01/18/2007

Annual Performance Reviews

Bonus or merit pay - We WILL NOT use this six month APR for the purpose of assigning merit pay. Further, try as we might, we have not been able to develop an equitable, fair, and productive way to implement a bonus plan. So, we will not award bonuses based on individual performance for 2007. The management team and I have reviewed the plan we developed after our exempt staff meeting in Cookeville and my meeting with the nonexempt staff in Knoxville. Every way we looked at it, the incentives were not going to be very large and the negatives for the entire MTAS organization were going to far outweigh the positives. We are going to continue to develop a bonus plan, but it's not going to be easy to do.

APR schedule - Remember, we are converting to a calendar year schedule for our annual performance reviews (APR). Our first full calendar year will be 2007. In the meantime, we need to go through the APR process for the period of July - December 2006. Here's the schedule:

Wednesday, January 17 - APR forms ready for data entry.

Monday, January 29 - 5:00 PM - Deadline for all APR forms to be completed in the APR database and your supervisor to be notified. Also, complete your professional development requests for the rest of 2007.

Tuesday, February 13 - Supervisors will start the face-to-face APR interviews. Your supervisor will notify you of the schedule for your APR interview. We are a little pressed for time so please be flexible.

Monday, March 12 - The completed and signed originals of the APR and the UT cover sheet are due to me.

APR forms - Here's a link to the database.

1. As usual, you can enter your information in several sessions. When you return to the APR form, you will notice a "Ready for Mgt Team" button in the upper right. This button will be used to alert the management team that your APR form is finished. If your supervisor is part of the management team, please click this button when you are finished with your APR form. Your APR will begin the management team review process and will not be visible to you until closer to your face-to-face APR meeting. If your supervisor is not a part of the management team, please send them an e-mail when you have completed your form. Your supervisor will input his or her comments and then they will click the "Ready for Mgt Team" button so your APR form can begin the management team review cycle. If you mistakenly push this button before you have completed your APR, please call Lisa and she will reset it.
2. For exempt staff, your workplan for calendar year 2007 will include four projects. Project #4 will be the same for all exempt staff. Please cut and paste the following paragraph:
I will work to insure that our information center has a comprehensive collection of current and accurate electronic information by functional area. I will work with the information staff to review my project and subject files (both electronic and hard copy) so some may be entered into KnowledgeBase. This initiative will require a prioritization of my time and commitments and I will commit and schedule at least one work week with the information staff during 2007 as needed.

If you have any questions about how to complete your APR form, please contact your supervisor or Lisa. Thanks.