Performance Planning And Review

Remember--the planning session for the next rating period should be conducted by the day that falls 30 day after the anniversary date. Many Rating Supervisors conduct this planning session at the conclusion of the rating and review session described above. An entirely new PPR document should be prepared for this planning session.

A2. Since the original planning document contains the original planning expectations and signatures, you should write your performance comments and perform all the math calculations on it. Then, obtain a copy of a new page 1 from the newly revised form and complete it with final rating data. Attach the "new" page 1 to the front of the old planning document and use this blended form as your official rating form. Then, the planning session for the upcoming performance period should be complete using a copy of the revised form in its entirety.

A3. No, page 10 doesn’t have to be attached. In the event an employee requests a review, the Reviewer can complete and attach a copy of page 10 at the conclusion of the Review process, being sure to give all necessary persons copies of the complete revised PPR form in accordance with instructions provided on page 10.

A4. No, it can be detached and not included as part of the official document.

A5.Make a note on the PPR form that the form was mailed to the employee to satisfy the requirements of Rule 10.6, and note the fact the employee was not at work. When mailing the form, we recommend the Rating Supervisor obtain a "Certificate of Mailing" from the Post Office as documentation confirming the date the form was mailed. The form will still be official.

A6.See C.S. Rule 10.6 (d). The deadline date is the anniversary date, the same as for actually conducting the rating session. However, we recommend a "Certificate of Mailing" be obtained from the post office as documentation the rating was mailed and on what date.

A7. This does not invalidate the document. The rating supervisor should simply document on the form itself that the employee refused to sign the document. We recommend the rating supervisor give the employee a copy of the S.F. 15 that contains that notation.

A8. Indefinitely

A9. Three years

A10. Indefinitely

RATING ANSWERS

A1. See C.S. Rule 10.4 (c) AND page 1 of the new PPR form. If a Rating Supervisor or Human Resource representative discovers a rating is actually "un-rated" because of non-compliance with a rule requirement, the rating must be changed on page 1 of the PPR form to "un-rated." (This can be done by a Rating Supervisor, Human Resource officer or if appropriate, the Reviewer.) The correct Un-Rated Reason must be selected. The employee and Rating Supervisor must sign and date underneath. A copy of this corrected page 1 must be provided to everyone who received a copy of the original rating. It is imperative that the employee receive a copy of this immediately because the employee can request a review form the Designated Reviewer within 15 days of the anniversary date.

A2. There are several resources available to aid the Rating Supervisor in the absence of a planning document: personal observations and documentation notes made during the rating period, compliments/complaints received from others regarding the employee’s performance, position description, Civil Service job specification, office policies and procedures documents/memos, work samples, training and other manuals outlining job duties, etc. A Civil Service rule was violated when a planning session was not conducted; do not violate another Civil Service rule by not conducting a rating session. You may wish to make a note on the PPR form, in the comments portion next to your signature, what documents were used in the absence of a planning document.

A3. A closeout rating is an informal rating conducted by a Rating Supervisor when either (a) an employee is leaving the Rating Supervisor’s supervision or (b) the Rating Supervisor is leaving the work group and will no longer supervise the employee(s.) This informs the employee what the Rating Supervisor’s assessment of his/her performance has been for the portion of the rating period he/she has supervised the employee, but is also invaluable to the new supervisor when he/she prepares to conduct the next official rating for the employee.

A4. There are actually several options here.

