If so, click Align.... In the Alignment window, select the goal category, if applicable and the specific goal you want to align to and click OK.
  
  The available object types to align to, such as manager goals, business goals, and business projects, are determined by the goal plan template settings.
  
  If the alignment fields are disabled, the step will be displayed but will not be available.
5. In the Time-bound step, you must specify start and end dates for the goal.
  
  By default, the start and end dates of the related goal plan are provided.
6. At any time, you can use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate to specific steps of the assistant to review and/or edit information.
Once all steps are completed, click Finish to complete the creation process and add the goal to the goal plan.

The system creates the goal, and tasks if applicable, and populates its content based on provided information. The goal is added to the goal plan.

As needed, access the goal detail page to edit existing information or to add more information.

Including an Employee Goal in a Performance Review

Including a goal in a performance review is done when you want a goal to be part of a performance review and therefore be evaluated.

Open an employee goal.

If an employee goal plan has never been created, a message appears indicating that there is no plan for the employee and business period combination and asking whether you want to create one. If so, click Create. Note that the Create button only appears the first time a plan is created.
In the Goal Plan page, under the Goals tab, select the goal that you want to be part of the performance review.
In the goal detail page, under the Specifications section, check the Include in Performance Review option.
Click the Disk icon to save.

The next time this employee's review will be generated, it will include the specified goal.

Creating an Employee Sub-goal

You can create sub-goals for any existing employee goals.

A employee sub-goal can only be created for an existing employee goal.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, under the Goals tab, select the employee goal for which you want to create a sub-goal and click the right arrow icon to select Add Employee Subgoal....
In the Create a new goal window, enter the basic information about the new sub-goal.
Click OK to display the goal detail page.
Provide extra information as required and click the Disk icon to save when complete.

The new employee sub-goal displays in the goal list by clicking the arrow beside the parent goal.

Creating a Task Related to an Employee Goal

Creating tasks provides the ability to break a goal into tasks, for which progress will determine the progress of the related goal.

Tasks can only be created for an existing goal.

The permission to create tasks is not offered for all goal plans. The display of the Break Goal In Tasks button indicates that this feature is enabled.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, under the Goals tab, select the employee goal for which you want to create tasks.
In the goal detail page, scroll to the Measurement section and click on Break Goal In Tasks.

If tasks already exist, click on Create....
In the Create Task window, provide the task information.

If you want the progress of the task to be used to calculate the progress of the related goal, make sure to check the User actual/target values to measure progress option.
If you want to create another task, click Save and Create Another and repeat the previous step.
When task creation is complete, click OK.

All tasks created for a goal are displayed in the Measurement section, under Tasks.

Adding a Competency to a Goal Plan

Adding a competency to a goal plan provides the ability to set the improvement of this competency as a goal for the given business period.

The use of competency goals depends on the configuration of the goal plan template. The display of the Competencies tab in the goal plan page indicates competency goals are allowed.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

If a goal plan has never been created for the selected employee and business period, click Create to create the goal plan. Note that the Create button only appears the first time a plan is created.
In the Goal Plan page, select the Competencies tab and click the plus icon.
In the Competency Selector window, select the competency or competencies to add to the goal plan.
Click Select.
Provide the competency goal detail information.
Click the Disk icon to save when complete.

The competency is added to the goal plan, under the Competencies tab.

Creating a Sub-competency Goal

This task allows the user to add an extra behavior for a specific competency goal in his goal plan.

The goal plan template has been configured to display and edit sub-competencies.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

If a goal plan has never been created for the selected employee and business period, click Create to create the goal plan. Note that the Create button only appears the first time a plan is created.
In the Goal Plan page, select the Competencies tab and select the competency to which you want to add a sub-competency.
In the Competency Goal page, scroll to the Sub-competencies section and click Add.
In the New Sub-Competency window, enter the description of the behavior to be considered as a sub-competency.
Click Done.
Click the Disk icon to save when complete.

Showing/Hiding Goal Instructions

The display of the goal instructions allows users to understand what is expected from them in terms of goal management tasks. The same instructions apply to all the goals within the same goal plan.

