Performance Development
The Performance Development Process focuses on several key assumptions:
- Creating an environment in which faculty or professional staff members and their deans, department heads, or managers hold regular, productive conversations about faculty or professional staff members’ growth and development
- Frequently and formally recognizing faculty or professional staff members’ accomplishments contributes to engagement and a development mindset
- Learning to hold development conversations with faculty or staff members contributes to managers’ leadership capability
This approach paves the way for a developmental process that is encouraging, purposeful, and rewarding.
The annual performance development process takes place between September and November. Faculty members with administrative responsibilities, professional staff members and their deans, department heads or managers will be asked to respond to several prompts. Here is some guidance for responding to those prompts.
New in 2025
During recent office hours, President Merlo heard from professional staff about the need for more meaningful opportunities to engage in a more thoughtful, bidirectional feedback loop with administrative leaders. In response, we are developing a series of function-focused engagement sessions where relevant stakeholders can contribute insights into the processes, protocols, and systems that impact their work.
Within your performance evaluation document in Career Pathway, you will now be asked to complete a survey to estimate the time you spend supporting various functional areas at the University. This information will help to ensure you are invited to the most relevant engagement sessions.
Faculty and professional staff members will:
- Provide descriptions of strengths and achievements during the annual performance cycle. These should include achievement or progress on any goals set with their manager earlier in the year.
- Identify one area for professional development during the upcoming performance cycle. A non-exhaustive list of learning and growth opportunities is available for reference.
- Suggest how their dean, department head or manager could support their development. The Performance Development website has a list of ways to support learning and growth.
Deans, department heads or managers will:
- Provide their own thoughts about strengths and accomplishments, including progress on previously set goals.
- Comment on the area for professional development the faculty or professional staff member noted and share feedback and areas for improvement.
- Respond to the faculty or professional staff member's suggestions for how the dean, department head or manager can support their learning and growth, and include their own comments.
- Assign an overall rating describing the faculty or professional staff member’s performance over the past year (September through August) using the overall rating guidance on the performance website.
Timeline and Access
Goal Setting
Recognizing Accomplishments and Discussing Strengths
Learning and Growth Opportunities
Manager Support of Learning and Growth
Feedback
Overall Rating Guidance
Development Conversations
Best Practices for One-to-One Meetings
FAQs