Interim Evaluations in Performance Documents

You configure performance templates and document periods to display the ratings and comments from interim evaluations in subsequent performance documents. This topic explains what interim ratings are and use cases for them, how you configure them, and how to display them.

Use Cases for Interim Evaluations

You can use interim documents to view ratings and comments from previous performance documents in later, or final performance documents in an evaluation period. For example, you can configure interim and later performance documents to capture and display ratings and comments for:

Midyear or quarterly evaluations
Project evaluations
Previous annual evaluations

You can configure interim documents to capture the same, more, or less information than, for example, an annual evaluation. For example, you can configure the interim evaluation to require comments, but not ratings, for content items and sections. Or, for simplicity, the interim evaluation may not contain tasks for participant feedback or approvals.

Available Ratings and Comments

The ratings and comments you configure to appear in each performance document are those that appear in the later documents. You can configure ratings, comments, or both to appear for the Overall Summary, Profile Content (competencies) and Goals sections, and ratings only for content items.

If you configure some ratings or comments to appear in the interim, but not the later performance document, the later document doesn't display the ratings or comments from the interim document. For example, if you include section ratings in the performance template for the interim evaluation, but not in the final evaluation template, the section ratings don't appear in the final performance document.

About Configuring Interim Evaluations

Interim evaluations appear in subsequent documents based on configuration of:

Review periods
Document types
Document periods on the performance template

Review periods must be the same for both the interim and later documents that consume the interim documents.

To make interim evaluations appear in later, or final performance documents, you must select at least one document type to associate with the document period for the final document. The document types you select on the Document Periods tab determine which interim ratings and comments appear in the final performance document. The ratings, comments, or both (depending on configuration) from performance documents associated with those document types appear in the document.

Document types associated with the performance templates used for the performance documents can be the same, or different for the interim and later documents, depending on your needs. The document types must be the same for all interim evaluations that you want to appear cumulatively. For example, if your organization uses quarterly evaluations, to see the ratings for all previous quarters in subsequent quarters, each must use the same document type. If you want to isolate interim performance documents from each other, but have them appear in a final document, the interim performance documents must use different document types. You might use this approach, for example, if you have both midyear and project evaluations and need neither to be visible to the other, but both to appear in an annual evaluation.

In the document period of the performance templates you use to create the performance documents you select the review period. In the document period for each later document in which you want interim documents to appear, you also must select the document types for the interim evaluations you want to appear. If you have only one document type, such as for cumulative quarterly evaluations, select the document type those documents use. If you have multiple evaluations to display, such as for the midyear and project evaluations mentioned previously, select all document types that apply.

Access to Interim Ratings

Interim ratings and comments appear in the final document in this way:

Section and Overall Summary ratings appear on the dialog box that appears when you click the Information icon for the section.
Content items appear on the dialog box that appears when you click the Information icon for the same content items, and using the Interim link on the content item detail dialog box.

For individual content items, you can view ratings and comments from interim evaluations only for each matching content item. For example, if you have a competency in Period 1, and the same competency in Period 2, you can select the Information icon in Period 2 performance document to see the Period 1 information. If that competency isn't part of the template or configured to appear as part of a profile in Period 2, it doesn't appear.

In the dialog box that appears, you can click the performance document name to open a PDF of the interim performance document to see the entire interim performance document.