Goal instructions must have been defined for them to show in the goal plan. If no goal instructions were created, the actions to show or hide the instructions will not be available.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

To show the goal instructions, select the Show Instructions option from the More Actions pull-down menu or simply the Show Instructions button if you are on the goal detail page.

The instructions will be displayed in the top section of the window. If the instructions are not available in your language, they are displayed in the base language of your system.
To hide the instructions, simply click the X at the right end of that section.

Editing Goals

Whether before, during, or after the goal plan approval process, goals can be edited, deleted and removed from goal plans.

Before a goal plan has been approved, there are typically no restrictions as to what you can edit.

When you select a goal in an approved goal plan, the fields that require re-approval if edited are indicated. When changes are made it is clearly identified why the goal plan status has changed to Not Approved, in the goal plan history and then the subsequent goal detail history.

When they system is configured for it, the current approver for the goal plan can make changes to fields that typically require re-approval without affecting the approval process. The approver can also add and delete goals from a goal plan that is under approval when the setting is enabled.

Editing an Employee Goal or Sub-goal

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

Access the desired goal plan by selecting the appropriate business period.
In the Goal Plan page, select the Goals tab and then select the goal or subgoal you want to edit from the list of goals.
In the goal detail page, make your changes and click the Disk icon to save.
When the confirmation window appears, click OK.

Your changes are saved and the status of the related goal plan might change depending on the configuration of the employee goal changes needing approval. So, if a certain goal change has been configured to need approval, then the goal plan will return to a Not Approved status following such a change.

Editing a Sub-competency Goal

The goal plan template has been configured to display and edit sub-competencies.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, select the Competencies tab.
Select the competency related to the sub-competency to be changed.
Mouse over the desired sub-competency and select Edit.
Make your changes and click Done.
Click the Disk icon when complete to save the new information.

Editing a Task Related to an Employee Goal

Tasks can only be edited when the goal plan is under approval if you are the current approver and the required configuration setting is enabled.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, select the Goals tab and then select the goal for which you want to edit a task.
In the goal detail page, scroll to the Measurement section, under Tasks.
Click click the right arrow icon to select the Edit action.
In the Edit Task window, make the desired changes and click OK.

The task will reflect the changes made.

If the change made requires the plan to be re-approved, an approval request will need to be performed.

Deleting a Task Related to an Employee Goal

Tasks cannot be deleted if the related goal plan is under approval, unless you are the current approver and the required configuration settings have been enabled.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, under the Goals tab, select the employee goal for which you want to delete a task.
In the goal detail page, scroll to the Measurement section, under Tasks.
Click the right arrow icon next to the desired goal to select the Delete action.
In the confirmation box, click Yes to confirm the deletion.

The task will be deleted from the list of tasks.

Removing a Goal or Sub-goal

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, select the Goals or Competencies tab, depending on the type of goal to remove.
Hover over the goal you wish to remove and click the right arrow icon to select Remove...
In the confirmation window, click Yes to confirm the action.

The goal or sub-goal is no longer displayed in the Goal Plan.

Removing a Sub-competency Goal

The goal plan template has been configured to display and edit sub-competencies.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, select the Competencies tab.
Select the competency related to the sub-competency to be removed.
Mouse over the desired sub-competency and click Remove.
Confirm the deletion.
Click the Disk icon when complete to save the goal plan.

Assigning Employee or Competency Goals

Assigning one or multiple goals to direct reports allows managers to easily and quickly propagate one or multiple employee or competency goals to their direct reports.

For this functionality to be possible, you need to be a manager and goal assignment settings need to have been set to allow the manager to assign goals. When such permission is granted to a manager, the related goal assignment icon will be displayed.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, select the Goals or the Competencies tab, depending on the type of goal to assign.
Select the goals to be assigned and click the Person icon.
In the Goal Assignment window, select the employees to whom you want to assign the selected goals by first selecting the type of employees that being Specific employees or Employees from specific organizations.
Click the plus icon to open the corresponding selector.
Depending on the selector:
- In the People Selector, select the specific employees either in your direct reports or by performing a keyword search. Make sure to click the right arrow icon to move your selections in the Selection section.
- In the Organization Selector, choose one or multiple organizations in the list or perform a keyword search. Click Select.
Once your selections of employees to whom you want to assign goals to is done and back on the Goal Assignment window, click OK.
When the confirmation message is displayed, click OK.

