# Presentation: 395252

## Performance Appraisals  & Action Statements

- John Sadler, RL
-  Cropping Systems & Water Quality Research Unit, Columbia, MO

- MWA New-SY Training, St. Louis, MO, April 29-May 1, 2008

## Context – Performance Management

- Position description
- Performance standards
- Goals
- Communication during rating period
- Evaluation at end of rating period
- Recognition – intrinsic and awards
- Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)
- Adverse action in case of failure to improve
- Our goal is your success!

## Two Perspectives

- You, as an ARS _**employee**_
- Helping you communicate your efforts
- Obtaining annual recognition for performance
- You, as an ARS _**supervisor**_
- Helping your employee communicate
- Understanding your employee’s work
- Recognizing performance
- We’ll talk more about the first one, but keep both perspectives in mind

## Audience: Who are you writing for?

- Rating Official
- Your Research Leader
- Similar training
- Generally aware of details about your work
- Has <20 to do, usually
- Reviewing Official
- Either Center Director or MWA Directors
- Probably different training
- Less familiar with your work
- Has >200 to do
**Target the **_**Reviewing**_** Official!**

## Common Problems

- Simple statements of fact
- No responsible agent related to status
- Present tense
- Reads like a job description
- Cannot distinguish between what was supposed to be done and what was done
- Focused on activities
- Worked on project X
- Qualitative descriptors instead of measures
- Worked really hard, etc.
- Focused on person instead of performance
- Great to work with, etc.

## Passive voice vs. active voice

- Purpose of passive voice
- De-emphasize the responsible agent
- Leaves the responsible party ambiguous
- Something was done (by whom?)
- Emphasizes the action instead of the accomplishment (terminal position)
- Why would we want these in a performance appraisal?
- Use active voice!

## Standard format

- Implied subject
- (I or Dr. X) is understood
- Past-tense active verb
- Accomplished ...
- Object
- Something ...
- So what?
- Really important!

## Some Verbs Work Poorly

- Verbs that connote, primarily, activities
- Worked on
- Continued
- Studied
- Researched
- Evaluated
- Attended
- Participated

## Some Verbs Work Better (1)

- Connote accomplishments
- Documented
- Found
- Discovered
- Developed
- Invented
- Created
- Established

## Some Verbs Work Better (2)

- Connote completion
- Completed
- Finished
- Published
- Commercialized
- Patented
- Distributed
- Registered (e.g., germplasm)

## Some Verbs Work Some Times

- Connoting a start works in planning and conducting research
- Initiated
- Planned
- Started
- Designed experiment
- These don’t work forever
- Eventually expect to see completion
- And publication
- And _**impact**_

## Projects vs. Processes

- Projects
- Fixed term, defined endpoints
- Most research that you do
- Processes
- Continuous in some cases
- Practically continuous in many cases
- Much of what your technicians do
- Must define periodic points for evaluation
- Think how accountants have defined cycles
- Language for these is different

## So What? 

- What about this work mattered?
- Who uses it?
- What does it do for them?
- Where is it applicable?
- When?
- Past, present, future?
- Why is it used?
- Saves time, money, protects safety, etc.
- How can you tell importance?
- What measures can be provided?

## Items Worth Mentioning

- What objective in the project plan is addressed by research
- What is expected to come out of planned research or publications - expected impact
- What has already resulted from presentations or publications
- Whether service on committees is as a volunteer or a draftee

## More Items Worth Mentioning about Presentations

- Location
- Meeting & presentation title
- Whether presentation was invited
- Whether expenses were paid
- In full or in part
- Numbers in attendance
- Scope of audience
- Geographic coverage of audience

## Performance Appraisals MWA 2007 Revisited

- What goes where?
- What generally constitutes “Meets Fully Successful”?
- What might be considered “Exceeds Fully Successful”?

## What goes where?

- Element I.  Plans and Conducts Research
- Element II.  Demonstrated Research Accomplishments
- Element III. Technology Transfer, Professional Advisory, and Consulting Activities
- Element IV. Communications/Interpersonal Relations/Human and Fiscal Resource Management/EEO
- Element V. Supports and Participates in Safety, Health, and Environmental Management Programs

## What “Meets”?

- Anything in your job description
- Anything that, if you didn't do it, would cause “Does not meet”
- “Meets” is neither a given nor a failure!
- It means US taxpayers are getting their money’s worth

## What “Exceeds”?

- Initiative
- Quantity
- Quality
- Applicability
- Innovation
- Timeliness
- Special circumstances (rare)
- And always,** **_**Impact**_**!**

**Notes:**
Initiative 
to independently pursue something qualitatively outside the standards, but still directly applicable to the element
Quantity 
higher productivity or volume of work than expected
Quality 
done to produce a better result than expected
Applicability 
something that helps an audience broader than expected
Innovation 
something unexpectedly creative
Timeliness 
done before the expected deadline
Special circumstances 
rarely, achieving better-than-average results under unusual conditions might be considered for an exceptional performance

## Important Bits About “Exceeds”

- “Exceeds” is not an entitlement
- Expectations for the element cannot be exceeded if not clearly defined beforehand
- Communication during year reduces chances for surprises in evaluations
- Grade level always considered for “exceeds”
- Expectations increase as grade increases

## Additional Explanation

- Memo: Performance Appraisal Guidelines
- From Terry Nelsen and John Sadler
- November 14, 2007
- On MWA intranet web site
- _[http://www.mwa.ars.usda.gov/mwa/ad/_x000b_PerformanceAppraisalGuidelines.doc](http://www.mwa.ars.usda.gov/mwa/ad/%0BPerformanceAppraisalGuidelines.doc)_

## Questions?