1. First, the new Rating Supervisor should determine if the employee received a "closeout" rating from the losing supervisor. If so, the Rating Supervisor can review that rating and include it in her/his assessment of the employee’s rating for the rating period. The rating period indicated on page 1 should be for the entire year, and the RS should make a note in the comments portion next to his/her signature that while he/she only supervised the employee for a short time, he/she considered the former supervisor’s closeout rating when rating the employee.
2. In the absence of a closeout rating, the Rating Supervisor can attempt to get performance input from the former Rating Supervisor; usually this is easier if the employee has simply transferred from one work unit within the same agency to another one. Using that information and whatever observations/documentation the RS has for the period he/she has supervised the employee, the RS can rate the employee as explained in (1) above.
3. If no closeout rating was conducted and contacting the former supervisor isn’t an option, but if the Rating Supervisor interviewed and selected this employee for transfer to the position, it is assumed the RS considers the new employee to at least be "Meets Requirements." Otherwise, the RS wouldn’t have selected the employee for the position In this case, the RS may wish to simply rate the employee "Meets Requirements," making a comment on the form and explaining to the employee the rationale behind such a rating.
4. Sometimes there is no way to render a rating; the only option left is to render an "un-rated" rating. You are encouraged to exhaust all other options before doing so, though. Be sure to mark the appropriate Un-Rated reason on page 1 of the PPR form.

A5. The employee retains the rating. He shall be re-rated according to C.S. Rule 10.7 regardless of who his supervisor is or where he is employed at the time of Re-rating deadline.

A6. No. The supervisor should make it clear to the employee during the planning session and throughout the year that the expectations are to serve as examples of what performance is expected, addressing areas of strengths and weaknesses. The supervisor cannot write everything that is expected of the employee as an expectation. Employees are responsible for performing their jobs according to the position description, departmental policies, and other verbal/written instructions that they are given. The planning document is only one more document that adds to what the employee already knows about the job.

PLANNING ANSWERS

A1. Yes. See Civil Service Rule 10.5 (b). "The Rating Supervisor shall provide written expectations for all factors upon which the employee will be rated."

REVIEW ANSWERS

A1. Rule 10.13 outlines the conditions under which an employee can request a review of an official rating. If an employee disagrees only with a single factor, he/she must determine if raising that one factor rating would change the overall rating assigned. If so, he/she can request a review of the overall rating, providing documentation supporting his claims that the one factor should be higher. If raising the one factor rating wouldn’t affect the overall score, the employee would not have a compelling basis for requesting a review.

A2. An employee who is "Unrated" because he received no rating at all can request a review by the date that falls 15 days after his/her anniversary date. In the request for a review, the employee isn’t required to provide the lengthier justification for the review request that would be required if he was actually disagreeing with a true rating rendered by the Rating Supervisor. All he has to do is request the review based on the fact he received none. The employee should check with the Human Resource Office of his agency to see if they have a specially designed form for this purpose. After receiving the review request, the agency (Designated Reviewer) is then required to review, or have the Rating Supervisor review, the employee’s performance and should assign a rating during the "review" process. Official rating is the overall rating, not a single factor.

A3. No. The review is considered the one and only agency review. According to C.S. Rule 10.14, the employee must now request a review from the Director of Civil Service.

A4. Yes. There is nothing to prevent an agency Designated Reviewer from rendering a rating of "Un-rated" in response to an employee request for review. Acceptable causes for this would be a situation such as when an employee has been absent from the office for a long period of time, receives a rating of "un-rated" from the Rating supervisor, asks for a review of the rating, and the Reviewer determines that due to the fact the employee was absent from the office for a long period of time, there was not a significant amount of performance during the rating period to rate. The Reviewer can confirm the rating of "Un-rated."

A5. No. Once the 15 days has lapsed, the employee cannot request a review at his agency or from the Director of Civil Service. The agency has violated a Civil Service rule by not rating the employee or notifying the employee his rating is un-rated, but the employee remains un-rated and the un-rated rating must be reported by the agency to Civil Service in its yearly PPR report. However, the Rating Supervisor who didn’t render the rating for the employee should be held accountable in his/her PPR for non-compliance with the PPR rules.

A6.The employee should assume his rating is Un-rated. Civil Service rules say the employee must receive notification of his rating, even an un-rated, in the 60 days prior to or on his anniversary date. If this doesn’t occur, a Civil Service rule has been violated. However, the employee can assume his rating is un-rated and can take steps to request a review of his un-rated rating, if he desires. He should immediately contact his Human Resource office, notify them he hasn’t received a rating, and begin to take steps to request a review if he wishes. Again, this has to be done within the window of opportunity.