Note that goals cannot be added to an employee's goal plan if the employee's goal plan is under approval. If the manager attempts to propagate goals to that employee, a window displayed listing the employees for whom the goal could not be assigned and why.

The assigned goal will show in the goal plan of the selected employees and will display the information that was set to be propagated. Goals might also be assigned to sub-direct reports and sub-organizations, if so defined. If Alignment was set to be propagated, vertically assigned goals - those from a manager to a direct or indirect report - are automatically aligned to the manager's goal. When a manager assigns a sub-goal to an employee, the employee's new goal is not aligned to that sub-goal. It will be aligned to the manager's main goal, which that sub-goal was associated with. If a goal is assigned upwards, i.e., from an employee to a manager, then the alignment is not automatically propagated.

Aligning an Employee Goal

Aligning an employee goal allows you to demonstrate your efforts in support of a business project or a business goal of your organization or one of the employee's manager goal.

A employee goal can be aligned to only one business goal, business project or manager goal.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, select the Goals tab and click the name of the goal or sub-goal you wish to align.
In the goal detail page, scroll to the Alignment section and click Align....
In the Alignment window, select the category of the item you wish to align the goal to and select the desired item from the list of corresponding goals or projects.
Click OK to perform the alignment and return to the goal detail page.

A hierarchal view of the goal alignment is now displayed in the Alignment section.

Changing the Alignment of an Employee Goal

The alignment of an employee goal is changed to modify the item the goal is aligned to.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, under the Goals tab, click the name of the goal or sub-goal for which you want to change the alignment.
In the goal detail page, scroll to the Alignment section and click Clear to remove the existing alignment.
You need to click the Disk icon to save before proceeding to the new alignment.
Click Align...
In the Alignment window, select the category of the item you wish to align the goal to and select the desired item from the list of corresponding goals or projects.
Click OK to perform the alignment and return to the goal detail page.

A hierarchal view of the new goal alignment is now displayed in the Alignment section.

Entering Goal Comments

Goal comments can be entered by both the manager and the employee on an any goal in the goal plan. However, each user is entitled to modify or remove their own comments, and not the comments entered by the other party.

To take advantage of this feature, the Comments field must be set to be displayed and editable in the goal plan template; otherwise, the Comments section will just not be shown in the goal detail page.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, select the Goals or Competencies tab, depending on the type of the goal and then select the goal for which you want to enter comments.
In the goal detail page, scroll to the Comments section and click Add.
In the Add Comment window, enter and format your comment text and click Done.

Repeat this step for each comment to be added.

All comments are displayed under the Comments section of the goal detail page, with the latest one showing at the top of the list.

Comments can be edited and removed as needed by the author of the comment.

Editing Goal Comments

Goal comments can only be edited by the user who originally created the comment.

To take advantage of this feature, the Comments field must be set to be displayed and editable in the goal plan template; otherwise, the Comments section will just not be shown in the goal detail page.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, select the Goals or Competencies tab according to the type of the goal and select the goal for which you want to edit comments.
In the goal detail page, scroll to the Comments section and hover the comment you want to edit to see the Edit and Remove buttons appear.
Click Edit.
In the text editing box, edit the comment and click Done.

The edited comment will be displayed under the Comments section of the goal detail page, in the same order as the original comment.

Comments can be edited and removed as needed.

Removing Goal Comments

Goal comments can only be removed by the user who originally created the comment.

To take advantage of this feature, the Comments field must be set to be displayed and editable in the goal plan template; otherwise, the Comments section will just not be shown in the goal detail page.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, under the Goals or Competencies tab, select the goal for which you want to edit comments.
In the goal detail page, scroll to the Comments section and hover the comment you want to remove to see the Edit and Remove buttons appear.
Click Remove.
Confirm the removal by clicking Yes in the confirmation popup.

The removed comment will no longer be displayed under the Comments section of the goal detail page.

