Staff compensation and performance reviews

Over the past year, Library managers have been working in partnership with Human Resources to increase consistency of practice regarding performance reviews and ratings. Those of you who were with us in January 2018 will have already seen the email below that introduced this initiative. Moving forward, there will be two open sessions about the compensation process. 

Open session agenda: 

1. information on the recent staff compensation agreement
2. a general overview of the job evaluation method used by Human Resources
3. a high-level review of a calibration tool that can be used to ensure more consistency across performance appraisals within the Library
4. next steps in the Library’s efforts toward greater consistency, including a preliminary discussion of valued behaviours and attitudes
5. time for questions

Session dates:

• August 10, 10 to 11:30 A.M., Dana Porter Library, Room 329 (FlexLab)
• August 14, 2 to 3:30 P.M., Davis Centre Library, Room 1568 (conference room)

Email sent to Library staff on January 26, 2018

A key tenet coming out of the Library’s Excellence Canada work was the need for consistency of management practices. To that end, Library Managers have been looking for ways to improve the consistency of performance appraisals and ratings across library departments.

As a first step, Library Managers determined that this year all proposed ratings of 4.5 and above need to be approved by Library Executive. To receive approval for such high ratings, a case will be made of an employee’s extraordinary achievement[s] and behaviors.

No further process changes are planned for this year’s performance appraisals. Additional changes which may be introduced next year will be communicated as we refine the process. Subsequent steps will be guided in part by information received by Library Managers and supervisors through two workshops offered in 2017:

1. Performance Calibration Model: HR introduced Library Managers to this new model, which has been used by various campus departments and faculties to improve rating consistency across whole departments. Two interesting findings from this workshop were that HR now advises supervisors as follows: 
   1. to evaluate key job objectives and the demonstration of required behaviours as equally important in determining the appropriate rating
   2. senior managers should review ratings to ensure equal application of criteria across units and also to minimize inappropriate escalation of ratings such that the full range of ratings (i.e. ratings from 1 to 5) is no longer evident
2. Performance Appraisals:  all supervisors were invited to this workshop to discuss best practices, including the Performance Calibration model

Changes in how performance appraisals and ratings are addressed will no doubt be of significant interest to many. To this end, Library Managers will be sponsoring an open session with representatives from HR to provide more information and to answer questions. This session will likely occur in the spring; more information to follow.