A7. No, the Reviewer is not required to prepare the document and conduct the session, but that is an option. However, we recommend the Reviewer instruct the Rating Supervisor to prepare the form, giving a deadline date for doing so. Then, the Reviewer should review the rating form before the Rating Supervisor conducts the session to verify he/she agrees with the rating. The Rating Supervisor should then confer the overall rating retroactive to the employee’s anniversary date. All parties—the Reviewer, Rating Supervisor and Employee should sign on the last page of the PPR form attesting to the results of the Request for Review.

A8.No, the employee must request the review according to C.S. Rule 10.13. He cannot use the PPR form to make the request. The Employee’s Statement, which the employee reads and signs, is an acknowledgement by the employee that he has been informed of his/her right to request a review "…in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 10." While some Human Resource offices may have prepared packets of information or copies of the rules to aid the employee in his request, it is the employee’s responsibility to read the rules and follow them.

A9. No. The request can simply be made to "Reviewer" without indicating an individual’s name. We use this language in the instructions to indicate to the employee there is a designated person whose role it is to respond to requests for review. If the Reviewer is already named, it is recommended that the employee obtain/be told the name and address the request to that person, because this will help expedite the process once the request has been received by the H.R. office. And, the employee knows who will be conducting his/her review. Note that the rules do say that the request for review must be received in the Human Resource office, who will route it to the designated Reviewer. The employee does NOT submit the request directly to the Reviewer.

MERIT INCREASE, REALLOCATION AND OTHER ANSWERS

A1. No. The employee is only eligible for the merit increase, as well as promotion or permanent status (if serving on probational status) effective the date the re-rating. See C.S. Rule 10.7 (b).

A2. Yes. Job correction and reallocation are based on the duties assigned the job title or position, respectively, and are really irrelevant to the quality of the performance of those duties by the incumbent. The exception to this is reallocation within a training series. If an incumbent receives a "Poor" or "Needs Improvement" overall or even in one or more critical factors within an overall "Meets Requirements," the agency can (and should) use the PPR as documentation to deny reallocation to the next level in the training series. In theory the requirements for moving up in a training series include a measure of both quality of performance of assigned duties AND the duties themselves.

RE-RATING ANSWERS

A1. One. After one re-rating, the employee is not officially rated again until the 60 day rating period prior to or on the next anniversary date. However, the Rating Supervisor is advised to conduct informal reviews between the re-rating and the next rating period to assess the employee’s progress and provide continual feedback and communication.

A2. The Performance Rating Period should be only from the time of the re-rating to the next official rating. Do not include the period already covered by the Re-rating. Remember, a new planning document should also be prepared after the re-rating conducted on 8/18/01, to cover the remainder of the rating period.

A3.  The employee is only eligible for the merit increase, promotion or permanent status (if serving on probational status) as early as the effective date of the "Meets Requirements" or higher re-rating. See C.S. Rule 10.7 (b). For example, if the Rating Supervisor compliantly re-rates the employee on the first day in the 60 day window of opportunity for re-rating, the employee is eligible for the merit increase, etc. on that date. If however, the Rating Supervisor waits to re-rate on the last day in the window of opportunity for re-rating, the employee is only eligible for such considerations as of that date. It is all dependent on the official re-rating date.

ISIS HR-RELATED ANSWERS

A1. The numerical value would be 000. And of course, you are correct that ALL Un-Rated ratings MUST be entered into ISIS HR just as any other rating (Meets Requirements, Needs Improvement, etc.) is entered into the system. The appraiser's personnel number must be entered as well. The Appraisal Date should be entered as the day after the anniversary date, since that is the official date of the Un-Rated rating. (See C.S. Rule 10.11) For an Un-Rated Re-Rating, the appraisal date would be the day that fell six months after the anniversary date.

You must also select an Un-Rated Reason. The system must have all this information in order to record your Un-Rated data.