Goal and Task Quick Progress Update

The progress of business goals, employee goals and tasks can be quickly updated right from the goal or task list, providing a quick method to update the completion progress of goals and tasks.

In addition to being able to update the progress via the goal or task detail page, users can also indicate the progression of their goals directly from the list page and the progression of the tasks related to a goal from the list of tasks in the goal details page, via the Progress column.

The progress column displays a Start button when the goal or task status is Not Started and shows a progress bar when the status is other than Not Started. Clicking on the Start button updates the status to In Progress. The progress of a goal is updated by clicking on the down-arrow of the progress bar, which displays a small drop-down window that is different depending on the situation:

If the measurement type of the goal or task is Qualitative - The progress is updated using a progress slider.
If the measurement type of the goal or task is Quantitative - The progress is updated by entering the Actual and Target values. If the progress slider is used, it will update the Actual value.
If the goal includes tasks - The progress cannot be updated directly from the goal list as the goal's progress is dependent on the progress of the tasks, which however can be updated directly from the list of tasks within a goal's detail page.

Configuration

Goal and task progress update is offered automatically without any configuration.

Updating the Progress of a Goal

The progress of a goal can be updated via the goal detail page or right from the list of goals in the goal plan, under the Goals or Competencies tab.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, under the Goals or Competencies tab, locate the goal for which you want to update the progress.
In Progress column, click Start if the progress has never been updated; otherwise, click the right arrow icon to open the small pop-up showing the progress fields that can be updated.
Update the progress using the progress slider or the value fields.
Click the print icon.

The goal progress will be updated as entered and will also show in the goal detail page.

Viewing Goal Plan Changes

Viewing goal plan changes provides the ability to see the details of all changes made to the goals included in the selected goal plan. It is also possible to see the exact goals that were modified by selecting the flagging option.

For the flagging option to display, the goal plan must have been approved at least once and changes made since.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, check the Flag added/modified goals since last approval option if you want to see which goals were changed and if that option is available.
Under the History tab, if you have used the flag option, specify whether you want to display all events or just the new events since the last approval to see the appropriate list of events; otherwise, the events will all be listed.

Requesting Approval

Both the employee and the employee's manager can access the employee's goal plan and create goals. A manager can edit and delete goals created by the employee. Both users must indicate their acceptance of the plan before it is considered approved.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

In the Goal Plan page, review the employee and competency goals and select More Actions > Request Approval.
In the confirmation window, click OK.

The approval request is sent to the defined approvers, as defined in the approval workflow, and will show in the recipients’ task list.

Approving via Email Requests

Your implementation uses approval request emails with variable links to either development plans, goal plans, performance reviews, or succession plans.

Open the email and click the hyper link indicating it will take you to the object requiring approval.
Login to Taleo Performance if required or if you are in a single sign-on (SSO) environment you will go directly to the item.

If you do not have the required security access or there is a problem with the variable link, you will be redirected to the Taleo Performance start page.
Select the Approval option to begin the approval process.

Approval will move the item to the next step in the approval process, while rejecting the item will require the employee to make modifications and resubmit.

Printing a Goal Plan

The goal plan can be printed to show complete or partial goal information, as specified.

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

Performance > [Navigation bar] > More dropdown > Business Goals

Performance > [Navigation bar] Goals

Open the goal plan you wish to print.
Click the print icon.
In the Print Options window, specify the information you wish to see on the printout by checking the appropriate options.
Click Print.

The goal plan will be opened as a PDF document.
User the print function of Adobe Reader to print the document.

The goal plan is viewed as a PDF and can then be printed if so desired.

Goals Fields

All fields related to employee or business goals in Taleo Performance are presented in the table below, along with a description and related possible values, when predefined. Each field also indicates the type of information it applies to and the related header. IMPORTANT - Since most of the fields are configurable and can be set to be shown or not, it is possible that some fields do not show for some goals.

