Realign Staff Performance Evaluation Timeline with FY and Jayhawks Rising Strategic Plan

Communication sent on December 13th, 2021

Colleagues,

KU is making a change to align the Unclassified Professional Staff (UPS) and University Support Staff (USS) evaluation and goal-setting period with our Jayhawks Rising strategic plan. This change will provide you a greater understanding of how your work is strategically aligned with KU’s mission of educating leaders, building healthy communities, and making discoveries that change the world.

UPS and USS staff evaluation and goal setting will transition from our current calendar year basis (Jan. 1 – Dec. 31) to a fiscal year basis (July 1 – June 30), which Jayhawks Rising uses for its metrics tracking and reporting cycle. This change does not affect KU faculty evaluations, as they follow a different evaluation process.

The change will take effect beginning with fiscal year 2023 (FY23). In addition to the change in the evaluation period, staff and supervisors will have the option to create personal and cascading unit goals within MyTalent that directly align with Jayhawks Rising institutional objectives.

We understand this is a significant adjustment, and our transition timeline for this change includes several steps. We will send frequent communications about the change; however, below is a high-level summary of the steps:

  • Staff will complete the existing calendar year 2021 review period with supervisor sign-off by March 1, 2022 (same as past years). 
  • Starting in January 2022, a new six-month interim review period will open for the period January 1 through June 30, 2022.  Only University Core Competencies will be evaluated due to the short evaluation window.  Update: We have decided to remove the six-month interim review period to reduce confusion and instead, an 18-month review period will replace it in order to align with FY’23. Therefore, the 18-month review period will be between January, 2022 – June 30, 2023 and starting in FY’24 and on, the review period will be for 12 months from July through June.
  • Although only University Core Competencies will be evaluated for the six-month interim review period, employees and supervisors can choose to enter employee goals in January with the option of evaluating progress on those goals at the end of the six-month interim review period or carrying those goals over to the review period that will begin in July. 
  • Updated to remove "Starting in June 2022, the 12-month review period for FY23 (July 1, 2022 – June 30, 2023) will open and new goals can be added or goals from the previous six months may be carried forward" June of 2022.

    KU’s MyTalent system also will have a new feature added that enables staff and supervisors to select Jayhawks Rising institutional objectives that align with personal and/or unit goals. 

To implement this change effectively, Human Resource Management (HRM) will actively communicate details and what to expect throughout this transition. Should you have additional questions or would like more information, please email hrdept@ku.edu.

As a reminder, you recently received an email asking you to complete your 2021 annual self-evaluation by mid-January, with the final evaluation to be reviewed and completed by both you and your supervisor by March 1, 2022. That has not changed, and we encourage you to complete your self-evaluation for the 2021 annual evaluation period by the January 13, 2022 deadline.

We are excited to implement this change to ensure all UPS and USS staff members understand how their work aligns with KU’s strategic plan and ultimately helps the university achieve our mission and vision.

Respectfully,

Mike Rounds 

Vice Provost for Human Resources, Public Safety & Operations

Nick Stevens 

Chief Data Officer, Analytics, Institutional Research, & Effectiveness (AIRE)