2024 October Annual Performance Review Update

The Administrative Council and Senior Leadership Team heard the Lafayette community’s concerns about the annual performance review process that took place in the spring of 2024.

Executive VP Audra Kahr met with Admin Council  in October to review last spring’s rollout of the 2024 performance evaluations. We discussed community feedback received so far (such as timing for completing evaluations, length of forms, and trainings), as well as potential changes to be made to the 2025 performance evaluation process. Admin Council requested additional time to collect feedback from the staff and admin community before the 2025 performance evaluations are announced early next year. Admin Council will compile any additional feedback and share it with VP Kahr before Thanksgiving in order for it to be considered for the coming year’s process. Feedback submitted last spring has already been collected and shared so there is no need to resubmit. Please submit any feedback you may have about performance evaluations through the Admin Council Contact Form by Monday, November 25.

Several steps will be taken to improve the process and experience for the next performance review cycle:

  • To address the issue of the process being too rushed, the next performance review cycle will be extended. This will allow more adequate time for training, filling out evaluations, and conducting reviews. It will also accommodate potential busy periods that would have conflicted with a limited timeframe for conducting reviews.
  • In response to challenges with the evaluation form, the form itself will be simplified and shortened. It will also be distributed as an editable PDF file in which radio buttons can be selected and text boxes will expand as text is typed in them.
  • Training for supervisors, or those administering reviews, will be provided prior to the review period beginning. (Look for these to be scheduled in January 2025).
  • Training for all staff to help provide clarity on definitions and how they are interpreted will also be provided.

Policies themselves will remain in effect, but there will be extra emphasis on improved and clear communication leading up to the next review cycle. This will include explanations of:

  • The shift to a “meets expectations”, “exceeds expectations”, etc. format vs. the previous format of “good”, “very good”, etc.
  • The handling of financial incentives (salary increases, merit pools, etc.) and how those relate to performance evaluations.

Thank you to all community members who shared their feedback and impacted positive changes to this process.  If you have any additional feedback regarding this or any concern, please take a moment to submit our completely anonymous feedback form.