Field	Description	Applicable to	Header
	Icon that allows a manager to assign a selected goal or sub-goal to other employees.	Goal Plans
	Icon that displays the name of the related goal plan template.	Goal Plans
	Icon that indicates that new feedback has been provided in regards to the goal and has not yet been read.	Goal Plans
	Icon that indicates that the achievement of the goal is critical.	Goal Plans Business Goals
	Icon that indicates that the achievement of the goal is overdue, since the due date of the goal is past.	Goal Plans
	Icon that indicates that the goal or sub-goal is not aligned.	Goal Plans
	Icon that provides access to a list of all the goals in the goal plan.	Goal Plans Business Goals
	Icon that provides access to a timeline view of all the goals in the goal plan.	Goal Plans Business Goals
	Icon that provides the ability to add an element (that being a goal, sub-goal, business project or business milestone, depending on the type of goal).	Goal Plans Business Goals
	Icon that provides the ability to display the details about the selected element.	Goal Plans Business Goals
	Icon that provides the ability to remove an element.	Goal Plans Business Goals
	Icon that represents a business goal.	Business Goals
	Icon that represents an employee goal.	Goal Plans
	Icon that provides the ability to print the business or employee goal plan.	Goal Plans Business Goals
Actual Value	Quantitative measurement field that indicates the actual completion of the goal, expressed as a number with or without decimals. The Progress percentage is determined according to the Actual Value over the Target Value.	Goal Plans Business Goals	Measurement
Additional Information	Title of the section that shows additional information about the goal that has been defined by the company. This section will display all user-defined fields that have been defined for the goal plan template. However, if no user-defined fields were defined, this section will be empty.	Goal Plans	Additional Information
Aligned to	Box that shows the business goals, manager's goal and/or projects the goal is aligned to.	Goal Plans	Alignment
Aligned to me	List of goals that are aligned to the selected employee.	Goal Plans	Alignment
Alignment	Title of the section that shows alignment information about the goal.	Goal Plans	Alignment
Business Theme	Business theme associated to the business goal.	Business Goals	General
Comments	Title of the section that contains comments provided in relation to the goal.	Goal Plans	Comments
Critical	Check box indicating that the achievement of the goal is critical.	Goal Plans Business Goals	Specifications
Description	Text box providing a description of the goal. The character limit is 4000.	Goal Plans Business Goals	Specifications
Due Date	Indicates the date scheduled for the goal to be achieved.	Goal Plans Business Goals	General
Employee's Rating	Slider bar that allows the employee to provide his evaluation of the achievement of the goal. The employee's rating is visible to the manager, but not editable.	Goal Plans	Rating
External Identifier	Field that can contain an alternate goal identifier.	Goal Plans	Specifications
Goal Detail History	Title of the section that shows a list of all the events that have been performed for the goal.	Goal Plans	Goal Detail History
Include in Performance Review	Indicates that the goal is automatically included in the employee's performance review when goals are populated from the goal plan.	Goal Plans	Specifications
Measurement	Title of the section that shows information about the measurement of the goal.	Goal Plans Business Goals	Measurement
Measurement Text	Text box that contains a description of the measurement type. The character limit is 1000.	Goal Plans Business Goals	Measurement
Measurement type	There are two measurement type can be selected in the drop-down list. Goals can be measured in a quantitative or qualitative manner. Depending on the measurement type selected, the fields in the Measurement section will be slightly different.	Goal Plans Business Goals	Measurement
Name	Name of the goal.	Goal Plans Business Goals	General
Organization	Organization associated to the business goal.	Business Goals	General
Owner	Indicates who created the goal.	Goal Plans	General
Progress	Dynamic bar that indicates the level of progression towards goal achievement.	Goal Plans Business Goals	Measurement
Public	Check box indicating that the goal is public. When this option is not selected, therefore, private, the goal cannot be seen by subordinates and therefore cannot be aligned to.	Goal Plans	Specifications
Qualitative	Goal measurement type that provides a text-based measurement.	Goal Plans Business Goals	Measurement
Quantitative	Goal measurement type that provides fields to enter a specific target to be achieved.	Goal Plans Business Goals	Measurement
Rating	Slider bar that indicates the evaluation of the achievement of the goal given by the manager. Note that when an employee is viewing his own goal, the manager's rating is not visible to the employee and the Rating bar is designed for the employee to provide his own rating.	Goal Plans	Rating
Rating	Title of the section that shows the rating information about the goal.	Goal Plans	Rating
Related Goals	Title of the section that lists all the goals	Goal Plans	Related Goals
Show/Hide Line of Sight	Button that shows or hides the goal alignment hierarchy.	Goal Plans	Alignment
Specifications	Title of the section that contains other identification information about the goal.	Goal Plans	Specifications
Start Date	Indicates the date when the achievement of the goal starts and from when the progression is being calculated.	Goal Plans Business Goals	Specifications
Status	Status drop-down menu of the employee goal, which can be Not Started, In Progress, Completed and Canceled.	Goal Plans Business Goals	General
Stretch Value	Quantitative measurement field that indicates the stretch value for a goal, which could exceed the set Target Value, expressed as a number with or without decimals. Note that this value is not used to calculate the completed percentage.	Goal Plans Business Goals	Measurement
Target Value	Quantitative measurement field that indicates the level of achievement set for the goal, expressed as a number with or without decimals. The Progress percentage is determined according to the Actual Value over the Target Value.	Goal Plans Business Goals	Measurement
Weight	Field that indicates a weight for the goal. Goal weights are entered as whole numbers 0-99. The system automatically calculates the number into a percentage and both are displayed. Weights can be carried over to the performance review when goals are copied from the plan to the review.	Goal Plans	Rating

