1. Using Performance Management
  2. Guidelines for Setting Up Performance Templates

Guidelines for Setting Up Performance Templates

Define performance templates to create the performance documents that managers, workers, and participants use to evaluate workers' performance for a given time period or project. The performance template combines the process flow definition, the section definitions, and the document type.

The performance template can also contain content, such as competencies and goals. When creating a performance template, you can select either of the these types:

  • Standard, for typical performance documents, such as annual or project or company-wide evaluations.

  • Anytime, for performance documents that managers and workers can create any time to evaluate the worker.

When creating the performance template, the HR specialist must determine:

  • Document types and eligibility profiles

  • Participation roles

  • Process flow

  • Calculation rules, processing options, and participant options

  • Structure

  • Content

  • Document periods

To create performance templates, use the Performance Templates task. Go to My Client Groups > Performance > Performance Templates. You can create a new template by clicking Add or you can search for an existing template.

Document Types and Eligibility Profiles

Select or create a document type to identify the type of evaluation that the performance template supports, such as annual evaluation, which would use the Standard template or Anytime for an anytime performance document. The document type included in the performance template is also used to identify which employee's goal plans should populate the goal sections in the performance document.

Associate eligibility profiles to the overall template, or to the document periods, to restrict the performance documents made from the template to those who meet the criteria. You can limit access to the document by requiring a certain eligibility profile; you can also include non-required profiles. Workers must meet the criteria for all required conditions. They must also meet the conditions for at least one of the non-required criteria.

Participation Roles

Specify the roles that are eligible to access the performance document. You can select Manager, Worker, or any participant roles created in the Performance Roles task. On the Structure tab, you select which roles can access the individual section in the performance document to provide ratings and comments, questionnaire feedback, and perform other actions. For example, if you set up the performance template so that only managers rate workers, but workers can see the results, then you must select both roles as participants. If, however, the manager rates workers without the workers participating in the performance evaluation process or viewing results, then you can select only the manager role.

In the Participation section, you also set the minimum number of participants required for participant feedback, and the minimum for each role. These settings aren't enforced but serve as a guideline for managers and workers when they request participant feedback.

Process Flow

The process flow determines which tasks are included in the performance template. You can select a previously-defined process flow or create one as you create the template.

The process flow also determines which sections you can add to the performance template. If the performance template is used to rate workers, set goals, and let workers and managers provide final feedback, the process flow you select must include all those tasks. You can only add sections to the performance template that are required by the process flow. For example, if the process flow doesn't include the Worker Final Feedback task, you can't add that section to the performance template.

You can enter the number of days before the tasks are due that an email alert is sent for both standard and critical alerts. You enter the task due dates on the Document Periods tab. Alerts aren't available for Anytime performance templates.

Calculation Rules, Processing Options, and Participant Options

In the Process tab, you can select whether to calculate ratings and display the calculated ratings for performance template sections. The sections included in the performance template must be set up to use calculated ratings to use this feature.

Use Processing Options to select these features:

  • Designate whether managers, workers, and participants can select star ratings to rate items and sections. For star ratings, the number of stars correspond to the rating descriptions set for each star. For example, one star may represent the Foundation rating description, two stars may represent the Intermediate rating description, and so on. Star ratings can be used only for rating models that use 10 or fewer rating levels. If you specify not to use star ratings, managers, workers, and participants select the rating descriptions from a choice list. The rating description displays no numeric rating, but the description corresponds to a rating number set up for the rating model. The number that corresponds to the rating description selected by the worker or manager is used to calculate ratings.

  • Include digital signature to require workers to verify that they're the people submitting the performance document as part of the Worker Final Feedback task.

  • Display feedback notes on the performance document to use them as a guide to rate workers while the evaluation is in progress. Feedback can only be viewed by those roles configured to view it. The feedback notes aren't included in the printed performance document.

Participant options let you determine whether participant feedback is required for the performance document, which isn't enforced but serves as a guideline for managers and workers. You also specify these options:

  • Whether to let workers view participants selected by the manager to provide feedback. When you choose this option, it overrides other role options that you have set to allow workers to see participant feedback names or roles, for example, in the Processing by Role section of the Structure tab.

  • Whether to auto-populate matrix managers of a worker as participants to avoid manually adding them as participants.

  • The default participant role assigned to matrix managers.

  • Whether matrix managers can access worker documents automatically after they're created.

Structure

Add previously-defined sections or create ones that are required for the process flow selected for the template. You must select or create one of each type of the sections that are required for this particular template. You can edit previously-defined sections to suit the template requirements, including processing options, properties and content.

For each section, you must select which roles have access to the section in the performance document to view and if applicable, provide ratings, comments, and questionnaire feedback.

You can choose which roles can provide item ratings and item comments for these sections in performance documents:

  • Performance Goals

  • Development Goals

  • Profile Content

You can choose which roles can provide section ratings and section comments for these sections in performance documents:

  • Performance Goals

  • Development Goals

  • Profile Content

  • Overall Summary

  • Worker Final Feedback (section comments only)

  • Manager Final Feedback (section comments only)

Note: If the performance template is in use, then it's possible to exclude a role from providing ratings or comments. If a role previously provided item ratings or comments, and you then excluded the role from providing them, the application retains the previous ratings and comments but doesn't display them in the performance document.

Content

For each section that contains content that can be rated, you can add content items directly to the performance template so they appear on the performance document. For both Goals and Profile Content sections you can load content that was included in the previously-defined section. For a Profile Content section, such as competencies, you can also copy content from whatever profile the section uses as a source for content items. You must set up profiles to be used as a source in this case.

This lets you target this performance template as broadly or narrowly as you need. You can decide to load content items from the section, for example, that apply to everyone who's rated using the performance document created from this template. But you may decide not to copy content directly from a profile in the template because the population being evaluated has varied profiles. The workers and managers can then copy profile content on the performance document itself (if the process flow is set up to let them).

Document Periods

You can create a single, or multiple document periods, within a performance template. Adding multiple periods enables you to create performance documents from the same template for different periods. The performance documents are treated as distinct documents, but contain the same process flows, sections, and processing rules. For example, you can create a template for an annual evaluation to use every year. If you create multiple periods (each period is used to create a performance document), then the content of those performance documents may change as the content is coming from other sources: competencies from profiles in profile management, the employee's goals in goal management, or development goals in career development.

The person who creates the performance document can change the performance document's start and end dates, if desired. However, the performance document start and end dates must be between the document period's start and end dates.

Configure these options for the selected period:

  • Name: The name of the document period is the name of the performance document created for the period.

  • Review Period: Select the review period for the document.

  • Performance Document Start and End Dates: These must be the same as, or within, the review period start and end dates.

  • Short Name: Used for reporting.

  • Available to Use: Select for anytime documents so they're available to managers and employees to create them.

  • Lock Manager Share Task: Select this to prevent managers from sharing the ratings with employees during the calibration period. This option is available only if the Allow document sharing task to be locked for calibration option is enabled in the Process Flow page.

On the document periods you add, you can also set up these items:

  • Eligibility profiles: Add additional eligibility profiles or remove the ones inherited from the General tab, and select whether they're required.

  • Document types for interim and anytime evaluations: Add document types used in other performance templates that you want to appear in the performance document for the selected period.

  • Due Dates: Within each period, you can set the due date for each task that's included in the process flow used by the performance template. Due dates aren't available for Anytime performance templates.

  • Questionnaires: Add roles and associate them with questionnaires to give the role access to the appropriate questions on which to provide feedback in the performance document.

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