Working with Business Goals

Business Goals

Business Goals are qualitative or quantitative statements of an organization's intent or objectives, for example, “Increase operational efficiency 5%.”

If you have Business Goal rights, you can create goals for the organization that you are a member of or for subordinate organizations.

All goals have a goal period, a “container” that typically mirrors the time period in which the organization evaluates employees. During this period, you work at achieving your goals and in most case you are expected to attain the goals within the period. A goal can, however, span multiple periods.

The Business Goals feature provides three modes: a list of goals, a goal “vCard” that allows for the rapid updating of progress, and a Gantt timeline of goal start and end dates. The Gantt view supports drag and drop functionality with regard to the goal start and end date adjustments. If you “hover” your (mouse) pointer over a goal in Gantt mode, a summary of the goal alignment, dates and progress is displayed. You can access goal details by double-clicking the goal from any of the three modes.

A business goal can be either quantitative or qualitative. In a qualitative goal, you provide a text-based measurement. For example, a goal such as “Increase employee visibility into corporate plans”, the measurement could include a description of training programs to be held and other strategies. In short, a goal does not have a detailed measurement by which success can be measured. Progress is manually entered for qualitative goals.

In a quantitative goal, you enter a specific target to be achieved. For example, in a goal such as “Reduce employee voluntary turnover by 5%”, the target is 5%. To measure progress, you must also enter a value. The variance is a percentage calculation of progress based on the actual value divided by the target value.

Goal Creation through Alignment

The creation of employee or business goals though alignment provides users with an intuitive way to rapidly create goals that are in line with the key objectives of the organization or with their manager's goals and to tailor them to specific needs.

This goal creation option provides the ability to create goals in the way that many businesses work (via top-down alignment or cascading). Rather than requiring users to create goals from scratch, the creation through alignment offers the ability to select another business or employee goal and to use that goal as a “template” for creating the new goal. Key details are copied from the selected goal and the new goal is automatically aligned to the goal that was selected. The user can then personalize the goal to satisfy different objectives.

Creating goals via alignment is offered as an alternative to creating goals from scratch. Therefore, when creating a new business or employee goal, the user is prompted to select whether to create the goal from scratch or to create it through goal alignment. If users selects the latter, they are provided with a dialog box allowing them to choose which business or employee goals they want to align to.

When the new goal is created from alignment to a another goal, the following information is automatically entered and can be edited if needed.

Name of the goal
Description of the goal
Start and due dates
Alignment to the goal that was selected to create the current goal

Configuration

Business goal creation by alignment is offered automatically to all users.

Employee goal creation by alignment is offered automatically to all users. However, the type of goal alignment to select from depends on the goal assignment settings defined on the goal plan template. These settings allow organizations to determine whether an employee can align to his manager's goals, his projects or the organization's business goals.

The following table lists the Goal Alignment Settings, found under Configuration > [Taleo Performance] Administration > [Goals Management] Goal Plan Templates.

Setting Name	Description
Allow employees to align their employee goals to their manager's goals	Setting that indicates if employees are entitled to align their goals to their manager's goals.
Allow to align employee goals to projects	Setting that indicates if employees are entitled to align their goals to projects.
Allow to align employee goals to employee's business organization goals	Setting that indicates if employees are entitled to align their goals to the organization's business goals. If possible, they can be authorized to align to any business goals, in which case, no sub-setting is required. If however, employee should only align to business goals of a specific level, the definition of the sub-setting must be done.
Allow to align employee goals to business goals of business organizations that are below the employee's business organization level	Sub-setting of Allow to align employee goals to employee's business organization goals
Allow to align employee goals to business goals of business organizations that are above the employee's business organization level	Sub-setting of Allow to align employee goals to employee's business organization goals

Printable Business Goal Plan

A PDF version of the business goal plan is offered to provide a printable version of all the business goals of a business organization for a given period. The printout can show all the information about all the business goals in the plan or only some goal information.

The printable version of the business goals is available by simply clicking on the print icon.

Print options are available to specify which information is to be shown on the printout - Goal Details are always printed.

Fields that show no values will not be displayed on the printout version of the business goal plan.

Print Options	Description
Goal Details	Always shows the name and the description of the goal (whether it be a goal, sub-goal, business project and milestone when the Business Projects and/or Related Goals print options are also selected) as well as its start and due dates, status, organization and criticality level.
Measurement	Shows the actual, target and stretch values of the progress of the goal, the progress percentage as well as any specified measurement text.
Alignment	Shows the theme the business goal is aligned to.
Business Projects	Shows the business projects related to each business goal in the plan.
Related Goals	Shows the other business goals that are related to the business goal.

Creating a Business Goal

Creating a business goal provides the ability to create and define business goals to which you can later align the business projects of your organization.

To be able to create business goals, and to have the Business Goals link under the Navigation bar's More dropdown, you must have a Business Goal Administrator user type.

[Navigation bar] > More dropdown > Business Goals

If a business goal has never been created for the selected organization and business period, click Create to create the goal plan. Note that the Create button only appears the first time a plan is created.
In the Business Goals page, click the plus icon.
In the Create a new goal window, specify whether you want to create a goal by alignment or from scratch, that is manually.
- If you selected Create a new goal through alignment, click Next to select the goal to align to.
- If you selected Create manually, click Next to enter basic information about the goal.
Click OK to create the goal and to display the goal detail page in order to enter further goal information.
Click the Disk icon to save when complete.

The new business goal is displayed on the Business Goals page.

You can edit the business goal or align it with other business goals, if not already aligned.

Creating a Business Sub-goal

You can create business sub-goals and have them aligned to your business goals.

You can only create a business sub-goal for an existing business goal.

[Navigation bar > More dropdown > Business Goals

In the Business Goals page, select the goal for which you want to create a sub-goal and click the right arrow icon to select Add Business Subgoal....
In the Create a new goal window, enter the basic information about the new sub-goal.
Click OK to display the goal detail page.
Provide extra information as required and click the Disk icon to save when complete.

The new business sub-goal is automatically aligned to the parent business goal and is displayed under the parent goal on the Business Goals page.

Editing a Business Goal or Sub-goal

Editing a business goal or sub-goal allows you to make corrections to or update the item.

[Navigation bar > More dropdown > Business Goals

In the Business Goals page, click the goal or sub-goal that you want to edit.
In the goal detail page, make your changes to the goal or sub-goal.
Click the Disk icon to save.

Your changes are saved.

Aligning a Business Goal

You can align a business goal to a theme.

[Navigation bar > More dropdown > Business Goals

In the Business Goals page, select the goal that you want to align.
In the goal detail page, scroll to the Alignment section and click Align....
In the Alignment window, select the category of the item you wish to align the goal to and select the desired item from the list of corresponding goals or themes.
Click OK to perform the alignment and return to the goal detail page.

The goal is now aligned with the selected item.

A hierarchal view of the goal alignment is displayed in the Alignment section.

Realigning a Business Goal

You can realign a business goal to a different goal or simply clear the alignment association.

[Navigation bar > More dropdown > Business Goals

In the Business Goals page, select the goal that you want to realign.
In the goal detail page, scroll to the Alignment section and click Clear to remove the existing alignment.
You need to click the Disk icon to save before proceeding to the new alignment.
Click Align...
In the Alignment window, select the category of the item you wish to align the goal to and select the desired item from the list of corresponding goals or themes.
Click OK to perform the alignment and return to the goal detail page.

The goal is now aligned with the new item.

A hierarchal view of the goal alignment is displayed in the Alignment section.

Creating a Business Project from the My Projects Page

Creating a business project from the My Projects page provides you with the opportunity to assign a project owner and assign goals directly to employees working on the project. A project can be created and later aligned to a business goal or created for another project, where is becomes a sub-project.

[Navigation bar > More dropdown > Business Goals

In the My Projects page,
- click the plus icon to create a first-level project, to later align, or
- select the project for which you want to create a sub-project and click the right arrow icon to select Add Business Project....
In the Create a new business project window, enter the basic information about the new project.
Click OK to create the business project and to display the project detail page in order to enter further information.

The new business project is created and added to the list of projects in My Projects page. If the project was created under another project, it will be automatically aligned to the parent project and will be displayed by clicking the arrow next to the project.

You can perform other tasks such as creating another project or m a milestone for an existing project.

Creating a Business Project from the Business Goals Page

Creating a business project from the Business Goals page offers you the opportunity to assign a project owner and assign goals directly to employees working on the project.

[Navigation bar > More dropdown > Business Goals

In the Business Goals page, select the goal for which you want to create a project and click the right arrow icon to select Add Business Project....
In the Create a new business project window, enter the basic information about the new project.
Click OK to create the business project and to display the project detail page in order to enter further information.

The new business project is added as a project, under the selected goal in the Business Goals page.

Note that when the project is created from a business goal, the project is automatically aligned to the business goal that was selected.

Creating a Business Sub-project

Creating a business sub-project is used to assign a project owner and assign goals directly to employees working on the project. Sub-projects can be created for business goals or any other projects.

Performance > [Navigation bar] > More dropdown > My Projects

Performance > [Navigation bar] > More dropdown > Business Goals

In the My Projects or Business Goals page, select the item for which you want to create a sub-project and click the right arrow icon to select Add Business Project....
In the Create a new business project window, enter the basic information about the new project.
Click OK to create the business project and to display the project detail page in order to enter further information.

When a project is created for a business goal or another project, the alignment to the parent item is automatic.

Aligning a Project or Sub-project

You can align a project to sub-project or to a business goal.

Performance > [Navigation bar] > More dropdown > My Projects

Performance > [Navigation bar] > More dropdown > Business Goals

In the My Projects or Business Goals page, select the business project you want to align .
In the business project detail page, scroll to the Alignment section and click Align....
n the Alignment window, select the category of the item you wish to align the project to and select the desired item from the list of corresponding items.
Click OK to perform the alignment and return to the project detail page.

Your project is aligned to the selected item.

Creating a Milestone

Creating a milestone creates an element that marks the completion of a specific work package or phase. You can create milestones for business projects.

A project or sub-project need to be created before you can create a milestone and add it.

Performance > [Navigation bar] > More dropdown > My Projects

In the My Projects page, select the project for which you want to create a milestone and click the right arrow icon to select Add Business Milestone....
In the Create a new milestone window, enter the basic information about the new milestone.
Click OK to create the milestone.

The new milestone is displayed below the project or sub-project.

HR Administrators Working with Employee Goal Plans

Viewing an Employee Goal Plan

Viewing an employee goal plan allows an HR administrator to access an employee goal plan that is pending, whether the approval has not yet been requested or the approval is in progress or has been rejected.

Performance > [Navigation bar] > HR Admin > All Goal Plans

Filter the goal plans in order to view the desired goal plan.
In the result grid, click the name of the corresponding employee.

The Goal Plan page displays and shows the goals associated to the selected employee.